Gilmore Girls Part 2
by TankOTH90
Summary: What if during all the episodes of GG, Lorelai really had two daughters? I thought it would be fun to reenact everything, but add on a new character. All credit goes to Amy Sherman-Palladino/not my characters except for the other daughter. Hope you guys enjoy! :
1. Plus One

When Rory was just five years old Lorelai and her daughter had already made a pretty comfortable life in Stars Hollow, Connecticut. Lorelai was working her way up at the Independence Inn and she was finally making the life she always wanted for her and her daughter. Rory was a very smart five year old. She was reading books that you would never see a child her age ever read, but Lorelai encouraged it. She wanted her daughter to be who she wanted to be. Not like how her parents tried making her be like them. For being five years old Rory had become Lorelai's best friend. She understood everything her mom told her and she was there for her mom no matter what.

Of course, Rory had a relationship with her father. Not as close as Lorelai would want them to be, but close enough. One day Christopher came to visit the two in their little town and spend the day with Rory. But being Lorelai and Christopher it always ended up turning into something they didn't mean to happen. Once Rory fell asleep Chris and Lorelai were hanging out and things started to get heated up. Six weeks later Lorelai found out that she was pregnant and Rory would no longer be the only child. Lorelai hated herself for making this same mistake again, especially with Chris, but she loved her children, and that was also the day she decided Chris and her would no longer ever be alone ever again. She was twenty years-old and it was time to grow up.

In the Summer of July, Lauren Lorelai Gilmore was born. Of course she had to keep the name Lorelai going in the family. Lauren was a very healthy seven pound little baby and Lorelai fell deeply in love with her just as she did when she first seen Rory. Two girls Lorelai thought. It was going to be hard, but so much fun.

It was now the year 2001, and Lorelai and her girls were doing really well for themselves. Lorelai was moved up to Manager at the Independence Inn, and was now running everything. She was hoping to one day have her own Inn so that was a goal she was looking forward to. Rory is fifteen years old and is still as smart as she was when she was five years-old, well, she was smarter of course being though she grew up, but she was learning more and more everyday. She was still reading books and even the dictionary which actually kinda freaked Lorelai out, but none-the-less Rory was growing up just as Lorelai wanted her to. Lauren is eleven and looking more and more like her sister everyday, but she wasn't quite Rory, and Lorelai noticed that Lauren was growing up to be the complete opposite of her older daughter when Lauren was just two years-old. Her daughter was being like herself. Lauren was very outspoken unlike Rory and was very carefree. But both were very much like their mom in so many ways. Lorelai passed down her eating habits which made everyone wonder how in the world these three girls stayed so skinny. Rory and Lorelai both were addicted to coffee, and even though Lorelai tells Lauren that she is too young for coffee; she sneaks it in anyway. All three talked very very fast, they loved their tv and movies, and they all three couldn't get enough of eachother.

It was morning and as usual Lorelai walks into her favorite diner. Luke's Diner. When she finds a table she takes off her layers that she wearing and grabs a mug. She knew this was going to be hard, but she had to do it. Lorelai walks over to the counter where Luke was wiping down the back counter.

"Please, Luke, please!" Lorelai begins to beg.

Luke turns around with an unamused face. "How many cups have you had this morning?" He asks.

"None." Lorelai says, quickly.

"Plus?" Luke asks, knowing better.

"5. But yours is better."

Luke sighs. "You have a problem."

"Yes, I do." Lorelai says, handing over her mug.

"Junkie." Luke says, pouring her some coffee.

"Angel." Lorelai says, happily as she turns back and walks to her table.

Luke Danes. He has been living in Stars Hollow his entire life. The diner that they are in actually was owed by his dad and it was a hardware store. But when Luke's dad died he gave the store to Luke. Stars Hollow didn't have much to choose from when it came to food so Luke had decided to open up a diner instead of continuing on with the hardware store. It was a good decision because his diner was everyone's favorite place. Luke wasn't their favorite person, but his food was delicious. Luke was known as the unhappy grumpy guy, but in reality he was quite the opposite. Yes, of course he was grumpy, but he wasn't unhappy. He had just been through a lot in his time. He and Lorelai actually started a great relationship. He provided the coffee and she would drink it. Luke enjoyed his little back and forth snips with Lorelai everyday, and seeing her girls was a plus, too.

Lorelai finally sits down at her table and drinks a sip of her coffee. She closes her eyes and smiles. Luke's coffee really was the best. A guy from the counter actually turns around from hearing Lorelai's plea with Luke and decides to make himself known as he walks over to her table. "You make that look really good." He says.

Lorelai looks up in surprise. "Oh. It is really good. It's the best coffee in town." She says.

"Yeah? I'll have to get a cup." He says, continuing to flirt. By this time Lorelai started to play along.

"Good plan."

"Yeah. I've never been here before. Just passing on my way through to Hartford." He tells her.

"You're a regular Jack Kerouac." Lorelai jokes.

The guy looks at Lorelai with a weird look, but pretends to know what she is talking about. "Yeah. Hey, you mind if I sit down?"

"Oh. You know what? Actually, I'm meeting someone, so I..." The guy sits down anyway.

"I'm Joey."

Lorelai smiles. "Okay."

"What you don't have a name?" He asks.

Lorelai laughs. "No. I do have a name. I just am really meeting someone, so.."

"So, I guess I should get going." Joey says.

"So soon?" Lorelai asks.

"What?" Joey asks, confused.

"I'm just screwing with your mind, Joey. It's nice to meet you." She says, sincerely. "Enjoy Hartford."

"Enjoy your coffee, Mystery Woman." Joey says, finally standing up and walking away.

Lorelai turns her head forward and smiles. Nothing like your daily flirt. The bell above the door rings signaling someone came in.

Rory walks over to her. "Hey. It's freezing." She says, putting her stuff down and sitting on the other side of the table facing her mom.

"Aw, what do you need? Hot tea, coffee?" Lorelai asks.

"Lip gloss."

"Uh, huh!" Lorelai bends down to grab her bag. "I have vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and toasted marshmallow." She says, lifting the bag.

"Anything in there not resembling a breakfast cereal?" Rory asks.

Lorelai looks down. "Yes. It has no smell." She says, lifting it up. "But it changed color with your mood."

"God. Rupaul doesn't need this much lip gloss."

"You're crabby."

Rory begins to open the lip gloss. "I'm sorry. I lost my Macy Gray cd and I need caffeine."

Lorelai digs in her bag once more and grabs the cd. "I have your cd."

"Thief. I thought Lauren took it." Lorelai hands Rory the cd.

"Sorry. Oh, and I stole it from Lauren. I'll get your some coffee." Lorelai says, quickly, standing up and walking to the counter. Luke looks at Lorelai like she is absolutely insane. "What? It's not for me. It's for Rory, I swear."

"You're shameless."

"Look, Officer Krupke, she's right at that table. Right over there." Lorelai says, turning around and is surprised to see the same guy standing at her table flirting with her fifteen year-old. "Huh. He's got quite a pair this guy." Lorelai grabs Rory's coffee from Luke and heads back to her table.

"Yeah, I've never been through here before.." Joey says just as Lorelai approaches.

"Aw, you have to." She says, scaring him.

"Oh, hi!"

"Oh, hi!" She mocks. "You really like my table, don't you?"

"I was just, uh,.."

"Getting to know my daughter." Lorelai interrupts as she goes to stand behind Rory.

Joey looks surprised that she is a mom. "Your.."

"Are you my new daddy?" Rory asks, jokingly.

"Wow. You do not look old enough to have a daughter." Joey tells her.

"Ohh."

"No. I mean it." He says. "And you do not look like a daughter." He tells Rory.

"That's possibly very sweet of you. Thanks." Lorelai says.

"So, daughter..." Lorelai shakes her head. "You know, I am travelling with a friend."

"She's 15." Lorelai tells him.

"Bye." He says, walking out quickly.

"Drive safe." Lorelai turns to Rory and they both start laughing at what just happened.

Over at the Inn; Lorelai walks in quickly and goes behind the front desk.

"Independence Inn. Michel speaking." Michel works the front desk and is actually the Assistant Manager. He's French and hard to understand and gets really flustered when the girls make fun of him, but they couldn't see an Inn without Michel. "No, I'm sorry. We are completely booked. We have a wedding party here." He says, to other person on the phone. "No, there is nothing I can do. Yes, I'm sure. Positive. No, ma'm I don't have to look. Of course I'll look." Michel puts the phone down and continues to go through the mail before picking up the phone again. "No, I'm sorry. We're completely booked."

Lorelai continues to look through their books when Rory and Lauren walk up to them. "Hey, kiss." Rory reaches over and kisses her mom on the cheek as Lauren lifts herself up, unable to just bend over the counter, and kisses her mom on the other cheek. Rory walks behind the counter and begins rummaging through the desk.

"What is your offspring doing?" Michel asks.

"I need stamps." Rory pulls out a page full. "Can I have these?"

"No." Michel tells her.

"Take them." Lorelai says. She looks her daughter up and down. Rory is wearing a big oversize sweater. "What is with the muumuu?"

"Stop."

"No. I'm just saying you couldn't find one made of metal?" Lorelai asks. "Incase anyone has x-ray eyes."

"I told her not to wear it." Lauren tells her mom.

"And now we say good-bye." Rory tells her.

"Hey, have Michel look at your French paper." Lorelai says, looking at Michel.

"That'd be great." Rory says, pulling her paper out.

"No."

"Come on, Michel. I'll tell all the ladies what a stud you are." Rory bribes.

"Hm. I believe that memo has already been sent." Michel tells her.

"Oh, please, Michel. Please." Lorelai saying in her best french accent. "Pretty please or I will not stop talking like this."

"Alright. Fine." Michel says, giving up.

Rory hands him her paper. "It's due tomorrow. And pay special attention to the grammar." Rory says, before grabbing her sister's hand and walking away.

Lorelai just smiles with satisfaction at Michel. "I dispise you." He says as Lorelai laughs and walks away.

On their way to school Lauren and Rory are walking towards Lane Kim's house, Rory's best friend, to pick her up.

"Question." Lauren says.

"Yes?"

"Why are you still walking me to school? I'm eleven. I think I'm fully capable of walking on my own." Lauren tells her big sister.

"And do we remember last time mom let you walk to school by yourself? You ended up in the music store for two hours." Rory reminds her.

Lauren shrugs. "So, I get distracted. Plus that was two years ago."

"Look, my school is on the way so why not just walk together. You act like I'm so bad to walk with."

"No. I'm just saying. I remember mom letting you walk to school by yourself, and there's not like anyone would kidnap me. Have you met everyone that lives here?" Lauren asks.

Rory laughs. "Okay. I'll ask Mom. But don't make me regret it."

"I won't. Thanks." Lauren says, happily.

They stop at Lane's house just as she is walking out the door. "Hey, Lane."

"Hey. Hey, Lauren."

"Hey." Lane looks back to make sure they are far away from her house. "What are you doing?" Lauren asks.

Lane begins to take off her sweater which revealed another shirt representing a band. "When are you going to let your parents know that you listen to evil rock music?" Rory asks. "You're an american teenager for God's sake."

"Rory, if my parents still get upset over the obscene portion size of american food, I seriously doubt I'm going to make any inroads with Eminem." Lane explains to her friend.

"Alright, Lauren, here you are." Rory says as they reach Lauren's school.

"Oh. I would have never known. Welcome to Hell." Lauren says dramatically as she walks towards her school.

As Rory and Lane approach their school there's a sign they walk by about a hay ride. "I have to go to that." Lane tells her.

"Why?"

"My parents set me up with the son of a business associate. He's going to be a doctor."

"You're kidding." Rory laughs. "How old is he?"

"16."

"So, he's going to be a doctor in 100 years?" Rory asks.

"Uh, my parents like to plan ahead. So, I'm guessing you're not going?" Lane asks, already knowing the answer.

Rory smiles. "Uh, no. I'm still fuzzy on what's fun about sitting in the cold for two hours with sticks up your butt." She says as they walk passed some kids and into their school building.

Over at Lauren's school; she is sitting in class painting her fingernails and reading a book at the same time. She was quite the multitasker. All her classmates behind her were looking at her and talking. Lauren knew they were talking about her. It was an everyday thing. They'd tease her behind her back because they knew if they'd come up to her she would have no problem breaking their nose. Yes, Lorelai raised a fighter. She, herself, was a lot like Lauren in school. She was different and her girls were different but she liked it that way.

"She's looking at you." Hannah, Lauren's best friend, tells her just before the teacher makes her way to Lauren.

"Lauren Gilmore. Is that fingernail polish I am smelling?" Her teacher asks her.

Lauren looks up at her and smiles. "It's scented." She says, showing her teacher he nails. "Wanna smell?" All the kids start laughing.

"You are definitely not like your sister. Go to the Principal's office. Now."

Lauren rolls her eyes and gathers her stuff. Before she walks out, Lauren turns back around and looks at her teacher. "I'm not Rory. My name is Lauren Gilmore. I'm not my sister." She says, walking away.

Out of school; Rory, Lane, and Lauren are walking home. Lane and Rory are laughing.

"Was it a good color at least?" Lane asks Lauren.

"It had sparkles in it. I can't believe they made me take it off." Lauren says, still aggravated about what happened.

"Wow."

"And it smelled like bubble gum." Lauren added. "Do you think they called Mom?"

Rory puts her arm around her sister. "Without a doubt."

Lauren huffs as they continue to walk.

In the kitchen at the Inn; Sookie, Lorelai's best friend, is chopping up vegetables. She's going so fast she's not paying attention to what she is doing. The helpers around her are moving stuff out of her way and take knives from her after she finishes.

"Careful!" One of them yells.

"I'm okay."

"Sookie!" Lorelai jumps in causing Sookie to hit one of the helpers with a pan. "Oh." She says, watching the man go down. "It's here. It happened. She did it!" She says, excitingly.

Sookie smiles trying to copy the same excitment but she was confused. "Okay. I'm going to need a little bit longer sentence." She tells Lorelai.

"The Chilton school. Rory got in!"

"Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!" Sookie says, jumping up and clapping.

"I know! Look!" Lorelai says, lifting a piece of paper. "Dear, Ms. Gilmore, we are happy to inform you that we have a vacancy at Chilton Preparatory starting immediately. Due to your daughter's excellent credentials and your enthusiastic pursuit of her enrollment... I offered to do the principal to get her in." She jokes. "..we'd be happy to accept her as soon as the first semester's tuition has been received."

"This is very exciting." Sookie says, hugging Lorelai.

"This is it. She can finally got to Harvard like she's always wanted, and get the education that I never got, and get to do all the things that I never got to do! And then I can finally resent her for it and we can finally have a normal mother-daughter relationship." She says, making them both laugh.

"Mom!" They hear Rory yell from outside the kitchen. They both try to hold their excitement as they look at the door.

Rory and Lauren walk in and are immediately freaked out at their mother's behavior. "You're happy." Rory says.

"Yeah." Lorelai says, smiling.

"Did you do something slutty?" Rory asks.

"I'm not that happy." She says as she and Sookie bust out in giggles. "Here." Lorelai says, handing Rory a bag.

Rory looks at her mom. "What's going on?" She asks, curiously.

"Open it."

Rory opens the bag and takes out a plaided skirt. "She's going to be in a Britney Spears video?" Lauren asks.

"You're going to Chilton!" Sookie blurts out. Lorelai smacks her arm. "Oh, sorry."

"Mom?" Rory questions.

"Mom?" Lauren repeats.

Lorelai is all smiles as she nods her head. "You did it, babe. You got in!" She says, holding up the acceptance letter. "You're gonna start on Monday!"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Oh, my gosh. I can't believe this. I'm going to Chilton! Sookie, I'm going to Chilton!" Rory yells in excitement as she hugs her mom and then Sookie. "I have to call Lane." Rory walks out of the kitchen.

Lorelai turns back to her other daughter. "Lauren, Rory's going to Chilton. Aren't you excited for her!" She asks.

"Whoopi." Lauren says, with no excitement whats so ever.

"Alright, ma'm. Come on. We need to have a little talk." Lorelai says, putting her arm around Lauren and ushering her out the kitchen.

"Aw, man."

Sookie smiles and starts dancing around. "Rory's going to Chilton! Rory's going to Chilton!" She chants as she throws her towel in the air and walks away. It lands right one the stove causing a fire.

The next day at the Inn, Michel is at the front desk writing down some stuff when the phone starts ringing. He is clearly ignoring it when Lorelai passes by.

"Michel, the phone." Lorelai tells him as she walks by.

"Mm-hm. It rings."

"Can you answer it?" She asks walking by again.

"Nope." Michel answers still writing. "People are particularly stupid today. I can't talk to any more of them."

"You know who's really nice to talk to?" Lorelai asks, stopping at the desk. "The people at the unemployment agency."

Michel rolls his eyes before answering the phone finally. "Independence Inn. Michel speaking. No, I'm sorry we're completely booked." Michel says, walking away.

Lorelai begins opening the mail and sees one from Rory's school. She opens it immediately and is stunned by what she reads.

At the house, Lorelai is on the phone pacing back and forth.

"I am holding for Mrs. Bell." She tells someone on the other side. "I've been trying to get a hold of her all day. Lorelai Gilmore. Oh, Hi! Yeah, my daughter, Rory has just been accepted. Yay." She laughs. "Thank you. And I got the invoice for your enrollment fee. Wow. That is a lot of zeroes behind that 5. Uh-huh..okay, well, I guess I'm just wondering is if you couldn't take say, part of it now, just to get her going?" Lorelai asks, hopefully. "But she's suppose to start Monday. It just doesn't give me a lot of time to pull a bank job. Well, nevermind I was just kidding. Oh, no, I don't want you to give her space up. I'll just, I'll have to figure it out. Oh, no, thank you. Its been a real treat talking to you. Yeah, bye." Lorelai hangs up the phone and tosses it on the couch in frustration. She wasn't sure how she was going to fix this.

That night, Lorelai and Sookie are outside on the porch drinking wine.

"What do I do? What do I do?" Lorelai repeats over and over again.

"You can have anything that I own. My car! Sell my car!" Sookie offers.

"Oh, sweetie, no one wants your car." Lorelai tells her. "There's something I haven't thought of. I know there is. There's something out there staring me right in the face. I just, I haven't seen it."

Sookie stands up and walks over to the side of Lorelai. "You know, you might consider calling..."

"No." Lorelai interrupts.

"But I don't think you..."

"No."

"You can at least go to.."

"No."

"Okay, can I say one more thing?" Sookie asks. "I think it's your only option."

"Sookie, there are several chapters from a Stephen King novel I'd reenact before I'd resort to that option."

"Okay, dropped." Sookie gives up.

"Thank you."

"Mom!" Rory calls out as she runs out on the porch wearing the Chilton skirt. "So, what do you think?"

"Wow. It makes you look smart!" Sookie tells her.

"Okay, no more wine for you. Mom?" Rory asks, happily.

"You look like you were swallowed by a kilt." Lorelai says, honestly.

"Fine. You can hem it. A little. Only a little."

Lorelai claps in excitement as she walks Rory back into the house. "Or I can hem it a lot."

"No, I don't want it to be too short!" She says, walking back in. "I can't believe tomorrow is my last day at Stars Hollow."

"I know!"

"Today I was so excited I dressed for gym." Rory admits.

Lorelai gasp. "You're kidding!"

"And I played volleyball."

"With other people?" Lorelai asks, shocked.

"And I learned that all this time I was avoiding group sports was very smart because I suck at them."

"Yeah, well, you got that from me."

"Okay, I'm going to the store because you have nothing. You like duck?" Sookie asks.

"Oh, if it's made out of chicken. Absolutely." Lorelai tells her.

"I'll be back!" Sookie yells, walking out the door.

Lauren comes downstairs and her eyes immediately focus on what Rory is wearing. "Whoa. What ate Rory?" She asks.

"Very funny." Rory says, sarcastically.

Lorelai finishes up pinning the skirt and stands up. "Alright, this should give you an idea of what it will look like. Go see how you like it."

Rory smiles. "Okay. I love being a private school girl." She says, skipping to her room.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter trying to hide the fact that she was still confused on how to pay for this private school. Lauren drapes by getting Lorelai's attention. She grabs her daughter's hand and spins her around until she is facing her. "Hey, how you feeling about Rory going to a private school?"

Lauren shrugs. "Well, she can't walk me to school anymore."

"Yeah, about that. Since your sister is going to another school and I have to be at work sometimes really early in the morning I am trusting you to get yourself to school on time."

"I can do it."

"No visiting the bookstore, or the music store, or even the market which I'm still confused about."

Lauren rolls her eyes playfully at her mom and smiles. "Can't you just trust me like you trust Rory?"

"Hey, I do trust you." Lorelai says in a serious tone as she stares at her youngest daughter.

"Yeah, yeah." Lauren says, turning away and going into the kitchen.

Lorelai watches Lauren walk away. She never wanted Lauren to feel like Rory was the favorite and she didn't want Rory to think that she was a screw up. Right now Lorelai felt like a failure to her girls. As she turns away towards the fireplace, Lorelai looks up at the mantel where pictures of her girls and her when they were little to now were placed. She looked at them and felt happy to give her children the life that she always wanted and not be stuck to one thing in one place and have to worry about what people think like she had to do when she was their age. But as she continued to look at her pictures she stopped at one from when she was real little. A picture of her standing in front of her parent's house in Hartford. There was only one thing she could do now.

Lorelai is standing against her car drinking coffee as she stares at her childhood house where her parents still stayed. The house was huge. A masion. You'd probably get lost in there if you didn't know exactly where to go. Lorelai did however find many hiding spots and escape routes when she was very young. Right now she was trying to get up the courage to walk to the door and when she finally did Emily Gilmore opens the door.

"Hi, Mom." Lorelai smiles.

Emily looks at her daughter surprised to see her there. "Lorelai! My goodness. This is a surprise. Is it Easter already?"

Lorelai laughs awkwardly. "No, I just finished up my business class and I thought I'd stop by."

"To see me?"

"Yes."

"Well, isn't that nice." She says, still holding the door open. "Come in."

"Thanks." Lorelai says, stepping into the house. Lorelai and Emily walk through the foyer. "The place looks great."

"It hasn't changed." Emily says, looking around her own house a little.

"How are, um, the girls at the bridge club?" Lorelai asks, trying to make up any kind of conversation she could.

"Old."

"Well, good." They both sit on both the couches in the living room area and stare at eachother awkwardly.

"You said you were taking a business class?" Emily asks, breaking the silence.

"Umm, yeah. I-I'm taking a business class at the college twice a week. I'm sure I told you." Lorelai tells her.

Emily shrugs. "Well, if you are sure then you must have. Would you like some tea?"

"I would love some coffee."

Suddenly, the front door opens. "Emily, I'm home!" Lorelai's father, Richard calls out.

"We're in here." Emily answers.

Richard walks in reading the newspaper. "Hi, Dad." Lorelai says.

Richard looks up quickly and is surprised to see Lorelai sitting there. "What is it? Christmas already?"

"Lorelai was taking a business class at the college today, and decided to drop in a see us." Emily explains.

"What business class?"

"Well, she told us about it, dear, remember?"

"No."

"Well, actually, I came here for a reason." Lorelai tells him. Richard walks over and starts making himself a drink. "Dad, would you mind sitting down for a minute?"

"You need money." He says, simply.

"I have a situation." Lorelai says.

"You need money."

"Dad, will you just please let me get this out. Okay?" Lorelai says, frustrated. "Rory has been accepted to Chilton."

Emily smiles the first geniune smile Lorelai had seen since she got there. "Chilton? Well, that's a wonderfull school! It's only five minutes from here."

"That's right. It is. She can start as early as Monday." Lorelai explains. "Um, but the problem is that they want me to put down an enrollment fee plus the first semester's tuition. And I have to do that immediately or she loses her spot."

Richard grins. "So, you need money."

"Yeah." Lorelai says, giving up. "But, it's not for me. It's for Rory. I fully intend on paying you back every cent. I don't ask for favors. You know that."

Emily rolls her eyes. "Oh, yes, we know."

"I'll get the checkbook." Richard tells her.

"Thank you." Lorelai says, letting out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in. "You have no idea. Thank you."

"On one condition." Emily blurts out.

Lorelai sighs. "So close."

"Since we are now financially involved in your life, I want to be actively involved in your life."

"What does that mean, Mother?"

"I want a weekly dinner."

"What?" Lorelai says, a little surprised.

"Friday nights. You, Rory, and Lauren will have dinner here." Emily explains.

"Mom."

"And you have to call us once a week to give us an update on Rory and Lauren's schooling life and your life." She throws in. "That's it. That's the condition. If you agree, you'll come to dinner tomorrow night, and leave here with a check. Otherwise, I'm sorry, we can't help you."

"I don't want her to know that I borrowed money from you. I don't want Lauren to know either. Can that just be between us?" Lorelai asks.

"Does 7:00 work for you?" Emily asks.

Lorelai smiles. "Perfect."

Emily looks over at Richard and they both smile at eachother while Lorelai puts an unamused look on her face as she looks up at a picture of her and her parents up on the wall. She was back.

At Stars Hollow High, Rory is cleaning out her locker while she talks to Lane.

"And we get to wear uniforms. No more having people check you out to see what jeans you're wearing because everyone's dressed alike in boring clothes and are just there to learn." Rory explains to her best friend.

"Okay, there's academic mind and then there's amish." Lane says. "So, I told my mom you were changing schools."

"Was she thrilled?" Rory asks.

"The party's on Friday." Lane laughs. "I got to go."

"Bye." Rory laughs. Lane walks away when Rory drops some books on the floor. When she bends down the pick them up she is suddenly hit with feet at her face. "God! You're like Ruth Gordon just standing there with a tannis root. Make a noise."

"Rosemary's baby." The voice answers.

Rory is shocked that someone actually knew what she was talking about. When she stands up she is hit with a pretty face. "Yeah."

"That's a great movie. You got good taste. Are you moving?" He asks looking at the box in Rory's hand.

"No. Just my books are." She tells him.

"My family just moved here from Chicago." He explains.

"Chicago. Windy. Oprah." Rory starts naming.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's the place." He says. "I'm Dean."

Rory smiles. "Hi." Dean waits for Rory to introduce herself. "Oh. Rory. Me. That's me."

Dean smiles at her. "Rory." He repeats.

"Well, Lorelai, technically."

"Lorelai, I like that."

"It's my mother's name, too, and my sister's middle name. She named us after herself. She was lying in the hospital thinking about how men name boys after themselves all the time, so why couldn't women? She says that feminism just kinda took over. But personally I think a lot of demerol also went into that decision. I never talk this much." She says, noticing she just rambled all about her birth.

"Well, I better go." Dean tells her. "I have to go look for a job."

"Okay, good." Dean laughs before walking away. "You should check with Miss. Patty." Rory tells him.

Dean turns around. "What?"

"About the job. You should check with Miss. Patty. She teaches dance. She was actually on broadway once."

"I don't really dance much." Dean says, confused.

"No. No. She just kinda knows everything that goes on in this town. She'll know if someone is looking." Rory explains.

"Oh. Great. Thanks!" Dean walks back up to Rory. "Hey, what are you doing right now?"

"Nothing much." Rory says, nervously. She looks down at the trash down in her hands. "I should throw this away at some point."

"Well, maybe you could show me where this Miss. Patty's place is."

Rory starts smiling. "Yeah, I guess so. I really don't have anything important to do. Let's go." She says. Dean grabs the rest of Rory's books off the floor and they begin to walk out of school.

As they are walking down the street Dean is trying to come up with conversations to make with Rory.

"So, have you lived here all your life?" He asks.

"Yes. Well, pretty much. I was actually born in Hartford."

"That's not far."

"Thirty minutes with no traffic." Rory tells him.

"Really?"

"I timed it."

"Okay then." Dean laughs.

Lauren walks out of her school to find Rory walking with Dean down the sidewalk. She was about to call her name when she decided to just follow them instead.

"So, do you like cake?" Rory asks.

"What?" Dean asks a little taken back by the question.

"They make really good cakes here." She says, as they pass the bakery. "They're very round."

"Okay." He chuckles. "I'll remember that."

"Good. Make a note."

"So, how you liking Moby Dick?"

"Oh, it's really good."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's my first Melville."

"Cool."

"Hey, how did you know I was reading Moby Dick?" Rory asks, confused.

"Uh, well, I've been watching you." Dean says, nervously.

"Watching me?"

"I mean, not in a creepy I just..I've noticed you."

"Me?" Rory asks, a little shocked.

"Yeah."

"When?"

Dean hesitates before he answers. "Everyday." He says, shyly. Rory wasn't sure what to say to that so she just looks at him. "After school, you come out and you sit under that tree and read. Last week it was Madame Bovary. This week it's Moby Dick."

"But why would you..."

"Because you're really nice to look at and because you've got unbelievable concentration."

"What?" Rory laughs.

"Last Friday, these two guys were tossing around the football and one guy nailed the other guy right in the face. I mean, it was a mess. Blood everywhere. The nurse came out, the place was a chaos, his girlfriend was all freaking out, and you just sat there and read. I mean you never even looked up. I thought 'I've never seen anyone read that intensely before in my entire life. I have to meet that girl.'" Dean explains.

"Maybe I just didn't look up because I've unbelievably self-centered."

"Maybe. But I doubt it."

Rory smiles nervously as they continue to walk towards Miss. Patty's.

At the house, Rory is in her room doing her homework when Lauren slowly walks into the room.

"What do you want?" Rory asks not looking up.

Lauren starts laughing. "I thought you had unbelievable concentration?"

Rory looks up quickly at her sister who was smirking mischievously. "What did you say?"

"What's your favorite kind of cake? I was thinking about asking Mom to pick some up." Lauren laughs.

Rory stands up which makes Lauren run out of the room yelling. "Lauren!" Rory yells. She catches her in the living room and throws her down on the couch and gets on top of her so that she can't move. "Where did you hear that from?"

"Oh. I don't know. Around."

"Lauren!" Rory yells again.

"Fine. I was coming out of school expecting to see my sister since, ya know, she is going to another school on Monday and we were suppose to walk home together, but I see her walking with a boy instead. Who is he?" Lauren asks.

"He just moved here. I was just showing him to Miss. Patty's." Rory explains.

"He's a dancer?" Lauren asks, confused.

Rory rolls her eyes and gets up from couch. "No! He was going talk to her about a job."

"Oh. So, do you like him?" Lauren asks, smiling.

"I just met him."

"So? I mean he's been watching you for awhile now. I think he likes you."

Rory crosses her arms and glares at her little sister. "How much did you hear?"

"Almost everything. Are you going to tell Mom?" Lauren asks.

Rory really hadn't thought about that until now. "No, and neither are you."

"Rory, how are you expecting to hide that you like someone from Mom? She knows everything. She find out everything."

"No. She knows everything that you do." Rory says.

"Whatever. Fine. I won't say anything, but you and I both know she will find out." Lauren tells her as she begins to walk upstairs.

"Hey, Lauren." Lauren stops halfway up and turns back to her big sister. "I'm sorry I forgot to meet you." Rory says, sincerely.

"Yeah, yeah. It's okay, private school girl." Lauren says, continuing up to her room.

Rory watches her sister until she hears her door close then she collapse on the couch. Lauren was right, it was definitely going to be hard to keep this from her mom. Lorelai did find out everything and Rory was a bad liar.

At Luke's Diner that night, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren were all picking at their food. They all had something they were hiding and afraid to say. Loreali looks at her girls and finally decides she had to say something before the night was over.

"I forgot to tell you both that we are having dinner tomorrow night at your grandparent's house."

Lauren and Rory both look up at their mom confused. They never went there unless it was a holiday. "We are?" Rory asks.

"Mhm."

"But it's September." Lauren reminds her.

"So?"

"So, what holiday is in September?" Lauren asks.

"It's not a holiday thing it's just dinner, okay?" Lorelai says, annoyed.

"Fine." Lauren says, going back to picking at her food.

"So, I finished hemming your skirt today." Lorelai tells Rory. Rory just looks up at Lorelai with no hint of excitement at all on her face. "A grunt of acknowledgment would be nice."

"I don't understand why we are going to dinner tomorrow night?" Rory tells her. "I mean, what if I had plans? You didn't even ask me."

"If you had plans I would have known." Lorelai tells her making Lauren giggles a little.

Rory glares at Lauren and kicks her under the table. Lauren stops and goes back to picking at her food. "What's going on?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm just saying I don't tell you everything. I have my own things."

"Hey. I had dibs on being the bitch tonight." Lorelai jokes.

"Just tonight?" Rory asks, under her breath.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lorelai asks.

Rory hesitates before looking up at her mom. "I'm not sure I want to go to Chilton anymore."

Lorelai looks at her daughter surprised. "What?"

"The timing is just really bad."

"The timing is bad?" Lorelai asks.

"And the bus ride to and from Hartford, it's like thirty minutes each way."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing."

"Plus, I don't think we should be spending that kind of money right now. I mean what if Lauren wanted to do something. She wouldn't be able to because I took all the money. I mean I know Chilton's probably costing you a lot." Rory explains.

Lauren looks back and forth at her sister. Was Rory really putting her into this so that she doesn't go to Chilton? When had she ever thought about her? Oh, right, she's not thinking about her. She's thinking about a boy. "Don't bring me into this, Rory. You don't care either way!" Lauren yells.

Lorelai and Rory both look at Lauren. "Lauren." Lorelai says.

"I'm always being compared to you anyway by everyone. So, I want you to go. I want Mom to spend her money on you. Maybe people will stop calling me Rory if you are far far away!" Lauren yells as she gets up and storms out of the diner.

"Lauren!" Lorelai yells, but Lauren was not stopping.

"I didn't mean it that way. But if you didn't spend all the money on me you could finally get the Inn with Sookie that you've always wanted!"

"What about college! What about Harvard!" Lorelai asks.

"You don't know that I can't get into Harvard if I stay where I am."

"Okay. Enough crazy talk. I appreciate your concern for me and your sister, but I have this covered."

"I still don't want to go!"

"Why!" Lorelai was getting really frustrated with this whole thing. Lauren runs out the diner and Rory is arguing about Chilton when that's where she wanted to go since she was little. She was so confused.

"Because I don't!"

"I have to get out of here. I have to go find your sister." Lorelai says, finally having enough.

Rory gets up and follows her mom out of the diner.

While they are walking back home they pass Miss. Patty's dancing class.

"Oh, Lorelai, Lauren passed me right on by in tears. I tried stopping her, but she just kept on running. She's so fast." Patty tells them.

Lorelai smiles. "Thanks, Patty. I'm just giving her a little time by herself before I go and talk to her. You know, teenage hormones are kicking in." She jokes trying to cover up the real situation.

"Oh, and Rory, I think I found a job for your male friend."

Lorelai looks over at Rory. "What male friend?"

Rory turns away so she can't see her mom looking at her. "They need a stock boy at the market. I already talked to Taylor Doose about him. You just send him around tomorrow." Patty tells her.

"Okay, thanks." Rory says, wanting to get far far away from Patty now.

"What male friend?" Lorelai was still curious about this guy.

"Oh, he's very cute. You have good taste." Patty tells her.

Rory starts walking as fast as she can. "Oh, you're going to have to walk faster than that!" Lorelai tells her as she follows her. "You're gonna have to turn into fricken Flo Jo to get away from me."

At the house, Rory walks in and slams the door, but Lorelai follows her right on in.

"This is about a boy." She says. Lauren is upstairs when she hears her mom and sister walk in fighting. She starts smiling because she knew her mom found out. She gets off the bed and walks over to her door and sits down against the wall so that she can listen. "Of course. I can't believe I didn't see it. All this talk about money and bus rides. You've got a thing going with a guy, and you don't want to leave school." Rory starts packing up her school bag in the living room.

"I'm going to bed." Rory tells her, ignoring her mother's rant.

"God, I'm so dense. That should have been my first thought." Lorelai tells her. "After all, you're me."

"I'm not you." Rory says, turning around.

"Really?" Lorelai questions. "Someone willing to throw away important life experiences out the window to be with a guy? It sounds like me to me."

"Whatever." Rory walks passed Lorelai and goes to her room.

"So, who is he?" Lorelai asks, following Rory.

"There's no guy!"

"Dark hair? Romantic eyes? Looks a little dangerous?"

"Conversation's over."

"Tattoo's are good, too." Lorelai says, walking into Rory's room.

"I don't want to change schools because of all the reasons I've told you a thousand times. If you don't want to believe me. That's fine. Goodnight." Rory slams her door.

"Does he have a motorcycle? Because if you're going to throw your life away, he better have a motorcycle!" Lorelai yells. Lorelai walks into Rory's room. "Listen, can we just start all over? You tell me all about the guy, and I promise to not let me head explode, okay?" Rory sits on her bed and starts taking off her shoes, ignoring her mom. "Rory, please talk to me. Okay, fine. I'll talk." Lorelai sits on Rory's bed. "Okay. Don't get me wrong, guys are great. You don't get knocked up at sixteen then again at twenty-one being indifferent to guys." Rory tosses her shoes of the bed getting a little more annoyed with her mom. "Babe, guys are always going to be there. The school isn't. It's more important. It has to be more important." Lorelai stresses.

Rory opens a book and begins to read it. "I'm going to sleep." She tells her mom.

"Rory, you always been the sensible one in this house. I need you to remember that feeling now. You will kick your own butt later if you blow this." Lorelai explains.

"Well, it's my butt." Rory says, giving up on the book and turning off her light.

"Good comeback."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Rory, come on!"

"I don't want to talk about this. Can you please, please leave me alone." Rory asks.

Lorelai stands up. "Okay, fine. We always had a democracy in this house. We never did anything unless we all agreed. But now I guess I'm going to have to play the mom card. You are going to Chilton, whether you want to or not. Monday morning you will be there. End of story." She says, starting to walk away.

"We'll see!" Rory yells.

"Yeah, we will!" Lorelai yells back slamming Rory's door.

Upstairs, Lauren hears Rory's door slams and jumps. This was the first time she had actually ever seen her mom and sister fight, ever. It was very surprising. They rarely ever got mad at eachother. Instead, they would act like they were both her parents and get mad at her. Lauren quickly runs to her bed after she hears her mom's footsteps climbing the stairs and down the hall. She pretends to be reading when she picks up a random book that is set aside on her nightstand.

"Knock, knock." Lorelai says, peeking into Lauren's room. Lauren looks up and gives her mom and small smile. "I hope you didn't hear any of that."

"Just reading my book." Lauren lifts up to show Lorelai as she comes closer and sits on her daughter's bed.

She begins to laugh when she notices that Lauren's book is upside down. "Maybe I should put you in Chilton, too, since you read upside down. That's quite gifted." Lorelai jokes.

Lauren takes a closer look at her book and rolls her eyes, tossing it aside. "Okay, maybe I was eavesdropping." Lauren admits.

"Yeah, I figured." Lorelai says. Lauren didn't really want to look at her mom in her eyes. She was embarrassed for running out of the diner like that and yelling at Rory. She didn't mean to, but after everything that was happening all week, she finally just had enough. "Care to explain that incident in the diner?"

"Not really." Lauren says, truthfully.

Lorelai scoots closer to her daughter and takes her hand. "Hey, look at me." Lauren slowly looks up to meet her mom's blue eyes. That was one thing she never got. The famous blue eyes that everyone falls in love with. Rory got them, but Lauren was stuck with bright green eyes, which everyone loved until they see her sister's. She wasn't sure where she got the green eyes from since her dad's are brown. Her mom just always told her that she was unique and being different was a good thing. "Do I really make it seem that Rory is better than you?" Lorelai asks, in all serious.

Lauren shrugs. "Not really you. The town does, especially the teachers at my school. They are always saying that I'm nothing like Rory and they wish I would be. They ask me why I can't be quiet like my sister, why can't I just write notes down and just sit there. I don't know why they are complaining because I make straight A's! And, Mom, I really don't want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's because they don't even like me."

"Are you serious! Lauren Lorelai Gilmore, they love you! How can anyone not?" Lorelai asks. She was really surprised that Lauren was feeling this way. And she was pretty mad at herself for not seeing it. Yeah, she did pay a little more to Rory when it came to certain things, but Lauren is her baby, and always will be. As a Mom she felt like an even bigger failure for her youngest feeling the way she was right now. "Baby, I am so sorry for making you feel that way. I really am. And I promise things will change around here."

"So, are you really going to make Rory go to Chilton?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai nods. "Yeah, I think I am. It's a great opportunity that she shouldn't pass up."

"You asked the grandparents to help out, didn't you?" Lauren asks, smiling.

Lorelai gasp. "I did not!"

"Yes, you did. It's written all of your face." Lauren says, laughing.

Lorelai sighs. "I didn't know it was that obvious."

"Apparently, not that obvious because Rory didn't even catch it, but she has boy on the brain. I, on the other hand, have learned to read people, and growing up with you and Rory, I can read you guys." Lauren explains.

Lorelai shakes her head, laughing, as she goes to sit on the other side of Lauren. "You are way too smart for your own good. But this stays a secret. No telling Rory, okay?"

"Okay." Lauren agrees.

Lorelai puts her arm around her daughter and Lauren leans into her mom. "Oh, and that whole not being able to stay quiet in class and being very outspoken, you got that from me. So, be proud."

Lauren looks up at her mom and smiles. "I seen Rory's 'boyfriend.'

"What! Where? When?" Lorelai asks, surprised.

"Earlier today. Rory forgot to pick me up from school because she was walking him to Miss. Patty's. So, when I walked out of school, I seen them, and started following them. He's cute."

"Tall? Dark? Pretty?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeap." Lauren confirms.

"Great." Lorelai says, not too pleased. "You will never get a boyfriend. Ever. You hear me?"

"I think you have a long way to go." Lauren reminds her.

"Thank God." Lorelai says, pulling her daughter closer.

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, kid." Lorelai says, kissing Lauren on the top of her head.


	2. First Day of Every Day

_I just want to say thanks for the ones who are reading. I hope you are enjoying it. &I know that in all the episodes they have focused on the main characters, but Lauren will be a main character and she will play a part in a lot of my writing. Enjoy! :)_

Friday. The day that Lorelai and her girls were going to her parents house for the first weekly dinner. Rory still didn't know about why they were going and Lauren was pretty happy to finally have a secret with her mom that Rory had no clue about. But everyone was still not speaking to one another. Lorelai was having the most difficult time being angry at her oldest daughter. It was very rare and she felt bad that she had to put her foot down and actually act like the parent this time, but it was for Rory's own good. So, now with all that happening, she had to go to work, and was hit with a big explosion in the kitchen of the Inn.

"I don't know what happened." Sookie says, very disappointed in herself.

Lorelai finishes up the paperwork for the guys that just came in to get rid of the fire. "It's not important."

"I've made that dish 100 times. Its never exploded!" Sookie says, walking over to her friend.

"Please forget it." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, you should fire me! Or make me pay for a new stove, or take it out of my paycheck."

"Whatever you want." Lorelai tells her.

Sookie gasp. "I can't afford a new stove! Those things are expensive!"

"Sookie, I am begging you. Pull yourself together, okay? I got no sleep last night. And I think I put my contacts in backwards."

"Rory still mad at you, huh?" Sookie asks.

"Hey, I'm not so crazy about her either."

"It was a fight. Mothers and daughters fight." Sookie explains.

"No, we don't fight. We never fight. I mean it even surprised Lauren because we never fight. She and Rory barely fight, and when they do they are over it within the next five minutes, but now they aren't even speaking to eachother either. So, now I have two major issues. I have a daughter who has a crush and another who doesn't even feel comfortable being herself anymore." Lorelai rants.

Michel walks in. "You wanted me to tell you when your daughters get here. Well, they are here and the little one is sitting in my chair." Michel says, annoyed.

Lorelai just ignores Michel and walks passed him to the lobby. She sees Lauren sitting happily in Michel's chair and Rory just standing there. "No, muumuu today? You know what's weird? I kinda miss it."

Rory rolls her eyes. "You left me a note to meet you here."

"Yes, I thought you might want to work a couple hours. Lauren, you are more than welcome to go in the kitchen and help Sookie. She could use all the help she can get." Lorelai jokes as Lauren jumps up, smiling, and running passed Lorelai, as Lorelai playfully swats her on the butt.

"Fine." Rory says.

"Oh, you're not gonna give me the Mommie Dearest treatment forever, are you?" Lorelai asks.

"You wanted me here, I'm here. Should I do something, or what?"

Lorelai was not liking this new attitude Rory had so she decided to just ignore it. "Yeah, go home. Dinner's at seven. Be ready to go."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Rory walks away and Michel takes his chair back. "Ah, my chair." He says, smiling. Lorelai looks back at him unamused.

Later that night at the grandparents, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are standing in front of the door not moving or saying anything.

"So, are we going in, or just standing here?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai turns towards Rory. "Okay, look, I know me and you are having a thing here, and I know you hate me, but I need you to be civil, at least through dinner, and then on the way home you can pull a Menendez. Deal?" Lorelai asks.

"Fine."

Lauren walks over and pushes the doorbell, since no one else seemed to be moving.

The door opens and Emily is standing there. "Hi, Grandma." Rory says, walking in.

"Well, you're right on time." Emily says.

"Yeah." Lorelai pushes Lauren through the door. "No traffic at all."

They begin to take off their coats. "I can't tell you what a treat it is to have you girls here."

"Oh, well, we're excited, too."

Emily puts their coats in the closet and turns back around. "Lauren, have you grown since I've seen you last? You've got so tall."

Lauren puts on a fake smile. "Yeah, Grandma, I think last time you seen me was for Christmas, so I think I might have grown an inch or two since." Lorelai nudges Lauren.

Emily ignores Lauren's comment and looks at Rory. "So, I want to hear all about Chilton." She says, grabbing Rory and leading her to the living room.

"Well, I haven't actually started yet." Rory tells her.

Lorelai and Lauren just stand there and look at eachother. "Come on." Lorelai says, wrapping her arm around Lauren's shoulder and following them to the living room.

"Richard look who's here." Emily says, wrapping her arm around Rory.

"And look who else." Lorelai says, trying to make Lauren feel better. Lauren just shakes her head and stands next to Rory.

Richard looks up at both the girls. "Rory; Lauren, you're tall."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Lauren says, walking passed her sister and sits down on the couch.

Lorelai smirks and goes sits by Lauren. "Hi, Dad."

"Lorelai, your daughters are tall." Richard tells her.

"Yeah, I know. It's freakish." Lorelai says.

"Champagne anyone?" Emily asks, bringing a tray around.

"Oh, fancy." Lorelai says, taking a drink.

"It's not everyday that I have my girls here on a day the banks are open. A toast: to Rory entering Chilton, and an exciting new phase in her life." Emily says.

"Hear, hear." Richard chimes in.

"This is just wonderful. An education is the most important thing in the world, next to family."

"And pie." Lorelai adds. Lauren laughs, choking on her drink, while everyone looks at her confused. "Joke. It was a joke."

"Ah."

Lauren begins to watch her mom and grandma take a sip of their drink, then she looks over at her grandpa and sister, as Richard hands Rory a piece of his paper. Rory looks at it awkwardly, and this only made Lauren smile more. This was going to be a long eventful night Lauren thought.

At the dinner table, Richard and Emily are on both either ends, while Lauren and Rory sit side by side and Lorelai across from them.

"Rory, how do you like the lamb?" Emily asks.

"It's good."

"Too dry?"

"No, it's perfect."

"Potatoes could use a little salt though." Lorelai tells them.

"Excuse me?" Emily asks.

To avoid a fight, Rory starts to have a conversation with Richard. "So, Grandpa, how's the insurance biz?"

"Oh, people die, we pay. People crash cars, we pay. People lose a foot, we pay."

"Well, at least you have your new slogan." Lorelai jokes.

"And how are things at the motel?" Richard asks Lorelai.

"The Inn? They're great."

"And Lauren how are things at school for you? Sitll getting straight A's I presume?" Emily asks.

Lauren turns to her grandma smiles. "Oh, yeah. I mean not the kind of straight A's Rory gets, but yeah I'm still getting them."

"Speaking of which, Christopher called yesterday." Richard tells them.

"Speaking of which?" Lorelai repeats. "How is that a speaking of which?"

"He is Lauren and Rory's father. He is doing well in California. His internet start-up goes public next month. This could be big things for him. Very talented man your father." Lauren just rolls her eyes at this.

"They know." Lorelai says.

"He always was a smart one that boy. You must take after him." He tells Rory.

"Speaking of which, I'm going to get a coke." Lorelai says getting up. "Or a knife."

Lauren and Rory look at eachother, then back up at their grandparents.

"I think I'm going to go talk to her." Rory says.

Lauren grabs Rory's arm signaling that she will go with her. "No, I'll go." Emily says, standing up. "You both stay here and keep your grandfather company.

In the kitchen, Emily walks in to find Lorelai doing the dishes.

"Lorelai, come back to the table."

Loreali turns around. "Is this what it's going to be like every Friday night? I come over and let you two attack me then turn on Lauren and act like she doesn't even exist?"

"You're being very dramatic."

"Dramatic? Were you are that table just now?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, I was. And I think you took what your father said the wrong way."

"The wrong way? How could I have taken it the wrong way? Lauren is eleven years-old, Mom. She is not stupid. I'm not stupid. I'm fine with you both attacking me, but leave my girls out of it!" Lorelai yells.

"Lower your voice."

"No, Mother, I can't take it anymore!" In the dining room, Richard, Rory, and Lauren are just sitting there quietly. "Why would he bring up Christopher? Was that really necessary?" Lorelai asks.

"He likes Christopher."

"Isn't that interesting. Because, as I remember, when Christopher got me pregnant, twice, Dad didn't like him so much."

"Oh, please, you were sixteen and twenty-one. You weren't even married the second time and you still managed to get pregnant. What did you want us to do? Throw you a party?" Emily asks. "You both had such bright futures."

"Yes, and by not getting married we got to keep those bright futures."

"When you get pregnant. You get married. A child needs a mother and a father." Emily explains.

"Oh, Mom, do you think Christopher would have his own company right now if we'd got married? Do you think he'd be anything at all?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, I do." Emily says matter-of-factly. "Your father would have put him in the insurance business, and you'd be living a lovely life right now."

Lorelai grabs her a cup of coffee. "He didn't want to be in the insurance business, and I am living a lovely life right now."

"That's right. Far away from us." Emily states.

"Oh, here we go."

"You took that girl and completely shut us out of your life, and then you had Lauren and wouldn't even let us step a foot into her life." Emily tells her.

"You wanted to control me."

"You were still a child with Rory."

"I stopped being a child the minute the strip turned pink, okay? I had to figure out how to live. I found a good job."

"As a maid." Emily interrupts. "With all your brains and talent."

"I worked my way up to be where I am now. I run the place now. I built a life I have now with no help from anyone."

"Yes, and think of where you would have been if you'd accepted a little help, and where Rory would have been? But no you were always too proud to accept anything from anyone."

"If I would have accepted a little help then I probably wouldn't have both my daughters right now. Lauren may not exist! And I obviously wasn't too proud to come here to you two begging for money for my kid's school, was I?"

In the dining room, Rory looks up and then back at Lauren who puts her head down after hearing that. "No, you weren't, but you are too proud to let her know." Emily says, finally giving up on the whole fight and walking away.

At the diner, the girls are sitting in there drinking coffee.

"So, nice dinner at the grandparent's house." Rory tells them. "You and Grandma seemed to have a nice talk."

"How much did you hear?" Lorelai asks.

"We heard all of it." Lauren answers.

"I think it was really brave of you to ask them for money." Rory tells her.

"I so do not want to talk about it."

"So, how many is it going to take to get us off the hook?" Rory asks.

"I think the deli spread at the funeral will be the last one." Lorelai tells her. "How are you feeling, missy? I'm sorry you had to witness all that."

Lauren shrugs and gives her mom and small smile. "I was kinda expecting it to go that way. It usually does, but now I have to sit there and go through it every Friday, so I'm not that thrilled about it."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. You did what you had to do. And Rory I'm sorry for last night. It's not your fault that everyone wants me to be like you."

"I'm sorry they make you feel that way." Rory says. "Now that I'm going to Chilton, I promise that anytime that I may have will go to you when I'm not studying."

"Deal." Lauren says, smiling as she and Rory shakes hands.

"And I guess I'll just sit at home and wait for you two." Lorelai says acting sad.

"Oh, Mom, you can come, too."

"Aw, thanks." Lorelai says as they laugh. "So, tell me about the guy."

"Mom!" Rory scoffs

"Is he dreamy?"

"Oh, that's so Nick at Nite." Rory says, shaking her head.

"If you don't tell me, I'll just have Lauren draw him up for me. She seems to remember him pretty well."

Rory glares at Lauren who just smiles scooting closer to Lorelai. "You didn't."

"Hey, it's not like I told her. Miss. Patty did!" Lauren tells her.

"I'm going to kill you!" Rory says, reaching over, but Lorelai grabs Lauren and pulls her into her lap and tickles her making her laugh hysterically, as Rory joins in.

It was finally the day of Rory's first day at Chilton and Rory was up early getting dressed. She had already woke up Lauren who was so cranky, that her sister woke her up so early to get ready for school, but Rory was not going to be late nor was she going to let anyone else make her later. Lauren was already downstairs eating when Rory realized she hadn't heard her mom get up yet. When she makes it upstairs she walks into Lorelai's room to find her still sleeping soundly in her bed.

"Mom!" Rory yells.

Lorelai jumps up and turns to Rory. "What? God. Hi!" Lorelai says, groggily.

"What are you doing!?"

"Having a heartattack."

"I thought you were up. It's 7:10!" Rory tells her.

"What?"

"It's 7:10!"

"No."

"It's 7:10!" Rory yells, taking the pillow from Lorelai.

"Stop it." Lorelai says, grabbing her pillow back. "It's a quarter to 6."

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, it is! I set the clock to 5:45, so it's.." Rory picks up the clock and shows her mom. "7:10!" Lorelai yells jumping out of bed. "Damn!"

"I can't be late on my first day of school!" Rory tells her. "Do you know what happens to people when they are late on their first day? They are forever known as the late girl."

"Oh, so dramatic. Where's the bathroom?" Lorelai asks, tiredly.

Rory pushes her mom towards the door. "We have to go! What if there's traffic?

"I had this all planned, ya know!?" Lorelai says, going into the bathroom. "I was going to get up early. I was gonna get coffee. I was gonna take a shower. I was gonna pick up my clothes from the dry cleaners." Lorelai opens the door with a oh my gosh face. "Oh my gosh. My clothes."

"What?"

"I don't have any clean clothes." Lorelai says, going back to her room.

"It's 7:15!"

"All my nice things were dirty."

"7:16!"

"I was going to wear my blue suit with the flippy skirt. I look so good in the flippy skirt."

"7:17."

"Okay, you know what time lady, how about you go wake up your sister."

"She's already up. I woke her up when I woke up because she's like you! She won't wake up unless you drag her out of bed!" Rory tells her, walking out.

"Lauren is up?" Lorelai asks, surprised. "I can't believe it. Lauren is up and I slept in. This is the last time I buy anything just because it's furry!"

Coming downstairs; Lorelai is dressed in a cowgirl get up. "It's 7..." Rory says, as she stands waiting with Lauren at the stairs.

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence."

Lauren starts laughing. "Is the rodeo in town?"

"Very very funny." Rory starts to laugh, but Lorelai looks at her. "I'll bring the baby pictures."

"No, I love the rodeo!"

"School, Lauren!" Lorelai yells, grabbing her coat. "I love you!" She kisses Lauren on the cheek.

"Bye. Love you, too. Have a great first day, Rory!" Lauren yells back as she runs out the door and out their yard.

At Chilton, Lorelai and Rory are sitting in the car looking up the building.

"I remember it being smaller." Rory says.

"Yeah." Lorelai agrees. "And less.."

"Off with their heads."

"Yeah."

"So, how do I look?" Rory asks.

Lorelai leans back and smiles at her daughter. "You look great."

"Really?"

"You are an amazing kid. You've earned this. You just go in there and show them what smart really is. I love you. Call me if you need me."

Rory looks at Lorelai confused. "You're kidding, right?"

"No. Call me if you need anything! I'm great at making up dirty cheers." She laughs.

"You have to go in with me." Rory tells her.

Lorelai looks down at her attire. "Rory, come on."

"You have to meet the headmaster." Rory explains.

"No, I look like that chick off of the Dukes of Hazzard!"

"This is my first day. You are not getting out of going in there with me. Period." Rory tells her sternly.

Lorelai couldn't believe what she was hearing right now. As she and Rory both make it out of the Jeep, two women walk over and stop when they see what Lorelai is wearing. Lorelai just smiles at them and puts her coat on.

"We're going to be best friends." Lorelai says, sarcastically, as she follows Rory into the building. As they make their way through the building, and finally ask someone where the Headmaster's office even is, they find the long hallway that brings them right to where they need to be. They stand in front of the close door just staring straight ahead. "You ready?"

"No."

"You ready?" Lorelai asks a few seconds later.

"Yes."

They open the double doors and walks right on in over to the secretary. Lorelai clears her throat before speaking. "Um, excuse me." When the lady looks up it scares both Rory and Lorelai. "Oh, wow. Hi. I'm Lorelai Gilmore. This is my daughter, Lorelai Gilmore, because I named her after me. I was in the hospital all whacked out on demorol. Nevermind. But we call her Rory, it's short for Lorelai, but she'll answer to either one, or even 'hey you' depending on..." Rory nudges Lorelai to get her to stop talking. "Is the Headmaster here?" She finally asks.

"One moment." The secretary says, standing up and walking to the other room.

Lorelai turns around to make sure she was our of earshot. "See, that's what happens when you go to bed with your make-up on."

The door opens again and the secretary walks out. "Headmaster Charleston will see you now."

"Great. Thanks." Lorelai says, as she and Rory walk into the office.

"Miss. Gilmore, I'm Headmaster Charleston." Headmaster says, extending his hand out.

Lorelai takes it happily. "Hi. It's really nice to meet you!" Then she notices Emily sitting on the couch. "Mom?" Emily stands up and walks over to them. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to wish my grand-daughter good luck on her first day of school." Emily tells her. "Rory, you look wonderful in that uniform!"

Lorelai lets out a nervous laugh. "You didn't have to come all the way out here, Mom."

"Well, this gave me a chance to make sure Hanlin here takes good care of Rory." Emily explains.

"Your Hanlin." Lorelai says, finally putting it together.

Headmaster smiles at her. "Hanlin Charleston."

"Hanlin's wife and I are on the Symphony Fundraiser committee together."

"Wow. That's great." Lorelai says, with no interest at all.

"Your father and I are golf rivals. We're still fighting it out to see which one is worse." Headmaster jokes.

Emily smiles. "Oh, yes, we are all old friends."

"Well, would you like to take off your coat and have a seat?" Headmaster asks Lorelai.

"Oh, no, no, I'm fine." Lorelai tells him.

"I'm afraid they were a little of overzealous with the furnace this morning. It's quite warm in here."

"I like it warm." Lorelai says, nervously.

"Lorelai, take off your coat and sit down." Emily demands. "You don't want Hanlin to think you're rude."

Lorelai sighs and does what he mother tells her to do. When she takes off her coat both Headmaster and Emily look at Lorelai's outfit up and down while Rory looks away embarrassed. "Laundry day." Lorelai laughs, shyly.

Headmaster just smiles at Lorelai. "Hanlin, did you know that Rory has a 4.0 average?"

"I'm sure he does, Mom."

They walk over to the chairs that are sitting in from of Headmaster's desk. "Her sister does, too. They are very special girls."

"Well, I hope in a few years we'll see your sister here, too, hmm?" Headmaster asks.

"Not likely." Lorelai says, under her breath.

"You take very good care of her." Emily tells him.

"We'll do our best, Emily." He promises.

"Oh, god. Rory is not going to be a problem. She's totally low maintenance." Lorelai explains to him. "You know, like a Honda. You know, they're just easy, just.." Rory gives her mom the look to cut it out. "Nice office."

"Well, I don't think we should take up any more of your precious time." Emily says, grabbing her things. "Hanlin, it was lovely to see you." She says, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Tell Richard I'll see him at the club Sunday."

"Have a wonderful day, Rory. I want to hear all about it." Emily looks down at Lorelai. "Do you need a ride, or is your horse parked outside?"

Lorelai rolls her eyes before standing up. "It's so nice to meet you." She says, shaking Headmaster's hand. "Have a great day." She tells Rory before kissing her on her forehead, and walking towards the door.

"Oh, you don't want to forget your coat." Headmaster tells her.

Lorelai turns back around and laughs. "Oh, no, cause that would be embarrassing." Lorelai grabs her coat and walks out of the office, followed by Emily.

Outside, Emily and Lorelai are walking out.

"How can you leave the house like that?" Emily asks.

"It was not planned. Believe me."

"And on Rory's first day of school. What kind of impression did you think you were going to make. You might be able to get by wearing that in her old school, but not this one."

Lorelai groans in annoyance. "What are you doing here, Mother?"

"I told you, I came to put in a good word for Rory."

"She didn't need a good word." Lorelai tells her.

Emily scoffs. "So, I'm not allowed to be here. Is that is?"

"I didn't say that."

"I'm allowed to pay for it, but I can't set food on the premises."

"Oh, boy." Lorelai huffs.

"How about the street? Can I drive down the street?"

"Forget it."

"Maybe I should just avoid this neighborhood altogether." Emily tells her. "Though my doctor is just down the block."

"I'm sorry. I was just surprised to see you here." Lorelai interrupts her.

"I just thought it was important for this school to know they had a Gilmore amongst them." Emily explains.

"A very good thought."

"And that some of the Gilmores actually own clothing."

"And on that note I have to get to work." Lorelai says, walking away. "I'll see you later."

"Dinner, Friday night, no spurs please." Emily jokes as Lorelai continues to walk away.

At Stars Hollow Junior High, Lauren was having a little trouble paying attention in her class. She kept wondering what Rory was doing, plus the kids around her weren't making life easier for her either.

"So, why did Rory go to a big fancy school and you didn't?" One of the girls ask.

"Because it's a high school." Lauren mutters.

"She's probably just not smart enough." A boy says. "Rory was the smartest at her school. You'll never be her."

"She can't go because she isn't old enough, and even if she wanted to go she wouldn't because this is her school!" Lauren's best friend Elizabeth spats out at him.

The boy sits back and looks the other way. Lauren turns to her friend and mouths thanks. Elizabeth smiles at her friend shrugs."

At Chilton, Rory is walking to the administration office to turn in her folder and get a few things she will need while she's there. She walks up to the desk where a woman was looking very busy.

"Hi, I'm looking for Miss James."

"Name?" The woman asks.

"Lorelai Gilmore. But I go by Rory."

Miss James hands her a pen and paper. "Fill this out please." She brings the folder to a girl at another desk, who slowly picks it up and gives it to someone out the window.

"Well?"

"Shut up."

"Hurry up."

Three girls are sitting outside and start looking through Rory's folder. "Lorelai Gilmore." One of the girls read.

"Nice stripper name."

"Formely of Stars Hollow High School."

"Where's that?"

"Drive west. Make a left at the haystacks, and follow the cows."

"Oh, a dixie chick."

"Perfect attendance. 4.0 grade point average. She's a journalist major."

"That means she's going to go out for the school newspaper."

"Not necessarily. She's got a thousand recommendations in here."

"Popular with the adults and going out for the school paper."

"Will you stop! You don't that. She'll never catch up. She's a month behind already."

"You can tutor her. Be like a big sister."

"You're funny. Why are they letting all these extra people in? We don't need any new kids here."

"Too late."

The girl looks at the other girls before picking the folder up and through the window again.

"Here's your locker number, you schedule, and here's the rules of the school." Miss James says, handing her some things. "And the Chilton honor code. Here are the words to the school song which must be recited upon demand. This can happen at any place, at any time. If you do it in Latin, you get extra credit. Do you have any questions?"

Rory just stares at her, looking a little overwhelmed, before answering. "Not at the moment."

"If you do, you can make an appointment to see your guidance counselor, Mr. Winters." Miss James tells her.

At the Diner, Lorelai walks in with her clothes from the dry cleaners.

"I've already had the longest day of my life." She says to Luke who is standing there writing order down on his pad. "And oh, look, it's only 10:00. How nice."

"There's no coffee." Luke tells her.

Lorelai gasp. "That's not funny."

"I can give you herbel tea." Luke suggests.

"This is not an herbel tea morning. This is a coffee morning."

"Every morning is a coffee morning for you."

"This is a jumbo coffee morning. I need coffee in an i.v." Lorelai tells him.

"I can give you tea and a balance bar."

Lorelai is starting to get afraid. "Please. Please. Please tell me you're kidding."

"I'm kidding." Luke says, walking away to get the coffee.

"You're sick."

"Yeap."

"You're a sadist. You're a fiend!" Luke shows her the coffee. "You're pretty."

"For here or to go?" He asks.

"To go please."

"So, what happened this morning that was so awful?" Luke asks.

"Rory started Chilton." Lorelai tells him.

"Really?" He asks, as he continues to work on fixing the toaster.

"Yeah. What?" She asks, when she notices Luke looking at her funny.

"That's how you dress to take your daughter to Chilton?" He asks.

"No, but.."

"And that's a fancy school." He interrupts.

"My clothes were at the cleaners, and I had a fuzzy clock and it didn't purr on time." Lorelai explains.

"It didn't purr?" He asks, confused.

"It's fuzzy. It purrs. You know what? Nevermind. I gotta go." She says, grabbing her things and walking out.


	3. There Goes The Fighter

When Lorelai left the diner she went straight him to change out of her cowgirl get up and into something more appropriate for work. While she was getting out the jeep, with a handful of clothes, plus her coffee, her phone started to ring in the house. Lorelai runs in, out of breath, and throws all her stuff on the couch as she tries to find the phone. When she finally does, she falls back into the couch to answer.

"Hello?"

"Lorelai?" A familiar voice calls out on the other end.

"Mom." Lorelai says, not too pleased, considering she just left her.

"Lorelai, I'm going shopping this afternoon, and I thought I'd pick up a few things for Rory."

"Like what?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, you know, a couple of extra skirts and tops for school." Emily answers.

"Okay, I already took care of all that, Mom. I got her two skirts and a bunch of tops."

"But there are five days in the school week."

"Really? Are you sure?" Lorelai asks, sarcastically, as she takes her boots off. "Because my days-of-the-week underwear only goes to Thursday."

"Is that a joke?"

"Mom, two skirts are fine. Really don't bother."

"Well, what if she gets one dirty?" Emily asks.

"Well, then, she'll wear the other one."

"And what if she gets both dirty?"

"Then we'll use this new thing called a washing machine. The town just chipped in and bought one. My turn is Tuesday." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, then, what about socks? And what about the school sweater, she might like that, and the book bag!"

"Are you getting a cut of the merchandising?" Lorelai asks.

"Rory should have these things. She'll be the only one who doesn't." Emily tells her.

"She'll live."

"Well, I'm at least getting her the Chilton coat. Is she a size six?"

"Mom, please." Lorelai begs.

"This is a simple question, Lorelai.

"She's a six, but I'd get an eight incase she grows."

"If she grows I'll buy another."

"Okay, well, then six is great. I gotta go, Mom. Bye." Lorelai says, quickly hanging up, but as soon as she goes to put the phone down it rings again."Mom! She doesn't need anything else!" Lorelai yells when she picks up the phone.

"Miss. Gilmore?" A woman on the other end asks.

Lorelai stops moving when she hears the seriousness in the woman voice. "Oh. I'm sorry. Yes, this is Miss. Gilmore. Who is this?" She asks.

"Miss. Gilmore, this is the Principal at your daughter, Lauren's school."

"Oh my gosh! Is she okay?" Lorelai asks. She had never got a call from Lauren's school before since she was in elementary, so this came as a bit of a shock.

"Well, she has actually ran into a problem. Do you mind coming down here and picking her up?"

"Picking her up? Why am I picking her up? She just got there."

"I'll explain everything when you get here." The principal says, hanging up.

Lorelai stood there, still, for a few seconds trying to think about what Lauren could have done to make her leave for the rest of the day. She decided to hurry up and get dressed and see what was happening.

At Chilton, Rory is coming out of her first class with a big binder of notes her teacher just gave her. Once she steps out the girls who was reading her folder before steps in front of her.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there." Rory tells her.

"I'm Paris." The girls introduces herself. "I know who you are, too. Lorelai Gilmore from Stars Hollow."

"You can call me Rory."

"Are you going out for the Franklin?" Paris asks her.

"The what?"

"Nice innocent act. At least I know you're not going for the drama club."

"I'm confused."

"The Franklin, the school paper, are you going out for it?" Paris asks her again.

"I don't know. I have to find my locker first." Rory tells her as she begins to walk away.

"I'm going to be editor next year." Paris tells her.

"Good for you."

"I'm also the top of my class, and I intend on being valedictorian when I graduate."

"Okay. I'm going now." Rory says, continuing her walk.

Paris steps in front of her. "You'll never catch up. You'll beat me. This school is my domain, and the Franklin is my domain, and don't you ever forget that."

Rory watches Paris walk away. "I guess you're not going to let me borrow your notes, huh?"

At Lauren's school, Lorelai is rushing into the principal's office only to be met by her daughter, who is sitting in a chair outside the office.

"Lauren!" She yells.

"Hi, Mom." Lauren says, as she looks down.

Lorelai sits on the other chair and starts looking Lauren up and down. "You seem okay. No cuts or bruises. What happened?"

Lauren goes to speak, but is interrupted when the Principal opens her door. "Miss. Gilmore, you're here. Won't you come in. Lauren you may also join us."

"Nah, I think I'm good here." Lauren tells her, but Lorelai pushes her daughter into the office and they sit down.

"So, did Lauren do something?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, Miss. Gilmore, it looks like some of the kids might have been pestering Lauren about a few things. I've tried asking her about it, but she refuses to tell me." The Principal explains.

Lorelai looks at Lauren then back at the Principal. "If the other kids were messing with her then why am I here? Shouldn't you be calling their parents. Shouldn't those kids be in your office right now?" Lorelai asks.

The Principal gives Lorelai a small smile. "They will actually be in here when you both leave, but something happened. Lauren hit a little boy."

Lorelai jumps at this. Lauren would never hit anyone. "Are you sure? Are you sure it was my daughter?" Lorelai asks.

"Positive. One of the teachers actually seen Lauren punch him."

"You punched him!?" Lorelai asks Lauren this time, who just puts her head down.

"Now, we don't condone fighting in this school, so we have to ask Lauren to leave for the day."

"I am so sorry. This will never happen again."

"I hope not. You know, we never had this much trouble when Rory came here." The Principal tells them.

Lorelai looks at Lauren who just huffs. She was so tired of hearing Rory's name today she could punch someone else. Lorelai knew Lauren wouldn't just punch a kid just to do it. She knew there would some kind of reason behind it. "Alright, kid. Lets get out of here." Lorelai thanks the Principal and she and Lauren walk out of the office. "You have a lot of explaining to do, but right now I have to get to work and you are coming with me."

Lauren didn't say anything. Lorelai wasn't the type of mom to spank or severly punish her children. She was there to support them and hear them out with whatever they had to say. But Lauren knew she went a little too far this time, but she felt good after she did it, so that's all that mattered to her.

At the Inn, Lorelai and Lauren walk into the kitchen. Lauren goes straight to the stool that's by the kitchen counter. Jackson is there bringing some fruit for Sookie to try out.

"Okay. I look great, right?" Lorelai asks them.

"Yes." Sookie answers.

"Yes, see, this is how I was supposed to look this morning. Good morning, Jackson."

"Oh, my gosh. Today was Rory's first day of school." Sookie remembers.

"Yes, and I was suppose to look together and fabulous. Not like I been up all night playing quarters." She says, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Oh, nobody cares how you look."

"Everybody cared!"

"Who?"

"Oh, the other moms, the headmaster, my mom, Luke, the new fire chief with the tiny little head." Lorelai explains.

"Taste this." Sookie says, handing her a peach.

Lorelai takes a bite. "Mm. A little watery."

Sookie turns to Jackson. "Oh, now you had this planned." Jackson whines.

"Did you say something about your mother?" Sookie asks.

"Oh, yeah. I walked into the headmaster's office and.." Lorelai turns to Lauren who is just watching them. "YOUR grandmother was there."

"Why was Grandma there?" Lauren asks, confused.

"Because she knew I'd wake up late, and dress like a cowgirl, and humiliate myself."

"Wow. She's good." Sookie laughs.

"The best."

Sookie gets down on the floor and rolls the peach. "Oh, I would love to know what you're doing." Jackson says, bitterly.

"They're rolling differently, too." She tells him.

"Oh, because of the extra water."

"Exactly."

"Makes perfect sense." Jackson says, sarcastically.

"I would ignore those women because all that matters is that Rory got into a great school." Sookie tells Lorelai.

"I know, and she looked so great in her uniform." Lorelai grins. "And she was so excited. And I just admire her so much for jumping into a new school."

"Is there a school for away from Chilton and Stars Hollow that I can transfer to because that would be great." Lauren says, sarcastically.

Lorelai turns to Lauren. "Hey, we still have to talk about what happened so don't think you're getting away from it."

"What happened?" Sookie asks.

"Lauren punched a boy at school." Lorelai tells her.

Sookie gasp. "Lauren, did you really?"

Lauren turns away not wanting to be apart the conversation anymore. Michel walks in, just in time, interrupting. "Excuse me, but there is a phone call for you, and if I have to fetch you like a dog, I'd like a cookie and a raise."

Lorelai rolls her eyes, lifting her hand out for Lauren to take, which she does, and they walk out of the kitchen.

At the front counter, Lorelai picks up the phone.

"Mom, did I give you this number because I don't remember giving you this number."

"I wanted you to know that I just bought a parking space for Rory at Chilton." Emily tells her.

"You what?" Lorelai asks, trying to stay calm.

"They are very hard to come by, but I pulled a few strings and it's all hers."

"Mom, Rory doesn't have a car."

"No, but she has a birthday coming up." Emily tells her.

"Okay, hold on a second. Lauren, can you go take the harp away from Drella?" Lorelai asks her. Lauren laughs and runs to where Drella is playing, and starts rolling the harp away while she is trying to play. "Mom, you are not buying Rory a car."

"Why not? She's a smart girl. She's responsible. And why is Lauren not in school?" Emily asks.

"She got out early. Rory doesn't need a car."

"She needs to have a way to get around. To get to school. And what school lets kids get out early?"

"Her school. And Rory will be taking the bus." Lorelai tells her.

"I know I hate that she takes the bus." Emily says.

Lauren runs back over and sits in Michel's chair just to aggravate him. "You know what, Mom, I gotta go."

"Fine. We'll discuss this at a later date. And you should look into a school that is right for Lauren, too. Getting out early is absurb."

"Noted." Lorelai says, hanging up the phone. Lorelai turns to Lauren and smiles. "Care to explain what happened now?"

"Do you even have time for me to explain?" Lauren asks, sarcastically.

Lorelai looks at her watch. "Mm. I can spare...yes. Why did you punch that boy?"

"Do we really have to talk about it right now?"

"Yes, because if I know us, which I do, then it will never be discussed."

Lauren takes a deep breath before she starts explaining. "In class, these kids were talking about Rory and the 'new fancy' school she was going to. They had asked why I wasn't put in a smart school, and then they said I'm just probably not smart enough like Rory is. Well, Elizabeth told them off and they stopped, but when I went into my second class they started up again, especially this boy Evan. He wouldn't leave me alone, and I finally just had enough and punched him." She says, without stopping to take a breath.

Lorelai was silent for a few seconds just staring at her daughter. "Where'd you punch him?"

"In the eye."

"Okay, well, congrats on your first punch. Real proud of you. But I think you could have handled it a better way, hun."

"How? He wouldn't leave me alone, and when I punched him he finally shut up."

"Well, because he was on the ground." Lorelai states. "Look I know everyone is teasing you about Rory, but remember she's your sister and we're proud of her, aren't we?"

Lauren sighs. "I am proud of her. I just want everyone to know that I'm not Rory."

"Yeah, you're me, and that's what's scaring me." Lorelai says. "Just no more punching, okay? This will all blow over soon. I promise."

"Yeah, yeah." Lauren says, getting up and walking to the back.

At Chilton, Rory is walking the hall when a guy calls out a name that isn't hers.

"Hey, Mary!" He calls, but Rory keeps walking until he taps her on the shoulder.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you." He laughs.

"My name is Rory."

"Well, I'm Tristen."

"Hi."

"So, you new?" He asks.

"Yeah, first day." She tells him.

"Well, Remmy's class is rough."

"Yeah, it seemed very intense."

"You know, I could loan you my notes, if that would help." He offers.

"Really? That'd be great."

"How great?" He says, stepping closer to her.

"I don't know. Mr. Remmy said that getting someone's notes would be.."

"I could even help you study." Tristen interrupts.

Rory backs up. "Uh, I kinda view studying as a solitary activity, but thanks."

"Bye, Mary." Tristen says, once more before walking away.

"It's Rory." She says to herself.

At the Inn, Lauren is pouring herself some coffee while Sookie's back is turn and sneaks out. Lorelai is standing in the middle of two guys arguing.

"I completely understand." Lorelai tells one of the guys.

"Oh, do you? Because this is a brand new car."

"I swear!"

"He brings the car up and it's scratched!"

"I just backed the car up, and..."

"I'd know if my car was scratched before I parked it!" The man yells.

"Sir, how about this. I'll get your car looked at tomorrow. In the meantime, I would love for you to have lunch here on me. Dessert here is a must. Anything with our homemade ice cream is delicious. I promise you life as you know it will never be the same. What do you say?"

The man smiles and finally gives him. "Well, I think I will. Thank you."

"Thank you." She says, as the man walks away.

"Lorelai, I swear I didn't scratch his car!"

"Derek."

"I mean, if you think I'm unreliable, or a bad driver.."

"It's okay."

"Cause I can drive!"

"Oh, sweetie, I am sure you can. We'll just have the guys look at it tomorrow and they may be able to buff it up for nothing. Okay?" Lorelai asks.

"Okay." Derek says, as he looks at Lorelai and smiles. "That's a really nice outfit you're wearing today."

"Thank you, Derek."

Lorelai stands there until Michel walks up to her. "Once again your faithful pooch is here to tell you to please return to your desk. There is someone wanting to talk to you."

"It's not my mother, is it?" Lorelai asks.

"It's possible."

Lorelai looks over and sees a man staring her way. "It's possible?"

"There's a resemblance."

"Mm." Lorelai walks away and over to the counter. "Hi!"

"Hi. Is this a bad time?" He asks.

"No, not at all. What are you doing here?" She asks.

"Well, I had to meet an associate for lunch. And he was coming up from New York so I thought why not meet him in a beautiful Inn?"

"Well, good. Enjoy your lunch."

Lauren is sitting there watching the whole thing wondering who in the world her mother was talking to. They didn't even notice that she was sitting right there watching. Lauren clears her throat and Lorelai looks at her.

"Oh, this is my other daughter, Lauren. Lauren, honey, this is Ian Jack. I met him when I was dropping Rory off at school." Lorelai explains.

Lauren nods her head. "It's nice to meet you."

"You, too, Lauren." Ian says, looking back at Lorelai. "Two daughters?"

Lorelai shrugs. "What? You're going to tell me I don't look old enough to have two daughters?" She jokes.

Ian laughs. "They look just like you."

"Thanks."

"I, um, also came by here to ask you to dinner sometime."

"We're a little food-obsessed, aren't we?" Lorelai laughs.

"Well, it's the company more than the food that interests me." He says, making Lauren roll her eyes.

"I'm flattered."

"Is that a yes?" He asks.

"That's a..you're a dad." She tells him.

"And you're a mom. Although, I'm still finding that really hard to believe." He tells her.

"No, I mean, you're a Chilton Dad." She explains.

"Oh, that sounds bad." Lauren couldn't help but smile at this. She knew exactly what her mom was saying. She suddenly felt a little bad for the guy.

"Not bad. Just tricky. You know, Rory just started there, and I think I should let her fall in with the bad crowd before I start hooking up with the P.T.A."

"Well, I'm not on the P.T.A."

"Oh, see!? There you go, I can't dat anyone not on the P.T.A." She jokes.

"Look, it's just a casual dinner." He tries again.

"Sorry." Lorelai walks around the desk and stands by Lauren.

"Look, I'll tell you what. I'm goingto China for a week on business. And when I get back I'm going to try again."

"China? Wow."

"Impressed?" He asks, hopefully.

"No. Rome, I'd be impressed. China, I'm just, 'Chine? Wow.'"

"Okay." He says, taking one of her business cards from the counter. "Lorelai Gilmore, General Manager. I'll talk to you soon."

"Have a safe trip."

"I will. Nice meeting you, Lauren."

"You, too." Lauren says waving as he walks away.

Lorelai looks down at Lauren, who takes a sip of her drink. "I never seen you turn someone down who looked like that." Lauren tells her mom.

"Yeah, well, how would you feel if I dated one of your friends dad?" Lorelai asks.

"Good point."

"Is that coffee you're drinking?" Lorelai asks as she sniffs the air.

Lauren smiles her best Gilmore smile. "Oh, here. I got it for you. Just keeping it company."

"Mhm." Lorelai says, taking it from Lauren and sipping it.

At Chilton, Rory walks up to her locker and tries to open it. She kept trying but it wouldn't come open, and when it finally did she backed up right into Paris, whose project fell right to the floor and shattered everywhere.

"Oh, my gosh. Paris, I am so sorry. It was an accident!" Rory says, as she tries to help Paris pick it up. "My locker, it just slipped. I pulled too hard. I didn't mean to..is there water in that moat?" Rory asks, looking harder at the destroyed project.

Paris just looks at Rory with a disgusted look on her face. "Get away from me!" She says, getting up and walking away.

At the diner, Lorelai and Lauren walk in as Luke walks passed them.

"What are you doing here?" He asks, Lorelai.

"See now, that's why you were voted Mr. Personality of the new Millennium. Where's your crown?" She asks as she they sit down at the bar.

"I just mean you don't usually come in at this time. And Lauren what are you doing here? Don't you have school?"

"School lets out in an hour, and anyway I got out early for punching a boy." Lauren tells him.

Luke's eye buldge out when he hears this. "You what?"

"She punched him right in the eye." Lorelai says, smiling.

"And you're happy about this why?" Luke asks her.

"I'm not happy about it. I told her she shouldn't have punched him, but when a kids picking on you what can you do?" Lorelai asks him.

"He was picking on you?" Luke asks, angry. "Who was it? Was it that Walter kid? I seen him staring at you."

"No, Luke, it was Evan Marshall."

"Oh, I knew that kid was bad news. I'm going to kick his ass!" Luke puts down the coffee pot and starts to head to the door.

"Get him, Luke!" Lauren yells.

"Lauren, do not encourage him." Lorelai grabs Luke's arm before he can go any further. "Luke, he's just an eleven year-old boy. Leave him alone."

"Well, when I see him..."

"Do whatever you want. Just right now, feed me coffee because we have to go pick up Rory from school." Lorelai's cell phone starts ringing. "Hello? Oh, hey, Babette. Okay, I'll be right there. Thanks." She hangs. "We have to go."

"What's wrong?" Lauren's asks.

"Someone's at our house." Lorelai goes to take money out her bag. "Keep it. It's on me. I gave you decaf anyway."

Lorelai smiles at Luke before she and Lauren walk out of the diner.

At the house, they pull to a van in their yard. They get out and walk over to Babette and her husband.

"Hey, Babette." Lauren says, as she pets the cat that's in Babette's hands.

"Hey, sweetie. Lorelai I am so sorry I had to call you like this."

"Oh, no, Babette, I appreciate it."

"All of a sudden, they pull up, get out of the truck and start sniffin around. It's very strange."

"Alright. Let me go talk to them." Lorelai says, walking towards her house. "Hey!" She calls out when she see a guy walking around her porch. "What are you doing?"

"You live here?"

"Yes, I do."

"I'm supposed to install a D.S.L for a Lorelai Gilmore. Is that you?" He asks.

"Yes, that's me."

"I'm Mick."

"Hi, Mick. Can you get off my porch?"

"I was told you wouldn't be here but to look for a ceramic frog with a key in it." He tells her.

"It's not a frog." Lauren tells him.

"I was told it was a frog." He argues.

"I don't understand." Lorelai says, confused.

"We can't find the frog."

"Because it's not a frog." Lauren tells him again.

"I didn't order a D.S.L." Lorelai says.

"Uh, the order was placed by an Emily Gilmore." He says, reading off his clipboard.

"Ugh, no!" Lorelai says, frustrated.

"We would've been done by now, but the frog search put us way behind."

"Hey, Mick." Another guy calls out as he walks to them. "I found it."

"You found the frog?"

"It wasn't a frog, it was a turtle." He man shows him.

"Told ya." Lauren says.

"It says here it's a frog."

"It's a turtle." Lorelai says, trying to end the argument.

"Really?" Mick asks.

"Trust me. Listen, Mick, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cancel that D.S.L. order."

"You sure? It's already paid for."

"Yeah, but I don't need one, so thanks for coming. You guys can just go. Come on, Lauren." Lorelai walks back to her car with Lauren running behind her.

In Hartford, Lorelai pulls up at the salon her mom is at, and gets out while Lauren waits in the car. When she walks in Emily is sitting under the dryer. Lorelai walks over and knock on it, scaring Emily.

"What on earth!?" She looks up and sees Lorelai standing above her.

"You're not buying us a D.S.L." Lorelai tells her.

"Lorelai, this is hardly the place." Emily says.

"I cancelled the order and it's not happening."

"But Rory needs the internet for her school, and I'm sure Lauren will need it eventually, too."

"We have the internet." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, this is faster."

"Mom, we like our internet slow, okay? We can turn it on, walk around, do a little dance, make a sandwich. With D.S.L. there's no dancing, there's no walking, and we'd starve. It'd be all work and no play. Have you not seen The Shining, Mom?"

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Emily asks, confused.

"Also, there will be no cars, no parking spaces, and all the uniforms will be supplied by me. The mother. That's final. There will be no discussion."

"You're bring stubborn as usual."

"No, Mom, I'm not being stubborn as usual! I am being me! The same person who always needed to work out her own problems and take of herself because that's the way I was born. That's how I am!" Lorelai yells.

"Florence, I'm dripping." Emily says, trying to ignore Lorelai.

"I appreciate what you have done for Rory in paying for her school. That will not be forgotten. You won't let it. But she is my daughter. And I decide how we live, not you." Lorelai storms out of the salon leaving Emily sitting there, embarrassed.

Outside of Chilton, Lorelai is standing in the back of her jeep, drinking coffee, with Lauren standing right by her side looking up.

"This place is huge. I bet Rory got lost a few times." Lauren says.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter. "You wouldn't want to go here?" Lorelai asks.

"Nah, not my thing. I like being smart and all, but I can do it in Stars Hollow." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai laughs, bending down and kissing her daughter on her head. They see Rory walk out, looking tired as ever. "Hey, you!" Lorelai says.

Rory doesn't even say anything. She just throws down her heavy book bag and walks right into Lorelai's arms, hugging her. "So, this whole plaid-skirt thing, my idea?" She asks.

"My day sucked, too. So did your sister's."

Rory looks up to see Lauren standing by the jeep smiling. "Promise?"

"Promise." Lauren and Lorelai both say.

Lorelai goes to pull away. "Not yet." Rory says, bringing her mom back.

"Oh, still hugging, still hugging."

Lorelai pulls away and walks Rory over to her sister. "I brought us coffee."

"Wow. I'm shocked." Rory sarcastically says.

"Even me." Lauren says, holding her cup up.

"Even more shocked."

Lorelai picks up Rory's heavy bag. "Ugh! Wow, what, do they expect you to get smart all in one day?" She asks.

"Oh, they expect a lot of things." Rory says, kissing he sister on the head.

"Oh, so, tell me." Lorelai says, throwing the book bag in the back of the jeep as the girls get in.

"I don't know. It was just one big, long, scary, tweedy, bad eight hours." Rory tells her.

"At least you had eight hours. I only had four." Lauren says.

Rory turns around in her seat. "What did you do?"

"Why are you assuming I did something?" Lauren asks, a little hurt.

"She punched a boy." Lorelai tells her.

"Because you do something every time!" Rory says. "Anyway, one of the girls already hates me, and the guys are weird."

"Weider than other guys?"

"Yeah, they kept calling me Mary."

"You're kidding me." Lorelai asks, laughing. "Wow. I can't believe they still say that."

"What does it mean?" Lauren asks.

"Mary. Like Virgin Mary. It means they think you look like a goody-goody." Lorelai says, making Lauren laugh even harder than she already was.

"You're kidding."

"No."

"I can punch them for you. I seem to be good at it." Lauren tells her.

"Easy, Ali."

"Well, what would they have called me if they thought I looked like a slut?" Rory asks.

"Well, they might have added a magdalene to it."

"Wow. Biblical insults." Rory laughs. "This is an advanced school."

Later that day, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, and Lane are walking in the town square eating pizza.

"It was so weird not having you in school today." Lane tells Rory. "I mean, I finally noticed some of the other kids. Let me just say, they are sad lot."

"Yeah, well, add a couple plaid skirts, and you've got the Chilton freaks."

"I totally miss you."

"I miss you."

"Aw, what time is it?"

"6:30."

"Man, I'm late for dinner." Lane says, taking off her jacket.

"Again!? Lane, your mother is gonna kill me if I keep sending you home fed and happy."

"I'm sorry, but she found a website that sells tofu in bulk." Lane says, giving her jacket to Rory. "Bye!"

"Bye." They all say.

Lorelai turns to Lauren who was being very quiet. "You're quiet. What's on your mind."

"Nothing." Lauren says.

"Mhm. What's wrong?" Rory asks.

"Well, I actually missed walking to school with you today." Lauren admits.

"Awww." Rory and Lorelai say playfully as they both tickle Lauren.

"I don't miss you anymore." Lauren says.

Rory laughs. "I missed you, too."

They stop in front of the diner and look inside. "What do you guys think of Luke?" Lorelai asks.

The girls look into the window to see Luke cleaning tables. "What do you mean?" Rory asks.

"I mean, do you think he's cute?"

Lauren looks up at her mom with a weird look. "Mom, are you serious? It's Luke."

"Yeah, I know."

"You cannot date Luke." Rory says, pushing her mom away from the window.

Lorelai gasp. "I said nothing about dating him."

"If you date him, you'll break up, and we'll never be able to eat there again."

"Oh my gosh, that cannot happen. He has the best food and coffee." Lauren tells her.

"I repeat, I said nothing about dating Luke."

"Date Al from Pancake World, his food stinks." Lauren tells her.

"I cannot believe what I'm hearing. Al's food does not stink." Lorelai says. "Al stinks."

Rory just keeps looking at her mom as they all three continue to walk home together to end their long day bad day just to wake up and start a brand new one.


	4. Distance

It was another Friday night, and the Gilmores were once again having their dinner together. They've all became accustomed to not making plans on Fridays now, and there's been a lot of less complaining coming from Lauren when Lorelai forces her to get dressed. Rory, on the other hand, has actually enjoyed going to her grandparents house. She enjoys the food and the small talk, but Lauren, being a lot like Lorelai, couldn't stand hearing the sarcasticness come from their voices when they'd ask how she was doing, or when they'd ask her mom something. It became rather annoying.

"So, Lorelai, how are things at that charming little Inn of yours?" Emily asks.

"Mm, they're still charming and little, and we're just crossing our fingers that it doesn't assert itself to become rude and large." Lorelai jokes.

"Mom's having a huge wedding there this week." Rory tells them.

"Really?" Emily asks, suddenly interested.

"Yeah, actually there's people coming from all over the country." Lorelai explains.

"Well, isn't that nice."

"Yeah."

"Rory how is Chilton."

"Okay, done with me now." Lorelai says.

Emily turns back to Lorelai. "I'm sorry. Was there more to your story?"

"Um, Rory has to pick a team sport to play." Lorelai says, ignoring her mother.

"It's a requirement." Rory adds in.

"Physical fitness is as important as intellectual fitness." Richard tells them. "So says Plato and so say I. Lauren, do you play any sports?"

Lauren looks up quickly. They had not said much to her since she got there and now they were asking her a question she only had one word to."Uh, no, Grandpa." Lauren says, nervously. "I can't really play a sport to save my life."

"Sorry, kid, that's my fault." Lorelai says, smirking, making Lauren laugh.

"That's too bad." Richard tells her.

"What sport are you going to pick?" Emily asks, Rory.

"I told her she should go out for the debating team." Lorelai says.

"That's not a sport." Rory reminds her.

"It is, the way the Gilmore's play." Lorelai laughs.

Emily looks down, choosing to ignore her daughter. "So, what are your choices?"

"God, there's, like, a thousand of them." Rory says, thinking. "Um, basketball, lacrosse, swimming, track, golf."

"Golf?"

"Yeah."

"Well, your grandfather is a golf player." Emily points out as she looks at Richard.

Lauren and Lorelai both look towards Richard, knowing exactly what was about to happen. "Oops." Lorelai says.

"He plays every week at the club. He could teach you to play like a pro."

"Emily." Richard says, wanting her to stop.

"Why, he could take you there on Sunday. It's perfect." She says.

Richard shakes his head. "It's not something you can teach in an afternoon."

"That's okay. Rory can pick something else." Lorelai tells them.

"Why should she pick something else? She needs to learn a sport, and Richard can teach her a sport. You can use your mother's old golf clubs. They're upstairs gathering dust with the rest of her potential." Emily explains, bitterly.

"Okay. Mom, could I maybe talk to you for a minute?" Lorelai asks.

"We're having dessert."

"I know, but I'd like to talk to you fast before the sugar sets in and makes me crazy."

"You are the oddest person." Emily says, getting up. They both walk into the other room. "This is as far as I can go, unless you'd like me to bore my way through the wall."

"Don't do this, Mom."

"Do what?"

"Force Rory and Dad to go golfing." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm not forcing anybody."

"You're manipulating the situation in a way that gives no one a way out. That's force. Look it up."

"I'm just trying to help your daughter get an education."

"Thank you, she'll find another sport."

"Why should she?"

"Because she doesn't want to go and Dad doesn't want to take her."

"Oh, your father doesn't know what he wants. He'd get his hair cut at the butcher if I let him." Emily tells her.

"Just let it go. Please."

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Emily says, smiling. Lorelai turns around and looks at her mother confused. "You're afraid."

"Of what?"

"That Rory will enjoy the club, and have a good time without you."

"That's crazy."

"I agree."

"I'm not afraid."

"Then let her go."

"She won't enjoy it, Mom." Lorelai stresses.

"Well, why don't we just let Rory decide?" Emily asks.

"Because Rory is the sweetest kid in the world and she won't tell you that she doesn't want to go because she is too afraid of hurting your feelings." She explains.

"Oh, I'm sure you could give her some coaching to get her over that."

"I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, Mom. Believe it or not, this is not about you."

"Of course it's about me. If Rory goes and has a good time without you, then I win."

"Okay, Bob Barker. Listen, Rory knocks herself out all week at Chilton. The weekend are the only time she has to unwind and have fun." Lorelai explains.

"With you?"

"I'm there, and so is her sister."

"So, let me get this straight. There's no way that Rory could possibly enjoy a weekend day wit her grandfather."

"Oh, you're just gonna twist it all around, aren't you?"

"And you know your daughter so well that you don't even have to ask her opinion on this. She'd be miserable and you'd know it."

"I'm so setting myself up here, but yes."

"That sounds a little controlling to me. Interesting, isn't it, you being the one who's controlling?" Emily asks. "I guess you and I are more alike than you thought, aren't we?"

"You win." Lorelai says, giving up.

"Thank you." Emily smiles. She starts to walk away. "Maybe we should ask Lauren if she'd like to join. I mean she's only eleven, but I'm just she'd enjoy spending some time with her sister on the golf course."

"Okay, that's where I draw the line!" Lorelai yells after her.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks in to the front desk where Michel is handing out gift baskets to the helpers.

"So, any problems?" She asks him.

"With the wedding or my life?"

"One guess. And I'll give you a hint: It's not your life." Lorelai tells him.

"Do you stage these events to torture me?" Michel asks.

"Yes."

"Job well done."

"Okay, lets start again. Any problems?"

"Guest are checked in, baskets are given out, and 200,000 tons of Jordan Almonds have been delivered."

"Okay, good. Did Rory call?"

"Hm. She's golfing all day with my fauther and I'm half-expecting this big 'save me' call to come in. You don't care at all, do you?" She asks, Michel who is just writing down stuff and not paying attention to Lorelai.

"To me you are the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoon." He tells.

"Okay. Forget it. Have the grooms arrived? Their plane was due at 7:30. I'm surprised they're not here by now."

"Maybe they made a run for it." Michel jokes.

"Oh, somebody got stood up at Prom."

Michel looks up and is stunned by what he sees. "oh, dear."

"What?" Lorelai asks, until she looks up in the same direction Michel is looking. Twin guys come in with luggage.

"Are those?"

"No, it would be too.." Suddenly the twin brides run up to them and hug them in excitment. "weird. "

"You kept this from me on purpose." Michel tells her.

"It's like a really snooty doublemint commercial" Lorelai laughs.

At the golf course, Richard and Rory are walking down to the course.

"Is it hard to become a member here?" Rory asks her grandfather.

"Oh, everyone has to go through a thorough screening process." Richard explains.

"Kind of like the F.B.I?"

"We're much more thorough than that." Richard says in all seriousness.

"Wow."

"Yes. Do you know the merger of forscape and D.S.S. happened right here on this lawn?" Richard asks.

"Really?"

"Mm, international finance will never be the same, and all because of a lost golfing bet."

"That's crazy."

"Well, that's high finance. Well, here we are." Richard says, as they make it to the course. Now, what do you know about golf?" He asks.

"It's a good walk spoiled." Rory says, nervously.

Richard looks down, disappointed. "Well, your driver is the most powerful club in your bag, and as such, it can be your most valuable asset or your greatest liability. There you are." He says, handing Rory her club.

"Now line the toe of your left food up with the ball." Rory does what she is told. "That's right. Now drop this shoulder a little bit. Now keeping your left arm firm, draw the club back and swing it cleanly through the ball."

Rory does this and she hits grass instead. "I'm betting that was wrong."

"There are no rights or wrong to the learning process." Richard grabs the grass and puts it back in place. "Try that again." He tells her. Rory does it again and ends up hitting the grass...again.

At the Inn, Michel and Lorelai walk into the lobby to find the brides arguing about soup or salad. Their mom walks up to Lorelai not happy at all.

"It has been a non-stop argument about soup or salad, soup or salad. Get me a cap. I am going to go far far away now." She tells her.

"How about if the guests get a choice of soup or salad?" Lorelai suggests.

"That-that will work." She says, turning away.

Lauren runs up to her mom. "I'm here to help!" She says, smiling up at her.

Lorelai smiles back then looks at her watch. "Oh, about an hour late. Thanks for coming." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I could see if I can catch up with Rory and go golfing with Grandpa if that's what you want." Lauren tells her, meanly.

Lorelai gasp. "You will do no such thing!"

"Sorry, I'm late. Rory couldn't figure out what she wanted to wear and I had to help her."

"It's okay. Has she called you since?"

Lauren shakes her head. "No. So, I'm assuming everything is good."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Lorelai says, sadly. Sookie walks up behind them. "Choice of soup or salad." Lorelai tells her.

"Got it." Sookie says, watching the scene in front of them.

"It's so weird." Lorelai says.

Lauren looks closely. "Wait. Are they.."

"Yes." Michel answers.

"Which one is which?" Sookie asks.

"I don't know. I think the one on the right is Matt."

"No, the one on the left is Matt." Michel corrects her. "The one on the right is Mark."

"That's very impressive."

"Yes, well, I'm very good at observing people, you know learning their tics and traits, the sound of their voices. It's a gift."

"That one has a post-it on its back." Lauren points out.

"Oh, well, then that's Mark." Michel says.

Lorelai looks at Michel in disbelief. "You will go and take that off of him!"

"I will not. We can't all call everyone 'sweetie' and get away with it."

"Go with me here. But let's say Mark walks into a hotel room, and he sees his wife naked, but it's not his wife.." Lorelai quickly covers Lauren's ear so that Sookie can continue. Lauren rolls her eyes at this. "it's his naked sister-in-law, and he has sex with her. Would that be cheating?"

Lorelai laughs. "I think no."

"Really? Lucky."

"If you ask me, this union belongs on a public access station. It's against the laws of nature, and just this short of completely obscene." Michel tells them.

Lorelai looks at Michel. "Huh, you won't be giving the wedding toast." Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand and walks over to the brides mom. "How did everything work out?" She asks.

"Do you have children?" She asks.

"Two. This is one of them." Lorelai raises Lauren hand, and she smiles at the lady.

"Do you hate her?" Lauren gasp and looks up at Lorelai.

"No."

"Hm. Darling, don't ever get married." She tells Lauren.

"Noted." Lauren says.

At the golf course Richard and Rory are walking down the course.

"I can't believe I hit the ball." Rory says, happily.

"Well, it's quite impressive." Richard tells her.

"It landed in the water."

Richard laughs. "Yes, but the splash was quite impressive."

"This place is so beautiful. I can see myself just coming here to think or read. But that probably defeats the purpose of the holes with the flags in them."

"Oh, there is something rather serene about walking around here." Richard says.

"Do you come here every week?" Rory asks.

"No. When I can. I'm often working on the weekends."

"Bummer. Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead."

"What do you do?"

"I'm the executive vice president of the Gehrman-Driscoll Insurance Corporation." Richard tells her.

"Wow."

"Yes."

"And as executive vice president what do you do?" Rory asks.

"Well, it's a very big company. One of the largest in the United States. As a matter of fact, I have a myriad of duties which would bore you greatly to hear about."

"Oh okay." Rory says, a little disappointed.

Richard notices and continues. "I oversee our international division."

"The sounds important."

"Well, it rates a parking spot." Richard jokes.

"Do you get to travel a lot?"

"Oh, quite a bit."

"Lucky."

"I suspect you have a yen for travel?"

"I'm up to my ears in yens." Rory smiles.

"Any particular place you'd like to go?" Richard asks, curiously.

"Hundreds of places. Paris, Rome, London, Prague, Istanbul, Fez. Have you ever been to Fez?"

"I can't say that I have. Traveling for a young girl is a very important thing. Your mother never got a chance to travel much."

"I know. She talks about that all the time." Rory tells him. "We've got a deal. When I graduate from high school, we're gonna go backpacking through Europe together. We're even going to bring Lauren along. She is always reading about different places and their cultures."

"She does?" Richard asks, surprised.

"Yeah. I just hope it really happens."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure that it does." Richard tells her.

Rory smiles at him as they continue to walk and talk.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks outside when she hears her name being called.

"Mom, the swans are here!" Lauren yells.

"Oh, great!" Lorelai says, walking over to Lauren, Kirk, and the swans in the cage he was holding.

"Where do you want the swans?" He asks.

"Uh, well, do you know where the pond is?" Lorelai asks.

"Nope."

"Okay, you know that little road you came up?"

"Nope."

"Okay, do you know how to say 'big help' in Chinese?"

"Nope."

"Mom, I'll show him." Lauren tells her as she looks at the swans.

"This is twenty swans?" Lorelai asks, as she looks at four swans.

"Sure why not." Kirk says.

"Come on." Lauren says, hinting the anger that was about to rise in her mom.

"Lauren, be careful and don't touch the swans!" Lorelai yells out as she watches Lauren try to pet the swan through the cage as they walk.

At the club, Rory and Richard are having lunch when some of Richards friends walk in.

"Mind if we join in?"

"Ah, Rory, this is Julian Johnson and Edward James." Richard introduces.

"Call me Ed."

"It's nice to meet you."

"Would you care to join us?" Richard asks.

"If Rory doesn't mind us intruding." Ed says.

"No, that's fine." Rory tells him.

"So, we hear you're attending Chilton." Julian tells her.

"I just started."

"That's a hard school."

"Yes, sir."

"Rory is an excellent student. 4.0 grade point average." Richard tells them. "She's going to Fez some day." Rory turns to her grandfather and smiles. She couldn't believe he was actually bragging about her. This was a first.

"Fez? What the hell is in Fez?" They ask.

"That's for her to find out." Richard says as Rory laughs.

At Luke's diner, Rory is sitting alone waiting for her mom and sister when Luke walks up.

"Interesting hat." He says.

"I went golfing with my grandfather today." She explains.

"Did you know golf courses are an environmental blight because of the chemicals they use to keep the grass green?" Luke asks.

"Actually, I did." Rory says. Luke just stares at her. "Bad joke. Sorry."

Luke walks away just as Lorelai and Lauren walk in. Lauren runs over to the table and sits down.

"Luke, we need the largest cheeseburger in the world." Lorelai tells him, dramatically. "So, the wedding is a nightmare! We got these ten boxes of creepy larvae that are suppose to swarm into butterflies on the wedding day. They swarmed a little early." Lorelai rambles.

"What's with the hat?" Lauren asks, interrupting her mom as she stares at Rory with a weird look on her face. Lorelai looks up also finally noticing it.

"Grandma gave it to me."

"Oh, that's just mean." Loreali says.

"It's not that bad."

"Do you want a mirror?" Lauren asks her.

"I'm taking it off." Rory says, taking the hat off.

"So, Rory's golfing adventure. Tell me." Lorelai says, excited to hear all the bad stuff.

"It was fine." Rory says, surpring Lorelai.

"Oh, honey, I brought you some of Sookie's chocolate cake to make you feel better." She says, pushing the plate in front of Rory.

"It really wasn't that bad. I think even Lauren would have enjoyed it."

"Really?" Lauren asks, surprised.

"You are the sweetest kid in the whole world." Lorelai tells her. "Where on Earth did you get that from?"

"By the end of the day I could even hit the ball." Rory tells them. "Sometimes it wasn't my ball but the intentions were good."

"Well, good intentions and no physical exertion whatsoever is what the game of golf was built on. So, um, did you order?"

"I'm not hungry. I had a big lunch at the club."

"You had a big lunch at the club?" Lorelai says, confused.

"Yeap. It was quite good."

"Quite? What's with the 'quite'?" Lauren asks her.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't ever say quite." Lorelai tells her.

"I've said quite plenty of times." Rory tells them.

"Well, besides the quite good lunch you had, what else happened?"

"Nothing. I played. I met his friends. I took a steam."

Lauren almost chokes on her mom's coffee. "You took a steam?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah. I sweated out all my toxins, and I stole a towel."

"Wow." Lorelai says, surprised. "It sounds like you really had a good time."

"I did."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Really?"

"Okay, new word now."

"Sorry. I'm just surprised. I thought you were gonna be bored."

"I was kinda surprised, too. I don't know. It was pretty there and Grandpa and I talked a lot."

"You talked? Really?" Lauren asks.

"You're starting it again."

"You talked?" Lorelai asks again.

"We talked about Fez. I told him about our backpacking trip, and he thought it was a great idea."

"Wow. So, you really had fun?" Lorelai asks again.

"Yeah."

"That's great. That is really, really great."

Rory puts on her hat again. "Does this hat really look bad on me?" She asks.

"No. I think it looks kind of cute." Lorelai tells her.

Rory smiles at her mom before turning to Lauren to tell her about how pretty everything was. "I told Grandpa how you love culture and nature. He wants to take you there one day, too."

"Really?" Lauren asks, surprised. "But he never talks to me."

"Things may change." Rory tells her.

Lorelai just watches her girls chat about Rory's day, and Lauren tells Rory about the swans and what's happening at the Inn. She was still amazed that Rory had a good time, without her, at the golf course. She wanted to be happy, but she somehow felt a little jealousy inside.

Outside the house, Lorelai and Rory are sitting on the porch reading. Lorelai looks up at Rory.

"So, you know what I was just thinking?" Lorelai asks her.

"That Madonna and Sean Penn should get remarried?" Rory jokes.

"Besides that. I was thinking your golfing expedition should totally count as a dinner."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I think I can get us out of dinner at the grandparents' on Friday. Maybe we could grab a movie. I know Lauren will probably be excited to be able to hang out with her big sister since she's been super busy." Lorelai explains.

"Oh, well. That's okay. I would love to spend extra time with Lauren and you, but we have Saturday and Sunday, and Grandma would probably freak out if we didn't go."

"Yeah, but I can handle those freak-outs. I've done that."

"You know, I have to get a book from Grandpa anyway. Let's just go."

"Oh, alright. If you really want to." Lorelai says as she stares at her daughter. "Is that my sweater?"

"What?"

"You're wearing my sweater."

"So?"

"No, it's okay. It's just I thought I asked you to at least ask, you know, before you borrow my stuff."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's just..it's not too much for a simple 'Can I borrow it, Mom?', is it?" Lorelai asks.

Rory looks at Lorelai like she is crazy. "No, it's not. Geez, lighten up."

"It's my favorite sweater, too." Lorelai adds in.

"Since when?

"Since always."

"This is not your favorite sweater."

"Yes, it is. Now it's gonna be stretched out, just like everything you borrow. And I know it's you because sorry, but Lauren is a toothpick and eleven, so I know she's not borrowing my stuff."

"That's funny because she borrows my stuff all the time. And I couldn't possibly stretch them out. Your boobs are way bigger than mine if that's what you mean." Rory says, getting defenseless.

"That is not true."

"Yes, it is."

"Your boobs are totally bigger than mine!"

"You're crazy!"

"Do you want to measure?" Lorelai asks. "Go get the measuring tape right now."

"I am not going to measure my boobs!"

"Because you know that you are totally bigger." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm going inside." Rory says, grabbing her things.

"Fine! Don't measure. We'll just compare bras!"

"Stop it!" Rory yells as she stands up.

"I'll stop it when you quit stealing my stuff!"

"You're cracked!"

"You're bigger!" Lorelai yells as Rory goes inside.

Lorelai breathes out as she sits back down. She couldn't believe she just started a fight over boobs.

In the town, Sookie and Lorelai are walking.

"Your boobs are bigger than mine?" Lorelai asks. "I'm a mental case."

"So apologize." Sookie tells her.

"No, I was too mad and stupid to apologize last night, and she was gone before I got up this morning. What is wrong with me?"

"You're possessive over your sweaters."

"Then we both tried blaming it on Lauren. Sweet, pour innocent Lauren who wasn't even there. And it's not even about the sweater. It's about the golfing thing and liking it thing. She had fun, Sookie, just like my mother said she would."

"Yeah, that's gotta hurt."

"She should have fun. I mean, I want her to have a good relationship with her grandparents. They both should. Just because I don't doesn't mean they shouldn't, right?" Lorelai asks.

"Right."

"Right. So then why was I trying to get her out of Friday night dinner? What am I trying to do, undermine their relationship?"

"No, you weren't."

"I was."

"Yes, you were."

"Yes, I'm four years-old."

"You're jealous." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai laughs. "Oh, I'm not jealous."

"You are. You're jealous because they like Rory better than you. Could be why Lauren doesn't have a good relationship with them. I mean, she sees how you are with them. She's heard what they've done to you. She's eleven and just wants to make her mom happy by not liking them. And Rory is a teenager, who althought is a lot like you, she has a lot in common with them, too." Sookie explains.

"Yeah, but I left that life, you know, the club, my parents. I ran from it as soon as I could. It just never occured to me that Rory might want it. It occured to my mother though. I hate that she was right."

"You don't know that...Oh god!" Sookie starts to say, but her eyes focus on the strawberries across the street. She starts walking, nearly having a bike run into her, but instead she ignores it and the biker flies over his handlebars.

"Oh, geez. You okay!?" Lorelai asks, before chasing after Sookie.

"Look at you, you're beautiful." Sookie says, to the strawberries.

"I have to be more adult about this." Lorelai starts again. "I mean, if the country club life is what she wants, more power to her, right? You know, little white gloves and coming-out parties. That makes some girls happy, right?"

"Yeah, sure. If they are on prozac, absolutely."

"I just never thought that I raised that kind of kid, you know? I mean, I see it now. It's so Rory, and Lauren is far from it from what I can see. Do you think Lauren really is acting this way because of me?" Lorelai asks.

"It's a good possibilty. She loves you and she wants to make you happy, but I think she loves what her big sister wants, too, and I think it may be your parents."

"Unbelievable!" Jackson yells when he sees Sookie.

"Jackson!"

"So, this is what we've come to?" He asks, upset. "You sneaking around behind my back, buying somebody else's strawberries?"

"I was desperate!"

"You disgust me!"

"I needed the strawberries!"

"Well, now you have them! I hope you're happy together!" Jackson says, turning away and running off.

"Jackson, wait!" Sookie yells, running after him while Lorelai just looks on shaking her head.

At the wedding, Lorelai is watching from the porch of the Inn of everyone dancing and laughing and having a good time. When she turns around she sees Rory, sitting at the guestbook as people sign. She walks over to her and sits down.

"Hey, stranger." Lorelai says.

"Hey."

"Good turnout?" Lorelai asks, pointing at the book.

"Yeap."

"Do you want something to drink?"

"Lauren is getting me some. Are you trying to make up?" Rory asks.

"No. I was trying to hydrate you. I'm sorry." Lorelai says, sincerely.

"It's okay."

"A crazy, evil spirit obsessed with bra size took over my body. She's gone now."

"Good to know."

"You know, I'm glad you're bonding with your grandparents."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. It's just weird for me, is all. I just can't relate to it."

"You could have tried."

"No, we're too...too much has happened." Lorelai tells her. "I'm glad you are anyway. And I would love for Lauren to be. Remember when you two were really little and she would follow and do everything that you did. She'd read when you read, she'd sneak in coffee because you were doing it. She's still doing it." Lorelai laughs. "But I need you to be that person she starts following again. I want her to have a good relationship with my parents like you do because she is trying not to for me."

"That's going to be hard. Have you met your daughter? She's very stubborn."

"I know. And it's scary that she has my personality. I mean it's almost freaky, but you're like me, too, and I need her to see that nothing is wrong with it." Lorelai explains.

Rory nods her head. "Yeah. I'll see what I can do."

"I didn't mean to cut you off from them so completely, you know? It just happened. Not having them in my life just felt so right. I just never thought...I'm sorry." Lorelai apologizes again.

Lauren runs over to them and places a drink in front of Rory. "Why are you two just sitting here? The party is over there."

Lorelai smiles at her other daughter and pulls her on the other side of her to sit on her lap. "Are you serious? We are the party." She jokes making Lauren laugh.

They look over when they see a woman fussing at her daughter that is in a very pretty dress. "I did not pay $500 for this dress so you could run around and mess it up. Now you sit and be still. Cross your legs. You're a lady." The woman says.

"God, I must have had a million dresses like that." Lorelai tells them.

"It doesn't really scream 'you.'" Rory says.

"No. I did all the screaming."

"Thank you for not putting us in a dress like that."

"You're welcome." Lorelai says, smiling.

"Hey, wearing those dresses not all bad."

Lauren laughs. "How are they not bad?"

"They really fly up when you twirl around, and if you're wearing that ruffled underwear, big crowd pleaser."

"If it makes you feel better I think I got a fungus from the steam room." Rory tells her, making Lauren laugh even harder.

"It does. Thank you." Lorelai says, laughing, too.

Rory wraps her arms around her mom's arm and rest her head on her arm also as Lorelai gives her daughter a kiss on her head. Lauren wraps her arm around her mom's neck tighter leaning in as they watch everyone on the dance floor.

Friday night, the doorbell rings and Emily opens the door letting the girls in. Lorelai is holding a box.

"Oh, good, you're here." Emily says.

"Hey."

"Hi, Grandma." Rory says.

"My goodness. What's that?"

"We brought dessert." Lorelai tells her.

"Really? How thoughtful."

"Blueberry shortcake." Lauren tells her grandmother.

"I've never heard of blueberry shortcake."

"Yeah, it's a Stars Hollow specialty." Lorelai says, as Emily opens the box to see the cake.

"Why is it already cut?"

"It's left over from the wedding at the Inn."

"Yes, I know where the wedding was."

"Oh, sorry, you were just doing that staring thing."

"You brought us used dessert?" Emily asks.

"It's not used. It's left over."

"How nice. I'll just put it in the kitchen." Emily says. "Next to my half-empty box of cherries." She hands the box off to the maid. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Uh, white wine would be great."

"Coke." Lauren tells her.

"Same here." Rory says.

"So, Lorelai, did Rory tell you all about the wonderful time she had at the club?" Emily asks.

"She did."

"Your father was simply flying all week. She really charmed him." Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren all sit on the same couch.

"Oh, if anybody could it would be her." Lorelai states.

"In this age of M.T.V. and 100 television channels, who wouldn't imagined that a young girl could still get a thrill spending a simple afternoon with her grandfather?" Emily asks.

"White wine would be real good right now, Mom."

"You know about M.T.V., Grandma?" Lauren asks, impressed.

"Lauren, dear, I am not that old, and I do watch a little t.v. now and again. I hope you are not watching that trash."

"Nope, Grandma, I just watch it when Rory does." Lauren jokes making Lorelai and Rory laugh when Emily looks up rather disturbed.

"I don't watch M.T.V., Grandma. Lauren was joking." Rory tells her.

Emily shakes her head. "Just like your mother." She says, handing them their drinks before sitting down. "I think we should consider getting her a membership at the club, don't you?"

"If she wants. Sure." Lorelai says.

"I mean, to have a place to go where she could socialize. That's very important to a young girl."

"Well, now, especially that the crack den has closed down on the corner, all her really good friend are gone." Lorelai jokes. Emily just looks at Lorelai. "What do you think, Mom, should I pursue the career in comedy?"

"It's just very interesting the way thing turn out, isn't it?"

Lorelai just sighs not wanting to get into her mother yet this early in the dinner. Luckily, Richard walks in right on time. "Oh, you're here." He says.

"Lorelai."

"Dad."

"Rory, Lauren, I have a surprise for you both. Rory, not only did I find that copy of Mencken's Chrestomathy we discussed, I also found a first edition of his memoirs as well."

"You're kidding!"

"It's in my office if you'd like to see them."

"Oh, my gosh. I totally would." Rory says, getting up and walking to her grandfather's office.

"And Lauren, I have something that I think might really interest you."

"You do?" Lauren asks, confused as she looks at Lorelai, who is smiling at her, then back at Richard.

"Yes, come on. I can't wait to show you." Lauren jumps up and she and Richard walk away to his office.

"I'd like to take a look at those myself." Emily says, following them leaving Lorelai there with just herself and her drink.

_Thanks for the reviews everyone. They are just making me go even faster. Enjoy!:)_


	5. Tantrums & Funerals

In the town, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking towards the market to pick up some supplies for Rory.

"Shopping for school supplies. Party!" Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"Nobody demanded that you come." Rory tells her.

"I demanded because she has to buy the stuff." Lauren tells Rory.

"At least someone still needs me." Lorelai says, rubbing it in Rory's face.

"I could have bought the stuff for you, Lauren."

"Look often do we get to do things like this? I was thinking, while we are going crazy, we should get some toilet paper and a plunger." Lorelai jokes.

"Fine. I'll come back later after the two of you leave." Rory says.

"No. I'm teasing. Get your list out." Lorelai says.

"Okay." Rory says, taking her list out as Lorelai grabs a basket. "I need legal pads. Tons of pens. Some number 2 pencils, 3 highlighters, an eraser, a staple remover, and a folder." Rory reads.

"You need three highlighters?" Lorelai questions.

"Yes."

"3."

"That's a very random number."

"3 is not a random number."

"No, I mean how did you get to three?" Lorelai asks.

"One dries up, one gets lost, and I have one left." Rory explains.

"You've really thought this out."

"Yes, I have."

Lauren starts pulling out her list. "And I need four poster boards, two notebooks, a pack of pens, and some pencils." She reads.

Lorelai looks at Lauren with a confused look. "And why do you need four poster boards?" She asks.

"Umm, because I have this big project coming up, and if I mess up I'll have more to work with." Lauren explains.

"So, you play on messing up three times, but not the fourth?"

"Possibly."

Lorelai turns away from her kids. "Wow. My kids are weird." She says, under her breath.

"We heard that." Rory tells her.

They began walking down the aisle. "Oh, hey, legal pads."

"Nope, those are purple." Rory says, taking them out of her mom's hand.

"Yes. Purple is festive."

"I can't have purple."

"You can. They're on sale." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm going to a serious school now. I need serious paper." Rory explains.

"I'm not going to a serious school. Pink notebook paper it is." Lauren says, taking some notebooks.

"See, and they're on sell. Good daughter." Lorelai says to Rory as she points to Lauren. "Paper is paper."

"Not at Chilton."

"Alright, fine. Here's your serious paper." Lorelai says, taking the pads and putting it in her buggie.

"Thank you."

"Oh, and here are your somber highlighters, your maudlin pencils, your manic-depressive pens."

"Mom."

"Now, these erasers are on lithium so they may seem cheeful." Lorelai says, showing Rory the erasers. "But we actually caught them trying to shove themselves in the pencil sharpener."

"I'm going home now."

"No, wait! We're gonna stage an intervention with the neon post-its."

"Go with your favorite daughter." Rory tells her.

"But she wants too many things!" Lorelai whines.

Lauren walks up to them with her poster boards and many other things falling out her hand. "All done." She says, smiling, as Lorelai looks at her like she is completely nuts.

At Chilton, Rory is in her English class and her teacher is handing out their last papers.

"Decent efforst by most. Good effort by some. Exceptional effort by two. Ms. Gellar." He says, handing Paris her paper. "Ms. Grant. Mr. Graham. Ms. Gilmore, take these home. Learn from your mistakes." Rory looks down to find out that she made a D on her paper. "Look at the large red circle around various parts of your paper as friendly reminders that to err is human and that here at Chilton we try to beat that humanity right out of you. Okay. Next up, the test. The dreaded test. Shakespeare! The man we've been droning on about for the last three weeks finally comes back to haunt us on Friday. This is a big one, my friends. Multiple choice, with an essay section that will count for twenty percent of your grade this semester. Don't be fooled by my kind face and charming personality. This test will be hard, and there will be no make-ups." The bell rings. "Refer to the study material that I gave you at the beginning of the month, and those extensive notes I know you've been taking." The teacher finishes up as they students start gathering their things and leaving.

"Hard paper." Paris tells her friend.

"Killer."

"How did you do?"

"A."

"Me too!"

"Small world."

"Isn't it? Madeline, what did you get?" Paris ask, as her other friend walks over to them.

"You know I got a B." She tells them.

"A 'B' is not bad. It's respectable even."

"I'd be proud." the other friends says.

"A 'D,' however that would be cause for concern." Paris says.

"A cry for help."

"A job application at McDonald's. Hey, you know, not everybody can be smart." Paris says as they follow Rory out of class. "As my mother always says, 'somebody has to answer the phones."

"Okay, I have no idea what you two are talking about." Madeline tells them.

"No. But Rory does." Paris says, smiling at Rory as they walk away.

As Rory walks through the hallway still looking at her D paper, Tristen turns around. "Hey, Mary!"

"And it just keeps getting better."

"You look sad." He says, following her.

"I'm fine."

"Bad grade?" He asks.

"I have to go."

"You know what, Mary, I just can't figure out why we're not friends. I think it's because I make you nervous."

"I think it's because you can't learn my name!" Rory tells him. She was getting really annoyed with how her day has started and Tristen was not making it any better.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"None of your business."

"Is that a no?" He asks again.

"Is there no one else you can bother?" Rory asks.

"I think you like me." Tristen keeps on. "You just don't know how to say it."

"Oh, boy." Rory says, rolling her eyes.

"So, what are you doing Friday night?"

"I'm busy."

"What, you gotta be back at the convent by five?" He asks.

"Please leave me alone."

Tristen steps out from in front of her. "Alright. Since you said please."

Rory starts walking away as fast as she could.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks to the front desk and starts looking at the mail. She gasp when she sees a magazine. She quickly walks away and to the kitchen.

"Sookie. Sookie!"

"Okay, okay, just a minute." Sookie says.

"I've got it."

Sookie turns around and walks over to Lorelai. "The review?" She asks, nervously.

"It's here."

"Oh, where is it!?" Sookie says, looking at the magazine with Lorelai.

"I'm looking." They both look up when they see Rory coming in with a bunch of bags around her arms. "Oh. Behold, in theaters now, The Thing That Reads A Lot."

Rory throws down all her stuff. "Chocolate?" She asks.

Sookie points to the counter. "Glass measuring cup. Lorelai look!" She says, getting Lorelai's attention back to the magazine.

"I'm sorry."

Rory grabs some chocolate and walks over to the two women. "Geez, who's naked?" She asks.

"Uh, Lucien Mills, food critic." Lorelai tells her.

"Yeah? How's his butt?" Rory asks.

"No, no, he was supposed to review the restaurant. Oh, here it is."

"Is it..is it good? Is he..is he mean? Should I cry?" Sookie asks.

"Here we go. 'The words 'devine,' delectable,' and delirious' don't begin to describe the delicious experience of dining at the Independence Inn.' I'm smelling rave." Lorelai reads.

"Really?"

"'Only Chef Sookie St. James could make a simple salad of hothouse tomatoes and assorted fresh herbs seem like a religious experience. Her lobster bisque is worth every sinful, cream-filled, rich sip.'"

"See I don't use that much cream. I just use a very concentrated lobster stock. And it really makes it..."

"He's not here." Lorelai interrupts. "'The entrees are as heavenly as the starters, though the much lauded risotto was perfectly fine, it was the handkerchief pasta with brown sage in a butter sauce that sent me through the roof.' Sookie, this is unbelievable! I'm gonna have this framed for the dining room!"

"Oh, yeah, that would be swell. Can I see that again?" Sookie asks, non too thrilled.

"Yeah." Lorelai hands Sookie the magazine.

Lorelai walks over to Rory who is stuffing her face with chocolate. "We should celebrate tonight, huh? Girls on the town?"

"I can't. I have to study."

"You, know, I should really get started on the shopping list." Sookie tells them as she continues to look at the magazine.

Lorelai looks at them both with a confused face. "What is going on here?" She asks. "We are young and fiery women. Studying? Shopping lists? Where's 'to hell with it all?' Where's 'throwing caution to the wind?' Where...oh, shoot, the linen delivery." Lorelai remembers turning around and rushing out of the kitchen.

"You go, girl." Rory says.

That night at the Gilmore house. Lorelai is watching tv as Lauren reads a book on the side of her, and Rory is in the kitchen studying.

"The news is on!" Lorelai yells to Rory.

"One sec." Rory answers.

"For our top story tonight, a grisly, horrible thing happened in a small town where no grisly, horrible things ever happen. Everyone's shocked!" Lorelai rambles as she watches tv. Lauren looks up from her book and is staring at her mom, while Rory starts becoming agitated because she couldn't focus. "House slides down hill. Liposuction kills. Stay fat." Lorelai gets bored and turns off the tv. "Hey, lets get ice cream. I'm bored."

"We can tell." Lauren says.

Lorelai stands up and walks into the kitchen. She reaches over and hits Rory's books. "Hello." She says, trying to get her daughter's attention away from studying.

"Mom, I'm studying."

"Yeah, but I'm talking ice cream. Can't you take a break?" She asks.

"I can't take a break right now." Rory tells her.

"Okay. When?"

"Are you four?" Rory asks.

"No! I'm hungry."

"Have some more pizza."

"It's cold."

"Heat it up."

"It's not the same."

Lauren walks in and looks at her mom sternly. "Lorelai, go to your room!"

"Wow. Smart girls are mean!"

Lauren walks around the table and sits next to her sister. "If you let me study now, I'll play with you this weekend." Rory offers.

"Promise?"

"Yes. We can do anything you want." Rory tells her.

"Will you go to the shoe sale with me?"

"Yes."

"Will you let me try on anything I want?"

"Yes."

Lauren starts being nosey as her mom and sister talk. She always wondered what Rory's school from Chilton looked like and if it was completely different than her old stuff. It was. As she started slowly and quietly flipping through workpages in Rory's folder she find a test with a big red D on it. She quickly closes it and puts it back down before Rory noticed. She couldn't believe it. Rory had her first D and she was keeping it a secret. Now, she realized why Rory was becoming impatient with her mom and studying extra this week.

"Will you help me push other people away if they go for my size?" Lorelai continues on.

"I'll even un interference for you." Rory tells her.

"Alright, you got a deal." Lorelai says, reaching her hand over to grab Lauren's "Come on, my other daughter. Come keep Mommy company while your sister studies." Lauren grabs her moms hand and follows her.

Lorelai suddenly stops, causing Lauren to run into her. Lorelai looks back at Rory. "So, I'm sorry..where did we land on the whole ice cream issue?" Rory rolls her eyes and begins packing up her things before heading to her room. Lorelai gives her a weird look. "What?" She asks, as Rory closes her door.

"Come on, Mom. Lets go get ice cream." Lauren says, grabbing her mom's hand and pulling her away.

It was a Parent-Teacher conference at Chilton in Rory's English class. All the parents are sitting in the kids' desk as they listen to the teacher explain what will be on the big test.

"We are gonna be focusing on Elizabethan literature." Rory's English tells the parents. "Shakespeare, Marlows, Ben Jonson, John Webster."

"Yeah, is Marlowe really that significant?" One of the parents ask.

"Well, we want to give as complete an overview as possible."

"Yes, but will he be included on the advanced placement test?" Another asks.

"We can't know exactly what will be on the A.P. test, but it will be important for future studies when your kids hit their universities."

"But to get there they need to pass the a.p. test."

"Right, it's all important. It could all be on the test."

"How do we find out?"

"Well, you could bribe somebody on the a.p. committee." He jokes. Lorelai slowly opens the door. "I was kidding. Uh, just kidding."

All the parents turn towards the door when they hear it close. "I'm so sorry." She tells the teacher. "I had a terrible pothole incident. You don't care. So, please, go on." She says turning around but runs right into the globe. She grabs it before it can fall. "What in the world?" She jokes.

"You okay?" The teacher asks.

"Uh-huh. I'll just sit now." Lorelai tells him.

"I don't think we've met." He says, extending his hand.

"Oh, I'm, uh, Lorelai Gilmore. Rory's mom."

"Glad you could join us." He says, shaking her hand. "Rory's one of our new students."

"How nice. Now, the a.p. test." One of the parents say.

The teacher continues on about the test as Lorelai walks away and makes herself some coffee that is sitting in the corner. Lorelai raises her hand as she sits down.

"Miss. Gilmore?" He says.

"Where is the test?"

"It will be given here."

"Right."

"Any other questions?"

"Uh, yeah. Um, can the parents come?" Lorelai asks, and all the parents look at her like she's completely lost her mind.

"What?!" One of them says.

"Yeah, it's a big, exciting test. So, I just thought...I'm sorry. Is that stupid?" She asks.

The teacher laughs. "No, no, that's not stupid."

"I just thought I'd like to see the excitment."

"It's a test." Another parent tells her. "What's exciting about a test?"

"Do you play golf?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, I do."

"You explain yours. I'll explain mine." Lorelai tells him.

"Okay, why not get back to the meeting?" The teacher asks. "Actually, you know what? I think this would be a good time for a break. There's coffee in the back." All the parents start to stand up and walk towards the back of the room. But Lorelai walks towards the front and the teacher walks over to her.

She takes a sip of her coffee and looks at him ."It just keeps getting worse." She tells him.

"Well, you know, not drinking it is always an option."

"Not in my world."

"I'm Max Medina." He introduces himself.

"Nice to meet you." Lorelai says, smiling.

"I apologize for the behavior of some of our guest tonight." Max says. "It's a tense time for some people."

"The S.A.T. season?"

"The waking hours." Max jokes.

"Hey, are you this nice to my kids?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, it's easy. Rory's a sweet girl."

"Yeah, she is, she is. I have a sweet one and a firecracker." Lorelai jokes.

"Oh, so you have two daughters?" Max asks, suddenly very interested.

"Yeap. Rory and Lauren. Lauren's eleven."

"Nice." Max says

"How is Rory liking Chilton?"

"Oh, she loves it!" Lorelai tells him.

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, it's an adjustment, of course. But she's always wanted to go to Harvard. This is how she'll get there." Lorelai explains.

"Harvard?" Max asks.

"Yeah. Ever since she could crawl, I've really wanted her to go there."

"Oh, it's a great school."

"I actually bought her a Harvard sweatshirt when she was four. Of course, it was way too big for her. So she used it as a blanket for awhile, and then as a makeshift diaper on this really ill-fated shopping trip. And now I've told you a story that would so mortify her, she'll kill me when she finds out you know."

"Don't tell her then. It'll be our secret."

"Why, I appreciate that."

"So, are you a B-52's girl?" Max asks as he notices the shirt she is wearing under her blazer.

"What?" Lorelai asks, before looking and realizing what he is talking about. She starts laughing. "No, I'm a klutz girl who should not drive with coffee in her hand. I, um, had this in the car."

"You know, I hope Rory adjusts to this place. We need her here."

Lorelai smiles. "Thank you. That's so nice." She says, sincerely.

"I hope she's not too disappointed about her paper. It's very hard to catch on all that reading material. I know a 'D' seems pretty dismal..."

Lorelai looks at Max with a surprised expression. "Rory got a D?" She interrupts."She's never gotten a 'D.' Laurens never even gotten a 'D.'"

"It's the first paper she's had to turn in. She's bound to falter a little." Max explains.

"Oh, man, this totally explains the no ice cream thing. I'm such an idiot. Look, I gotta go."

"I'm sorry if I said something to offend you."

"Oh, no, no, no. If Rory got a 'D,' she's not feeling to good right now, and I'd really like to be there."

"I understand."

"So, it was nice meeting you."

"You, too."

Lorelai gives him a little wave before turning away and leaving.

At Luke's, Rory is sitting at a table doing some homework. Rory started erasing and rewriting what she put down before, but she was getting so frustrated that she throws her pencil down. Luke walks up to her and sets down a piece of pie.

"Pie?" She asks, Luke.

"You look like you needed pie." He tells her walking away.

Lauren looks in the window as she walks by and sees her sister. They were meeting their mom here, and she was glad to be the first to arrive. She wanted to talk to Rory about her paper. Lauren walks in and goes over and sits on the side of Rory. Rory looks up and smiles at her.

"Hey, how was school?" Rory asks.

Lauren shrugs. "It was okay."

"Did anyone say anything to you today?" Lauren shakes her head. "Good." Lauren just keeps looking at her sister which Rory notices and looks up. "This isn't awkward at all." She says, sarcastically.

"Rory, I know." Lauren says, quickly.

Rory eyes Lauren suspiciously. "What do you know?"

Lauren takes a deep breath. "I know about your paper. You had it on the table and I seen it. Are you okay?"

Rory sighs. "No, I'm not okay. Why are you looking through my stuff?"

"Why did you leave it on the table for anyone to see?" Lauren snaps back.

"Did Mom see?"

"No, she was too busy wanting ice cream. Is this why you have been acting crazy around the house?"

"I haven't been acting crazy."

"Yes, you have. I know getting a D really sucks, I mean, I've never even gotten a D. But you need to tell Mom so she can help you."

"What do you know? You're only eleven."

"I'm your sister and Lorelai's daughter. I know a lot." Lauren says, biting into Rory's pie.

The bell above the door rings, signaling someone just walked in. When Rory and Lauren look up they see their mom who walks right to Luke who is take an order.

"Hey, backwards baseball hat. New look for you." She tells him. She looks over and sees a piece of pie inbetween her daughters. "They're eating pie? Did they even have dinner?"

"You raised them. I just serve." Luke tells her.

Lorelai shakes her head and walks over to her daughters. "Hello, bookworm. Hello, mini me."

"Finally. Where were you?" Rory asks.

"Well, um, I was in Hartford."

"Why?"

"I was there for..." Lorelai points to Rory for her to finish.

"The parent teacher meeting." She says, finally remembering. "I forgot."

"It went very well. I was extremely charming. I won the whole crowd over. They made me Queen."

"So, I guess you talked to Mr. Medina." Rory says, nervously.

"Yeah, I'm just going to go over there." Lauren says, grabbing the pie and going to the counter.

"Mhm. Why did you let me whine about ice cream and shoe sales when you had something major going on?" Lorelai asks.

"I know."

"I hate when I'm an idiot and don't know it." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm sorry."

"You should have told me."

Rory looks down. "I couldn't." She says, sadly.

"You couldn't tell me? You tell me everything."

"It was too humiliating." Rory admits.

"Oh, honey, you once told me that you loved Save By The Bell. What could be more humiliating than that?"

"I couldn't form the words. I couldn't even say it. Lauren found me out and I still couldn't say it. It was a 'D.' I got a 'D.' I've never gotten a 'D' ever."

"I know."

"Even when I broke my arm and I couldn't write for a month, so I had to make Lauren do it in her messy little kid handwriting. I still got an A minus." Rory tells her.

"That was a different school." Lorelai says, honestly.

Rory nods her head. "I know. It was Stars Hollow High. A 'D' at Stars Hollow is like an 'F' at Chilton. It's worse. It's like a 'G' or a 'W.'"

"So, I'm guessing the spelling test didn't go well either?" Lorelai jokes.

"I suck."

"You don't suck."

"I can't do this."

"Listen, a 'D' is bad, okay? But this talk about "I suck," "I can't do this," and self-pity, that's worse. That's not you. You didn't feel sorry for yourself when it took you three months to learn how to ride a bike. And you won't now."

"Four months."

"Huh?"

"It took me four months to learn how to ride a bike."

"Really? Four months?" Lorelai asks her.

"Yeah. You wanna belabor the conversation?" Rory asks.

"Alright. Forget about the bike." Lorelai tells her. Listen, A 'D' is on grade. It's not the end of the world. You'll catch up, you'll do better. If there's one thing I gave you, it's my stubborness."

"I'm not stubborn."

"Yes, you are." Lorelai argues.

"No, I'm not."

"Fine. You're not." Lorelai says, fighting off a smile.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. You can do this, Rory, and I'll help you. I'll get you through this. Now put the 'D' behind you. What's next?"

"I have a test on Friday." Rory tells her. "On Shakespeare. It's twenty percent of my grade."

"What do we have to do to get you an 'A' on that test?"

Rory looks down nervously then back up at her mom. "Do you really think I can do this?" Rory asks her.

Lorelai smiles lovingly at her daughter. "I bet you $1."

Rory rolls her eyes. "That's it? That's all my future's worth, $1?"

"Well, you did get a 'D.'" They laugh.

Lorelai looks over when she hears Luke yell. Lauren is bending over across the counter to get the coffee that Luke just poured. "Hey, Lauren Elizabeth Gilmore, get your hands off that mug!" Lauren freezes mid air.

"Aw, come on, Luke!" Lauren begs.

Luke looks at Lorelai. "This is your fault!"

"How? I'm sitting over here." Lorelai says, smiling.

Luke rolls his eyes, taking the cup off the counter. Lauren pouts and puts her head down on the counter.

At the house, Lorelai and Lauren are sitting on the couch looking through Rory's notes as Rory paces back and forth answering their questions for the test.

"The comedy of errors: written?" Lorelai asks.

"1590."

"Published?"

"1698."

"Oh, 1623. Close."

"How is 1623 close?" Rory asks.

"You got the sixteen part right."

"I was off by 75 years."

Rory sits down in the chair. "Anything under 100 is close." Lorelai tells her.

"What kind of rule is that?"

"I'm running the study session here."

"Okay." Lauren says, interrupting them. "Richard III?"

"1591." Rory says. Lorelai makes a buzzing sound. "93?" She does it again. "96?" Lorelai makes it again, making Lauren laugh and Rory aggravated. "Okay, that's getting really annoying.

Hours later, Lauren is passed out on the couch when Lorelai walks back into the living room with two coffees. She hands one to Rory who is still sitting in the chair.

"Go on. I'm listening." She tells her.

"The sonnets are 154 poems of 14 lines."

"Except?"

"Except for 126, which is 12 lines."

Lorelai grabs a blanket and puts it over Lauren. "Good."

"They're written in Iambic Pentameter."

"Except?"

"Except for 145, which is tetrameter"

"Rock on, sister." Lorelai says, tiredly.

"Really?" Rory asks, happily.

"Not one mistake.

"Wow."

"How do you feel?"

"Nauseous." Rory says, sitting down next to her.

"Yeah, well, I don't think the fries and the horseradish sauce was the best idea we ever had."

"It was satisfying in the moment though."

"I think you're going to blow that class away tomorrow."

"You think?"

"I think."

"What do you say we call it a night and get some beauty sleep." Lorelai suggests.

"You go. I wanna review my notes one more time."

"Oh, that's okay. I'll stay up. I'm just going to go take this one to bed and I'll be back down here." Lorelai says, standing up.

"Mom, go to sleep." Rory says, walking to the kitchen.

"No. I'm not even tired." Lorelai says, pulling the blanket off of Lauren. She bends down and whispers something into Lauren's ear to wake her up. Lauren opens her eyes tiredly and looks up at her mom who is smiling. "Lets get you to bed." She tells her.

"Rory made an A?" Lauren asks.

"Oh yeah!" Lorelai tells her. "Biggest A she has ever made!"

"Good. That's good." Lauren says, standing up with the help of her mother. "Are we there?"

Lorelai smiles turning Lauren around and lifting her up in her arms. She was lucky Lauren was still small enough for her to do this. Most eleven year-olds were huge, but Lorelai got the lucky ones. Lauren rests her head tiredly on her mothers shoulder as they go upstairs.

It was the middle of night, when Lorelai woke up and realized she was laying in Lauren's bed. She takes Lauren's arm off her stomach, and kisses her daughter gently before getting up. As she downstairs, she peeks into the kitchen and sees Rory sleeping with her head on the table. Lorelai grabs a blanket from the couch and walks into the kitchen. She puts the blanket over herself then over Rory as she sits down. She looks around at all of the books before slowly and tiredly resting her head on the table as well.

It was morning, and as they light from outside made its way into the house, Rory lifts up her head and starts looking around.

"No!" She says, realizing that she was late for her test. "Oh, no!" She yells, running into her room.

"Oh, geez." Lorelai says, rubbing her neck. "This was such a bad sleeping idea." She says, to herself.

"I'm late!" Rory yells from inside her room.

Lorelai looks around. "What?"

"I'm late, I'm late! I woke up late!"

"Alright, calm down!"

"I missed my bus! Get up!"

"Sweetie, Mommy can't get up right now. Mommy's been sleeping at a right angle all night."

"I'm gonna miss the test." Rory says, running out in her uniforms trying to put her shoes on.

Lorelai quickly grabs Rory's books and starts packing them. "No, no, you're not. I'll get the keys. We'll go right now. Let's go! Let's go!" She says, jumping up with Rory's bookbag and grabbing her wallet before suddenly stopping and turning back around. "I can't take you!"

"You have to!"

"I have a meeting at the Inn at eight, and I have to get Lauren up for school!"

"Mom!"

"Okay, wait. Think. Listen. Here. You drive." She says, handing Rory her things, and her keys. "Take the keys and the phone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll walk! Go, go, go, go!"

"I'm gone!" Rory yells, running out.

"Good luck!" Lorelai yells.

At Chilton, Rory is running down the hall fixing herself appropriately. She runs into her classroom and everyone looks up at her.

"I'm sorry." She tells Max Medina.

Rory starts walking to her desk. "Miss. Gilmore, you are going to have to wait in the library."

"What about the test?"

"I'm afraid you've missed the test."

"No."

"We start class promptly at 8:05." He tells her.

"No! Please."

"I'm sorry."

"But you don't understand. I was up all night studying and then I missed my busy so I had to drive." Rory starts explaining.

"Let's discuss this outside."

"No! I am ready for thist test. I know everything about Shakespeare."

"Okay, okay, you need to calm down now."

"I know his birthday, his mother's name, and the kind of ink..."

"Loser." Paris whispers to Louise.

Rory quickly turns around. "And just what is wrong with you, huh!? You already have everything. You have the grades and the status. What the hell is wrong with you that you have this constant need to be the biggest jerk in the world?"

"Okay, lets go." Max says, grabbing Rory by the arm.

Rory turns back to Paris. "Huh!? What's up? What's up, Quippy? Why so silent?"

"Outside now!" Max tells her.

Rory starts following and sees Tristan. "And for the last time, the name is Rory!" She yells in his face before storming out of the classroom.

At the Inn, Michel is at the front desk when the phone rings. Lorelai walks from the back and to the front. "There is a man with a funny accent on the phone asking for you." He tells Lorelai, handing her the phone.

"Really? Did you guys exchange the secret handshake?" Lorelai asks him. Michel just looks at her. "Lorelai here."

At Chilton, Lorelai is walking down the hallway to the headmaster's office when she sees Rory sitting outside.

"Rory, what happened?" She asks, worried.

"I was late and they wouldn't let me take the test."

Lorelai gasp. "What!?"

She sits down next to Rory. "They wouldn't let me take the test." Rory repeats.

"No, you're kidding me."

"Mom..."

"No, it's okay. Just sit right here. I'll handle this." Lorelai says, standing up and storming into the office. When she walks in Max and the headmaster are drinking tea. "Excuse me. Hello." She says, closing the door behind her.

"Miss. Gilmore, please come in." Headmaster says.

"Thank you."

"Have a seat."

"Um, I think there's been a terrible mistake." She says, sitting down. "Uh, Rory told me that she wasn't allowed to take her test."

"She was late."

"Right. Well, see there were circumstances beyong her control. Rory is never late. She's almost annoyingly on time. I think if you checked your records..."

"Past performances has nothing to do with today's situation."

"Okay. But see, she was up all night studying. I was there. She has a witness."

"She's not trial here."

"Well, your honor." Lorelai chuckles. "Just a little trial humor. That won't happen again. Um, see, she got up late. She broke her neck to get here. We don't live locally as you..."

"The dog ate my homework." Headmaster quotes.

"Excuse me?"

"My computer crashed and I lost my midterm." He quotes again.

"I wasn't making excuses."

"My grandmother and first cousin died." Lorelai breathes out. She was getting rather annoyed with this whole thing. "My sister took my report to school instead of hers. My religion prohibits studying after sundown. I went blind last night but I'm fine now."

"That's not Rory." Lorelai says with a serious tone.

"Miss. Gilmore, rules are rules. When you're late, you forfeit the right to take the test." He says, standing up and walking towards the door to let Lorelai out.

Lorelai quickly stands up. "Wh-where are you going?" She asks. "Where is he going?" She asks, Max.

"Lorelai, please, believe me, if I could do anything, I would." He tells her.

"Yes, you could let her take the test."

"I'm afraid I can't."

"Well, that's not fair." She says, turning towards the headmaster.

"Miss. Gilmore, we're not here to be fairl. We're here to educate."

"Yes, and I'm asking you to please educate my kid."

"We will when she's on time. Have a nice day." He says, holding the door open.

"Are you holding that door open for a reason?" Lorelai asks, with a disgusted look on her face.

"My meeting is over."

"Like hell it is."

"Lorelai." Max says, trying to stop her.

"Do you have any idea what we have gone through this week?" Lorelai asks them. "We have been up all night every night, studying. We haven't slept. We haven't talked about anything else except this school and this test for seven days. We have stretched ourselves as thin as humanly possible without going completely postal. My god! We're just one person!"

"Why don't we narrow our field of conversation down to Rory?" He asks.

"Okay. Deal. Why don't we? You sit here in your snotty little school that's in desperate need of some extra heating vents, and you nurture horrible kids who treat eachother like mortal enemies. You set impossible standards that make normal people feel less than everybody else. You take a great kid like Rory and you tear her apart!"

"I don't think that's completely fair." Max finally chimes in.

Lorelai quickly turns around to face him. "And you! You say she's smart and she'll do fine. And this rotting stodgy rathole could use somebody like her, and then you completely shut her out of a test she's been cramming for, ready for, that she completely deserves to take!"

"I didn't call this place a rathole." Max tells the headmaster.

"Oh, no. That's true. I added that. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble with 'Il Duce' here. I thought this place was going to be great. And now I guess this goes on the 'Boy, was I wrong, list right above gauchos but just below the flashdance phase."

"My goodness, you do like to throw fits in your family." Headmaster says.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your daughter threw a similar fit this morning." He tells her.

"Oh, please. Rory doesn't throw fits. She's the most even-temepered person I know. Lauren is the one who throws fits."

"Well, then, she did a lovely impression of you."

"Well, I don't..."

"Miss. Gilmore, everything you said in your rant was absolutely true without colorful embellishments, of course. We do set impossible standards and such standards do foster highly competetive children. However, that is life, and that is Chilton."

"Rules can change." Lorelai tells him. "You can change them."

"I told your daughter when she came here that this place was not for everyone and it might not be for her. I will now tell you the same thing."

"Okay!"

"She doesn't have to be here. She doesn't have to go to Harvard. Maybe she shouldn't. If she can't handle the pressure, she should leave. You need to take your daughter home now and decide what it is you intend to do. However, another outburst like this from either of you will not be on the options list. Thank you for coming in." Headmaster says, stepping aside signaling for Lorelai to leave now.

On the way home, Rory was just sitting quietly looking out of the window. Lorelai looks over at her.

"I had nice little chat with Headmaster Charleston. He said you went ballistic in class."

"I was just tired."

"You wouldn't have been so tired if you hadn't been killing yourself all week." Lorelai tells her.

"I was studying. I didn't have a choice."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be studying that hard."

Rory looks at her confused. "What are you talking about?"

"You're fifteen. You should get some sleep and eat a real meal, and come up for air once in awhile."

"They kicked me out." Rory says with a scared look on her face.

"No. Of course not. They love you. This is coming from me."

"Are you saying I should quit?" Rory asks.

"I'm saying, if you wanted to go back to your other school with Lane that would be fine with me."

"You don't think I can do it!"

"You know that's not true. I think you can do anything. But you don't lose it in class. That's not part of the Rory personality description and if you're losing it in class because you're tired, or stressed out, or working too hard, I'm worried about that. I have to be."

"I lost it once."

"Okay. Fine. It's just I can't remember, you know, a time when we weren'ttalking about you going to Harvard. It was just a given. That was what were working for. Everything went in that direction." Lorelai explains.

"I know."

"And I'm forgetting where that all started."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about did it start with me or did it start with you? I mean, was it my dream that you went to Harvard?"

"Mom." Rory says, shaking her head. She didn't want her mom to blame herself.

"Because I never got to do the big, fancy college thing. Maybe all this time I'm thinking it's all for Rory when really it wasn't. I don't want you and Lauren to do something because I want you to do it. I want you both to do it because you want to do it."

"I'm not doing this because of you."

"But if you are you don't have to."

"I know that."

"I'll still love you even if you can't support me in my old age in the fabulous manner to which I plan on growing accustomed."

Rory laughs. "I'll remember that selfless gesture. Thank you."

"I just want my kids to be happy."

"We are."

"No, I want you to be dancing through the woods crazy happy. And if Harvard and Chilton is not gonna do that for you, then forget about them."

"I was just behind. I never caught up on all the reading. That's why I got a 'D.' I can catch up. I will catch up. And when I do everything will be fine."

"Rory."

"No. Harvard is my dream. I want it more than anything. I swear."

"Yeah, but.."

"I appreciate all that you're saying. I do. But I'm not ready to give up on Chilton yet." Rory tells her.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter. "Fair enough."

"I do, however, reserve the right to change my mind."

"That's your prerogative, as long as you remain a woman." Lorelai jokes.

"Thanks though."

"For what?"

"For yelling at the Headmaster the way you did."

"Oh. I didn't yell at him."

"You called him 'Il Duce.'" Rory reminds her.

"Okay!" Lorelai laughs, stopping her. "Lets just go pick up your sister so that you can tell her about my rant and yours. Happy?"

"Yes." Rory says, smiling.

At the house, Rory and Lauren go into their rooms as Lorelai walks into the living room pressing the answering machine in the process.

'It's us. We're not here. We have a life. Get over it.' The answering machine starts.

"Hi, this is a message for Rory." Max's voice says on the other end. "It's Max Medina calling. I just wanted to say that I talked to Headmaster Charleston or 'Il Duce,'" Lorelai starts laughing. "as he's more affectionately known in the Gilmore household, and he's agreed to let you do some extra credit work to help make up for the missed test today. Now I'm not sure what the extra credit work is yet, but it probably will be time-consuming and extremely painful. It will, however, get you back up to where I think your rightly belong, Rory. Don't lose heart. Make this work. And if your mother's listening, Lorelai, it was pleasure encountering you. I hope it happens again. Anyway, see you in class. Bye." Max hangs up.

Lorelai just sits back smiling.


	6. Tantrums & Funerals 2

So, it was time for their Friday night dinner at the grandparents house. Rory was finally finishing up her make-up work she had to do to recover from her test that she missed. Lauren thought it was absolutely hilarious that her sister when ballistic in class and she was still making fun of her for to this day. They were both surviving school, sort of, now they had to survive another Friday night dinner.

"So, where did you say Dad was?" Lorelai asks Emily.

"Away on business." Emily answers, as she takes another bite of her food.

"Location's top-secret?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, Germany."

"Germany. Is Dad's firm insuring Nazi's now?"

"Your father doesn't know any Nazis." Emily tells her.

"I know, Mom. I was just..." Lorelai stops and shakes her head deciding it wasn't worth finishing.

"What?"

"Joking." Lauren tells her. "She was joking."

"Oh, hard to tell."

"Yeah, well." Lorelai says.

"Oh, I'm afraid I have some bad news." Emily tells Lorelai. "Claudia died."

"Who?" Lorelai asks.

"Claudia, your cousin, Claudia." Lorelai just stares at her with a blank face. "Claudia!" Emily repeats.

"I'm hearing the name, Mom. I have no idea who that is."

"Claudia's your cousin, for all intents and purposes."

"Aw, now we are getting to it." Lorelai says, smiling.

"She was your father's grandmother's sister's girl." Emily explains. "So, to you, that would make her..."

"Nothing?"

"Regardless. The funeral's on Thursday. I thought we'd all go together." Emily tells them.

"Whoa. Two problems: one, impossible to get away from the Inn on Thursday. Two, I've never met this woman."

"You most certainly have."

"When?"

"Several times."

"I'll take one."

"We went to her house in Groten to see the first moon landing. She'd just gotten a new Philco."

"I have no memory of this whatsover." Lorelai tells her.

"Rory, correct me if I'm wrong, but mean have walked on the moon regardless of whether your mother remember if or not." Emily asks her.

"That's the rumor." Rory says.

"I know that mean have walked on the moon." Lorelai says. "I just don't know Claudia."

"So you're not going?" Emily asks.

"Not this time."

"I don't think Claudia's planning to die a second time."

Lauren and Rory start laughing. "Mom, I couldn't go if I wanted to."

"Fine."

"Oh, wait, Rudolph Gottfried."

"Another cousin?" Lorelai asks.

"No, a Nazi that we knew. I'd forgotten." Emily tells her. "We stayed with him once in Munich."

Lorelai's mouth opens in shock. "Mom, you socialized with a known Nazi!? That's despicable. That's henious."

"No, dear, that was a joke." Emily says, making Lauren and Rory laugh once again causing Lorelai to look at them making them both look down at their plate.

At the house, Lorelai is sitting in the kitchen watching waiting for her girls to finish getting ready. Rory walks out of her room that is blaring music.

"I have an idea for a new reality show." Lorelai tells her. "How about everyone just looks out of their freaking kitchen window for a change?"

Rory begins to make herself some breakfast. "Ooh, she's cranky this morning."

"Let's just say the world's got a formidable opponent. Lauren, come eat something!" Lorelai yells as she turns the tv off.

"Wait. Shouldn't you be baking?" Rory asks her as she quickly turns around remembering something.

"I don't know. Shouldn't you be knitting?" Lorelai asks her.

"Mom, the Chilton bake sale is today." Rory tells her.

"I know. I got it covered." Lorelai says, getting up and grabbing some pop-tarts out of the cabinet.

"They expect the things to be homemade..."

"I know."

"...by someone other than Dolly Madison."

Lorelai puts the pop-tarts in the toaster. "I said I have it covered."

"All of the parents pitch in, so this is really, really important. You know that, right?" Rory asks her.

"Oh, I didn't know that." Lorelai says, sarcastically taking the pop-tart out of the toaster. "In that case, I don't have it covered. I have it covered!" Lauren runs into the kitchen and happily takes the pop-tarts from her mom. "Get your stuff, hit the stereo. We're late." She tells Rory.

"That's not me." Rory says, walking to her room. Rory opens her door and Lorelai and Lauren look in to see Lane dancing to the music.

"Where does your mom think you are!?" Lorelai asks.

Lane turns the music off. "Oh, uh, on park bench, contemplating the reunification of the two Koreas."

"Not here, skanking to rancid?"

"Wouldn't be included."

"School." Lorelai says, smiling at each of the kids.

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk out of the house with Lane running passed them. "Bye!"

"Bye."

Babette and Morey are walking across to their house as they pull their cat Cinnamon in a wagon behind them. "Wow, Cinnamon, riding in style." Lauren says.

"Yeah, Morey made it." Babette tells them. "Cinnamon's not walking good these days, but she still likes her passaggiatas." Lauren runs over and starts petting Cinnamon. "That's Italian for 'a nice walk.'"

"Passaggiatas." Morey says.

"Oh, god, he makes it sound so sexy." Babette says, making the girls laugh.

"What's that?" Lorelai asks as she looks at the wagon pointing to the back that is covered.

"That's Cinnamon's private area. Sometimes he likes to be alone." Babette explains. "She's just like Morey in that sense. Hey, say passaggiatas again."

"I can't do it on command, Babs." Morey says, walking away.

"Aw, he's blushing!" Babette says, following him.

"Okay, our town is just weird." Rory says, as they all three stare.

"Thank God." Lorelai says.

"Bye."

"Bye.

"I'll see you later at school." Rory says, kissing her mom and then her sister.

"For what?"

"Mom, that bake sale!"

"Ahh, I got the vein in the forehead. Whoo!" Lorelai laughs.

"Sadist." Rory says, not amused as she begins to walk away.

"Do you enjoy torturing us?" Lauren asks, looking up at her mom.

"I wouldn't be a mom if I didn't." Lorelai says, smiling down. "Alright, lets get you to school."

At the bus stop, Rory is sitting on the bench reading when Dean sees her across the street. He smiles as the bus pulls up and Rory gets on it. He walks over and starts boarding the bus as well sitting behind Rory.

"Hey."

Rory yells, then starts laughing at herself. "Morning."

"Good book?" He asks.

"I don't know yet."

"I saw you standing in line, so I thought I'd say hello. Hello."

"Hello." Rory says, staring straight ahead.

"Oh, hey, uh, thanks for helping me get the job at the store. I mean, it's not a career or anything, but it's got me solvent." Dean tells her.

"Solvent is good."

Dean starts chuckling. "Uh, yeah. Are you always this serious?" He asks.

"No."

"So, uh, how long dow it take you to get to school?"

"Um, forty minutes if the bus driver's focused, but longer if he's trying to win something on the radio." Rory tells him. "Hey, this bus is going to Hartford!"

"Yeah, I know."

"But you go to school here. You have to get off the bus." Rory tells him, freaking out. "Hey, he has to get off the bus."

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Uh, you're forgetting something. Buses make stops." He whispers, just as the bus stops. Rory looks down really embarrassed at what she just did, but Dean wasn't phased by it. "Goodbye, Lorelai Gilmore." He smiles before getting out of the bus.

At Chilton, during the bake sale, Sookie is spreading out all that she made.

"Okay, we have our French fantasies, American treats, and our Italian taste sensations." She says, as Lorelai and Rory stand there with smiles on their faces. "Well, what do you think?"

"Amazing!" Rory tells her.

"Ah, incrediable." Lorelai adds in.

"It is good, isn't it? Well, final touch." Sookie says, walking back to the table. She grabs the small torch.

"Oh, can I do that?" Rory asks.

"Oh, well, honey, this is a more delicate procedure than you might think, okay?" Sookie says. "It takes an expert hand." Sookie turns it on and goes towards the front of the table. Without noticing she ends up putting the side of the table on fire.

"Uh, oh!" Lorelai notices and grabs a glass of lemonade from the other table right beside them and throwing it onto the fire. She people from the lemonade stand look at her not too pleased. "Hi. Oh, geez, what is that? A dollar?" She asks. Lorelai starts rummaging through her pocket for a dollar. "Oh, I'll take two." Lorelai takes a sip of her second one. "Mmm, tasty and flame-retardant." She laughs, walking away.

As she walks back to her table, Max Medina walks up. "Very Henry VIII." He jokes.

"Well, we're not into subtle." She tells him.

"Good to see you, Lorelai."

"Oh, good to see you, Mr. Medina."

"Max."

"Mr. Medina."

"Max."

"Mr. Medina, meet Sookie the chef at the Inn." Lorelai says. "Sookie, Mr. Medina."

"What's the name again?" Sookie asks, jokingly.

"Mr. Medina."

"I know, you've said it a zillion times. Hello."

"Hello." Max says. "Lorelai, can I borrow you for a second?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Uh, hey, I'll be right back." Lorelai tells Sookie, taking the torch away from her. "Trust me." She tells Max.

They begin walking away. "You know, Lorelai, I would love for the ice to thaw."

"There's no ice."

"Well, you repeated my full name four times. That's ice." Max tells her.

"Well, that's not ice. It's wintry."

"I was doing my job." Max reminds her. "When I didn't let Rory take that test. I didn't like it, but I had to do it."

"I know."

"And I'd do it again."

"Okay."

"But I really do think Rory's a great kid and I'll do my damndest to make sure she gets through Chilton in one piece."

"I appreciate that."

"And I'd like us to be friends."

"We are. Me too."

"Yeah?" Max asks kinda surprised.

"Yeah. Really I swear there's no more ice. We're walking in a pool of tepid water."

"Good."

"Good."

Max grabs Lorelai's arm to make her stop and look at him. "I'm going to propose something here. I'm not sure how you're going to take it."

"Oh, wow, intrigue."

"I'd like to see you sometime. Away from the ivy, away from the gargoyles, away from here." Max explains.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"Mm. Well, uh, I don't want to go out on a limb here, but I'm guessing if the headmaster won't let a kid be thirty second late for a test, he'd probably frown on a teacher dating a mom."

"I do my job well, I'm dedicated to my students and there's nothing in the Chilton book of ethics that prohibits it."

"Yeah, but I'm guessing it's sort of an unwritten rule."

"Do you wanna go?" He asks.

"And Rory would probably freak at the thought."

"Do you wanna go?"

"The other parents would have a field day with this kind of thing."

"Do you want to go?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"Wait."

"What?"

"No."

"Why?"

"It's wrong. It's weird."

"I'll pay."

"You're on."

"Really?"

"I'm kidding. I don't know. You're Rory's teacher. And I have two daughters."

"I know."

Lorelai sighs. "Could you quit?" Max gives her a look. "Right, that's crazy. I'm sorry."

"Okay, um, how about coffee?" He asks. "You like coffee?"

"Only with my oxygen."

"Can we drink some together? A sort of pre-date. Very casual, no strings, no obligations. We'll just see if it's even worth going down the road of including food in the deal." Lorelai's mind was going all sorts of which ways as she was trying to think. "Just coffee." He says, as Lorelai looks up at him and gives him a small grin. "Decaf? There's nothing safer than decaf."

Lorelai takes a deep breath. "I'm gonna be in town tomorrow because I take a class at Hartford State, and there's a coffee shop across the street that I sometimes, almost all the time, go to around four and usually exactly 4:12. I could not stop a person from entering said establishment around that time, nor would I avoid them if I knew them, if they did."

"You know the wordsmith thing, that's something we have in common."

"So, see you around, Max."

"Indeed, you will." Lorelai just smiles at him and walks away as he watches her.

The next day, just as Lorelai said, she walks into the coffee shop and sits at the counter. Max is sitting there also, she she purposely skips a chair and sits on the one beside it.

"Lorelai?" Max says, acting surprised to see her.

Lorelai looks at Max the same way. "Max. Hi."

"Small world, huh?"

"Absolutely. What are you drinking?" Lorelai asks him.

"Coffee."

"Plain coffee?"

"Well, I wanted some cream, but that prompted a very elaborate foam conversation. The look of disapproval I got when I said I didn't want foam, just cream rivaled the one I got from my dad when I told him I wanted to be a teacher."

"Wow. So it's been a tough outing for you, huh?" Lorelai jokes.

"Well, it's getting better."

"What can I get you?" The waitress asks.

"Coffee please."

"So, here we are." Max starts.

"Here, we most certaintly are."

"Running into each other."

"Away from school."

"And it's unique structures."

"These things do happen."

"Fate can be funny."

Lorelai laughs. "Should be cut the cute and just get right to it?" She asks.

"I think we should date." Max tells her.

"Why?"

"Because I think we both want to."

"I want to be in the Bangles, but it doesn't mean I quit my job and get a guitar and ruin my life to be a Bangle. Does it?"

"The Bangles broke up." Max tells her.

"Yeah, that's not the point."

"Well, it's got to be part of the point if there's no band anymore."

"I repeat my question. Why should we date?"

"Because we are clearly attracted to eachother."

"Well, I'm attracted to pie. It doesn't mean I feel the need to date pie."

"Okay, then, because we are of similar heights."

"Wow. Round one and already tapped."

"Hey, look, I know that you are concerned about the appearance of us dating." Max says.

"Yes, I am." Lorelai confirms.

"Well, I can tell you that I'm the soul of discretion when it comes to delicate relationships."

"Dated a lot of Chilton Moms, huh?"

"No, I meant any relationship, work, family."

"So, you have things to hide in all aspects of your life. Very interesting."

Max sighs and looks at the waitress. "Do you have any hemlock back there? Arsenic, something quick?" He asks her.

"Do you like rap music?" Lorelai asks, randomly.

"Yeah."

"Me, too."

"Italian food?"

"Yeah."

"Me, too. You just telling me what I want to hear?"

"Yeah."

"I knew it!"

"Well, it doesn't mean it doesn't coincide with how I really feel."

"Yeah, but if you're telling me what I want to hear then I'm not getting to know you." Lorelai explains.

"If I know what you want to hear, it shows a level of understanding on my part that far exceeds your understanding of me. Who's the one lagging?" He asks, as Lorelai tries to think of something to say. "Wow. Round one and already tapped."

"Hmm. My daughters are my life. They are my everything. My best friends. And I would never ever do anything that would hurt them." She says, as a guy sits in the middle of them.

"But your kids aren't babies anymore."

"Ugh. Don't say that. Rory's eight, and Lauren's still three!"

"Well, you could try stunting their growth and keeping them in a box, blowing cigarette smoke on them." The man looks down at Max. "You are so taking this out of context." Max tells him, making Lorelai laugh. The man gets up and leaves and Max takes his spot. "Okay. When my Uncle was a young man, there was this girl who lived across the street from him, and he was completely in love with her. But he never talked to her. And he knew in his guy that this was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with."

"This is gonna be sad, isn't it?" Lorelai asks.

"No, let me finish."

"Oh, it's gonna be sad."

"So, anyhow, my uncle watches this girl waitiing for the right moment to approach her. Next thing he knows, he gets drafted."

"I'm going for the kleenex." Lorelai says.

"No, no, now he thinks this is perfect. I'll come back. I'll have a career, I'll have served my country. I'll be worthy of her love. When he gets back, she's gone. Moved away. No one knew where. And he never say that girl again. Now, my uncle, he didn't say much to me. But the one thing that he did say was that if there's something in your gut that you know you feel is right, you got to go after it, no matter what. What do you say?" Max asks her.

Lorelai sits there looking at Max before exhaling and digging in her purse. "Maybe dinner wouldn't be such a bad idea." She says, taking out a pen and some paper.

"Oh, dinner? You mean we could sit together and even drive together?"

"Just take this." She says, sliding it over to him.

"I might frame this piece of paper."

"Just use it."

"I definitely will." Max gets up.

"Hey." Lorelai calls.

"What?"

"That story about your uncle, is that true?" She asks.

Max sighs. "Goodbye, Lorelai Gilmore."

At the Diner, Lorelai and Sookie are sitting at the counter when Luke brings them over their burgers.

"Life is a funny, funny thing, huh?" Lorelai asks her.

Sookie starts laughing. "Yeah, I love that Jim Carrey."

"What?" Lorelai asks her confused.

"Jim Carrey. He's just funny."

Lorelai nods. "He is funny. But I don't mean funny, funny. I'm being philosophical."

"Oh. Very serious face. Jean Paul Sartre."

"Uh, I can't talk to you with that face." Lorelai tells her .

"How do you guys get any work done?" Luke asks them.

"So, why is life such a funny thing?"

Lorelai sighs. "I met this amazing guy."

"Goody!"

"Yeah, there's goody stuff about it, but there's baddy stuff, too. He's a teacher at Chilton. You met him. Max."

"Oh, he looked good."

"I know, right. He's so sexy and smart, and funny, and he likes coffee."

"He sounds perfect for you."

"I'm just so mixed up though. You know this is real crossroads kind of situation. It's like to perm or not to perm. I'm really confused." Lorelai explains. "I just want to do the right thing."

"I'm not sure I see what the problem is." Sookie tells her.

"Oh, there are many problems. First: I do not like to involve my kids in my personal life. I don't want them to have to deal with that. You know, I might bring some guy home and he might not be the guy, but then they get attached to him, and then all of a sudden I decide that I don't like the way he eats, or hums incessantly..."

"Or the way he smack his lips." Sookie adds in.

"Yeah, and then I break up with him, and then Rory and Lauren are the ones who get hurt."

"I totally understand."

"Plus, this guy is Rory's teacher. There's no way to keep him out of her life. She sees him every day."

"You do know that Rory's not a baby anymore, neither is Lauren."

"I know. That's what he said. Maybe I'm being too serious, right?" She asks. "Maybe I should loosen the rules a bit. Plus, it would be great to get, you know."

"What?"

"You know."

"No, I don't."

"You know. He knows." Lorelai says, pointing to the guy next to them.

"You know?" Sookie asks him.

"Yeah, I know." He tells her.

"Alright, I'm just going to keep it simple. I'll tell them and if there's even an ounce of weirdness about it, I'll cancel."

"You haven't told Rory and Lauren yet?"

"No."

"Oops."

"No, not oops. The timing hasn't been right. This is a very delicate, fragile situation." The door opens and Rory hurries to her mom.

"Mom, you better come." She tells her.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"It's Cinnamon."

At Babette's, Babette, Morey, and Lauren, who is sitting on the floor, are both looking at the floor where the animal doctor put the cover over Cinnamon. Lorelai and Rory walk in quickly.

"Babette, honey?" Lorelai says.

"Oh, Lorelai, come in, come in. She's gone." Babette tells her when she gets closer. "Cinnamon's gone."

"I'm so sorry."

"Is there anything I can do for you, Morey?" Rory asks, as she sits next to him.

"This is life, Rory. It breaks your heart." He tells her.

"She looked like she was sleeping when I came over to visit her." Lauren starts explaining as she continues to look at Cinnamon. "I thought she was asleep, so I nudged her and she didn't wake up."

"And Lauren called me over so I gave Cinnamon a push and she rolled off the couch, and since I'd just waxed the floor, she went shooting across the room. And then she knocked over the lamp, and she still didn't movie. I knew it was over. Oh, god, my baby." Lauren gets up and Lorelai puts her arms around Lauren as Lauren holds her mom around the waist.

"Please tell me it wasn't the..." Morey starts.

"Oh, Morey, don't do this to yourself." Babette says. "He thinks it was the clams."

"She saw me eating them, and she gave me that, hey man, what's up look, and..."

"It was the clams." The doctor tells them. "Morey, in human years, this cat was 260 years old."

"That's a good long life." Lorelai tells them.

"Listen, why don't you let me take her out to the van?" The doctor asks. "And then I'll get out of your way."

"Oh, no. Stay. All of you, please stay." Babette tells them. "Cinnamon would want you here."

"We'll stay as long as you want." Rory tells her.

Later that day, everyone from the town was gathered into Babette's small house mourning the death of poor Cinnamon.

"They said that they rolled her body into a lamp." Lane says, as she and Rory walk through the house. Rory nods her head. "Did you laugh?" Rory shakes her head. "Did you want to?" Rory nods her head again.

"But it's sad. And Lauren was here when it happened so she's kinda tramatized by the whole thing." Rory explains.

"Yeah, I heard she was the first one to try to wake her up."

"Yeah. She loves animals, so I think maybe this might have ruined it for her."

Lauren walks up to Babette and Morey. "I'm so sorry about Cinnamon."

"Aw, honey, I'm just glad that you were here to be with Cinnamon. She might have taken her last breath with you." Babette tells her.

"Yeah, that's not too comforting." Lauren says. Rory grabs her sisters hand and makes her walk around with Lane and herself.

Outside, Luke and Sookie meet up with food both in their hands.

"Oh, Luke." Sookie says, not happy at all.

"Sookie."

"What you got in the bag?"

"Bricks."

"Yeah, good one." She says, as they both climb the steps.

"Oh, bless you both!" Lorelai says, as she runs up to them from behind. "Everyone's starved. Come in." She rushes passed them. Luke and Sookie both follow her, but end up trying to go in at the same time and hitting eachother. They go at it again just as Sookie runs in first. "Okay, how should we do this? Lorelai asks.

"Well, we'll create a flow through the room to avoid bottlenecks. People coming in the front door, they're gonna want a beverage. Put them on the first table, then the smaller hors d'oeuvres next to that, leaving one hand free to greet the people. Then, back there, set up plates and cutlery. First the salads, then the meat, then the desserts on the piano bench. How's that sound?" Sookie asks, as Luke passed through her and drops the bags he is carrying onto the table.

"Dig in!" He yells.

There's knocking on the door as Lauren passes by. She walks over to it and opens it.

"Dean." She says, smirking.

Dean looks at her confused. "Do I know you?" He asks, walking in with cases of drinks.

"I'm Lauren. Rory's sister. I've heard about you." Dean looks confused. "Not that Rory talks about you. I was just following you two one day when you were talking because Rory was suppose to pick me up from school but instead she was with you."

"Sorry."

"No, it's okay. She goes to another school now, so I walk by myself. It's all good. You're really really tall. You don't look so tall from far away." Rory walks by and sees her sister standing there talking to Dean. Dean was just staring down at Lauren looking a little confused. Rory rushes over to Lauren and quickly covers her sister's mouth with her hand.

"Hey, Dean."

"Oh, hey."

"Sorry, about her. She tends to ramble when something bad has happened. Go find Mom." Rory tells her sister, sternly.

Lauren looks up at Rory with a mean look before walking away. "She's cute."

"She tries. Come on in." Dean smiles walking passed her as Lorelai walks over to her daughter.

"Do you know him?"

"No."

"No?"

"Well, he goes to my old school, so I see him there sometimes, but uh, I go to Chilton now."

"Thanks for the update. Where's your sister?"

"I told her to go find you."

"Okay. I'm going to go find her then." Lorelai says, looking at Rory with a strange look as she walks away.

Dean walks back up to Rory. "Hey, uh, do you have a second?"

"No, I have gum." Rory tells him, nervously.

"No, thanks...UH, look.."

"I have to get back." Rory says, opening the door for Dean to leave.

"Oh, okay, well see you later." Dean says, leaving.

Rory walks out the door not believing how embarrassing she was just now. Why couldn't she just talk normally she asked herself. Rory looks up and looks confused when she sees her English teacher, Max Medina walking up to her front door. "Mom?" Rory calls out just as Lorelai was passing by.

"I cannot find your sister anywhere." Lorelai says, going over to Rory.

"Isn't that.." Rory points to their house.

Lorelai looks up. "Oh, no!"

"That's Mr. Medina." Rory tells her.

"Tonight's Thursday." Lorelai says, remembering.

"Well, am I in trouble?" Rory asks. "Did the school call or something?"

"No, no. You're great. It's just, um.." Lorelai laughs nervously. "Let me just come back in just one second." Lorelai starts to walk away but Rory grabs her arm.

"Wait. what's going on?" She asks again.

"Let me tell you in a minute."

"Tell me now."

"Max is here, uh.."

"Max?"

"..is here to pick me up." Lorelai tells her.

"Pick you up for..." Rory thinks a little bit before realizing. "Oh."

"I'm gonna talk to him real quick, and I'm gonna be right back." Lorelai tells her before walking next door.

"Hey!" Lorelai says, running up her steps.

Max turns around, surprised. "Oh, hi. I was knocking, but no one answered."

"I know. I was at the neighbors house. Um, Max, I should have called you sooner, but..."

"You're canceling." He says.

"I know it's totally last-minute."

"I'm heartbroken."

"I just completely forgot about our date."

"And forgettable."

"No, you're memorable. I've been, uh, memorabling you all week. It's just, we had a little emergency."

"Is everything okay?" Max asks, suddenly concerned.

"It's the neighbors cat."

"The neighbors..."

"Cat. She died." Lorelai tells him.

Max starts laughing. "She died."

"This was a very fat, very beloved cat. My daughter Lauren loved this cat so much."

"Hmm, I see." Lorelai starts smiling because she knew Max didn't believe her. "Lorelai, I like you. And I don't want to force something on you that you don't want. So.." Max walks away.

"No. Wait, wait! No, wait!" Lorelai runs after him. Max, you're not forcing anything on me. I am telling the truth about the cat."

"Lorelai."

"Max, please don't read that much into this. Call me, and we'll reschedule." She tells him. "I promise that's what I want."

Max smiles looking away then back at her. "Are you sure?"

"Cross my heart and hope that no other neighborhood pets die on that day." She says, in all seriousness.

"Okay. I'll call."

"Good."

"I'm sorry about, uh..."

"Cinnamon."

"Cinnamon." He repeats.

"Yeah."

Max begins to leave.

Next door, Lauren walks out where Rory was still standing.

"Hey, I can't find Mom anywhere." Lauren looks at their house where Lorelai and a guy is leaving. "Who was that?" Lauren asks.

"My teacher." Rory says, weirdly. "Come on." Rory takes Lauren by her shoulders and they walk back into the house.

"Your teacher?" Lauren asks her, confused.

While Lorelai was looking for Rory and Lauren she entered the kitchen finding Babette going through some things in her cabinets.

"Hey, Babette." Lorelai says.

"Oh, hello, sugar. Can I get you something?" Babette asks.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just looking for Rory and Lauren."

"Oh, I think they might be in the backyard. I seen Rory dragging Lauren that way."

"Thanks. Can I help you with something?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, no. I thought I'd just get some of this stuff packed away."

"Oh, it's like a scene from the kitty version of Valley of the Dolls." Lorelai says, looking into the cabinet.

"Yeah, you never realize how old they actually are till you look in the medicine cabinet." Babette tells her. "These were for her heartworms. For her thyroid, her kidneys, for the rash she got from taking these, and these were for the tics she developed from taking the stuff for the rash. You know, I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself now. You live to take care of your kids."

"I know, sweetie, you gave her everything you had, though." Lorelai tells her, sadly.

"Yeah. She was so tiny when I got her, she could sleep in my shoe."

"The other day, I came across a hat that I made for Lauren. It was like a doll hat."

"Aw, they grow up so fast."

"And then they take your clothes."

"I guess, eventually, you have to move on. Figure out what your life is gonna be when you're not busy taking care of somebody else." Babette says getting all worked up. Lorelai reaches over and hugs Babette tightly as she cries.

Outside in the backyard, Rory is sitting in one of the chairs as Lauren sits in the other one. They hadn't said much to eachother because they were thinking about what just happened with their mom and Rory's teacher. But while they were stuck in their thoughts Dean walks up to them.

"Hey." He says, scaring them both. Lauren had jumped into Rory's lap, thinking she'd protect her.

"You scared me." Rory tells him.

"Seriously, make a noise." Lauren tells him.

"Yeah, uh, look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." Dean tells Rory.

"For what?" She asks.

"Well, I've been kind of bugging you lately. I thought, I don't know. I thought you maybe liked me, but it's obvious that you're not interested. So, I just wanted to say that I get it, and I'm not gonna bother you anymore." He explains.

"But she does like you!" Lauren says quickly. Rory pushes Lauren off of her which makes her fall to the ground. "Ow."

"I am interested." Rory finally says, after a long pause, as she gets up and runs over to him.

"You are?" Dean asks, smiling.

"Yes, I gotta go." She says, quickly. "Come on, Lauren."

Lauren stands up and smiles at Dean. "Bye!" She says, running after her sister while Dean stares at them smiling.

As the girls walk up to back steps, Lorelai opens the door.

"Finally, I've been lookign everywhere for you two." She says, walking over to them.

"Well, you found us." Rory says.

"Listen, I have some explaining to do. That man on the porch was your teacher." Lorelai says, stating the obvious.

"Mom, I'm a little behind in school, but no so behind that I don't know who the teacher is. So?"

"So, um, he and I were going to sort of hang out together."

"On a date." Lauren says.

"No. On something that could appear like a date to the untrained eye."

"And to your daughters' eye?" Rory asks.

"It was date." Lorelai says, giving up.

"How long have you been dating him?"

"I haven't. This was gonna be the first time."

"And when were you planning on telling us about this? On your wedding?" Rory asks, upset.

"No, by the rehearsal dinner at least." Lorelai jokes.

"He's my teacher. He teaches me things every day. In a very small classroom with a lot of other kids who probably won't be high-fiving me when they find this out."

"I know, sweetie. And I told him this was one of the things I was concerned about."

"And?"

"And he felt we could be discreet."

"Unbelievable!"

"Are you mad?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"Because I'm dating him?"

"Because you lied to me."

"I kept information from you."

"Information that I should have had."

"It wouldn't come out eventually like the tran-contra scandal."

"So, you're Oliver North?"

"No. I'm Fawn Hall."

"Mom!"

"She was much prettier."

"I just can't believe you didn't tell me about this. Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Cause I thought you were going to take it bad. Thank God I was wrong." She says, sarcastically. "Okay, listen, I'm sorry. I won't date him. I promise."

"I'm not saying that you can't date him. It's just, this is weird." Rory tells her.

"I really like him, Rory. I can't help it. And it's been a realling time since I've felt like this. You can't always control who you're attracted to, you know. And I know you don't understand this now, but you will someday. You'll meet some great guy, and he'll make your head all foggy, and you won't know what to do with yourself." Lauren starts laughing, until Rory pushes her. "What'd I miss?"

Lauren quickly looks up. "Nothing." She says.

"Look I won't keep anything for you two again. Okay, I promise. From now on, every aspect of my life is an open book to you girls."

"It's okay." Rory tells her.

"Really. I'm not even gonna get dressed until I tell you what I'm thinking of wearing."

"You should just let us dress you." Lauren tells her.

"Great idea!" Lorelai says.

"You two need some help." Rory says, shaking her head and walking into the house, as Lorelai and Lauren start laughing and talking about what she should wear tomorrow.

Babette and Morey are walking Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren out of the house.

"Let us know if we can do anything." Lorelai tells him.

"Oh, you've done too much already." Babette says.

"Morey, can I still come over and listen to you play the piano?" Lauren asks him.

Morey smiles. "Of course, kid."

"You're welcomed here anytime, Lauren. I'm sorry you had to experience that."

Lauren sighs. "Yeah, me too." She says, hugging them both before going over to Lorelai.

"Good night, Babette."

"Good night, sugar."

Lorelai and her girls walk over to their house. When they open the door the phone starts ringing. Lorelai walks over and picks it up.

"Hello?"

"I've been trying to get you all afternoon." Emily says on the other end.

"Mom?"

"Yes."

"Hi."

"You already said that."

"But someone hasn't."

"Hello." Emily says, sarcastically.

"There you go."

"You are impossible to reach."

"Well, there's no messages on the machine, Mom."

"I don't leave messages. If I wanted to talk to a machine, I'd talk to my v.c.r. Where were you?"

"At a wake."

A what?"

Lorelai looks up into the kitchen where Rory and Lauren are shaking their heads.

"A wake." Lorelai says, confused.

"A what?"

"A wake. A, uh, funeral."

"A funeral? Whose?" Emily asks.

"I was for the neighbors' cat." Lorelai tells her. Rory and Lauren both sigh knowing exactly what was coming. "Mom?" Lorelai says, when she hears nothing from the other end.

"Hold on. I'm looking up "Aneurysm" in our medical dictionary to see if I just had one."

"I just wanted to be honest with you, Mom. Silly me."

"A cat?" Emily asks, trying to believe it.

"Yeah, a cat. It was a cat's funeral."

"You skipped your cousin's funeral for a cat's funeral?" Emily asks her.

"Not my cousin, Mom. My father's grandmother's sister's girl who I never..."

"You said you couldn't be away from the Inn."

"Well, I couldn't at the time, but I worked it out."

"For a cat."

"No, for Lauren. She loved this cat, so did we. It's late. I have a big day tomorrow, Mom."

"Oh, what? You're going to a raccoon's wedding?" Emily ask her.

Lorelai smiles. "Good night, Mother."

"Good night." She says, hanging up.

Lorelai yells in frustration as she walks into the kitchen. "She working for a sedative manufacturer. Keeping that demand sky-high."

"You shouldn't have told her." Rory tells her.

"Well, I don't know what to tell and what to hide."

"Yeah." Rory says, grabbing some juice from the refrigerator and fixing her and Lauren a drink.

"So, we never did quite settle the whole dating your teacher issue. I won't go out with him if you don't want me to."

"You can go out with whoever you want."

"It's whoever we want." Lorelai says, smiling.

"Well, I'm certainly not gonna go out with him." Lauren tells her mom. "But Rory may."

Rory glares at her sister. "Gross."

"But I mean it. I won't see him if you don't want me to. You know, if there's anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, big or small, then he's out of there."

"Good to know." Rory tells her.

"Because, you know, it's not like I'm desperate. I mean there are plenty of other guys out there."

"Sure are." Rory says, walking towards her room.

"And it's not like I have to ask you girls permission. I mean, this is a courtesy."

"Okay." Rory says, going into her room, and closing the door.

Lorelai just stood there looking really confused. "Uh, okay, so I'm going to be up for a awhile if you want to get back to me on this."

"I know where you are." Rory yells from inside.

Lorelai looks at Lauren. "Hey, I don't care. I'm just glad I don't go to Chilton." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai frowns. "Alright, kid. Come on. I need some company tonight." Lauren smiles and grabs her mom's hand and they walk towards the living room.

Rory opens her door and peeks out. "Hey, do you think you could keep him out late on Thursday night?" She asks. "I have this oral exam on Friday that I'd really love him to sleep through."

Lorelai smiles, evily. "I'll do my best."

Rory rolls her eyes, playfully and goes back into her room. "Hey, you could always date one of my teachers. Miss. Fernandez is pretty, but she also hates me. Maybe you could take her out and then forget her somewhere." Lauren tells her mom.

Lorelai looks down at Lauren and shakes her head smiling. "I don't think Miss. Fernandez is my type."

Lauren shrugs. "But your hers." She jokes, running for the stairs. Lorelai couldn't help but laugh as she starts chasing after her youngest daughter.


	7. Happy Birthday!

Friday night and as usualy everyone is gathered around the table getting ready to eat their dinner.

So, Rory, Lauren, your grandfather and I thought it might be nice after dinner for you both to go around the house and pick out what you'd like us to leave you in our will." Emily tells them.

Rory and Lauren look at eachother with a little surprised, but horrified face about what their grandmother just said to them. "Take a look at that desk in my office, Rory. It's a really fine georgian piece." Richard tells her.

"Why don't I ever bring a tape recorder to these dinners?" Lorelai says, mainly to herself.

"Oh, well, anything you want to leave us is fine." Rory tells them.

"Nonsense. You both should have what you like. So, just look around. And when you see something you like, stick a post-it on it."

"A post-it?" Lauren asks, confused.

"Yes, a post-it."

"Okay, you two have officially hit a new level of weird that even I marvel at." Lorelai tells them.

"You can pick out things, too, you know."

"Oh, well, now it's way less creepy." Lorelai says, happily.

"Did you hear that, Richard? Apparently, we're creepy."

"Yes, well, you live and learn."

"Oh, cool!" Lauren says, looking at the dessert.

"What's that?" Lorelai asks.

"It's dessert."

"It's pudding."

"You don't like pudding."

"Yes, but you like pudding."

"Oh, yes, I love pudding. I worship it." Lorelai jokes. "I have a bowl up on the mantel at home with the virgin mary, a glass of wine, and $1 next to it."

"I've never had pudding from a crystal bown before." Lauren says, taking a bite of her pudding.

"You like the bowl?" Emily asks her. Lauren nods her head. "Put a post-it on it when you're done." Lauren smiles and continues to eat, as Lorelai and Rory look at eachother completely weirded out.

After dinner, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking around with pens and post-its looking at everything. Lorelai looks at a huge vase.

"So, what do we think of this?" She asks.

"Where would we put it?" Rory asks.

"I don't know. The Emily and Richard Gilmore Psycho Museum?"

"This is the strangest evening I've ever spent here." Lauren tells them, as Lorelai writes on the post-it and slaps it onto the vase.

"So, how are we doing?" Emily asks, walking in.

"Great. Just getting ready for the big day." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

Emily glares at her. "Very nice."

"So, um, it's getting late, Mom. Unless you've got some funeral plots for us to decorate, we should really get going."

Emily looks over at Rory. "Any special requests for dinner next week?"

"Oh, well..." Rory starts, but Lorelai interrupts.

"Uh, Mom, I want to talk to you for a minute. And, uh, Rory, why don't and your sister go say goodbye to Grandpa?" Lorelai says, trying to make it like Emily can't hear her.

"Very smooth." She says, as she and Lauren walk out.

"Shall I sit down?" Emily asks.

"Yeah, but not there, okay? We got a post-it on that." Lorelai tells her, smirking. "We'd like to keep it nice."

Emily rolls her eyes and sits anyway. "It must be very exhausting to be you."

"Mom, Rory's birthday is next Friday."

"I know that."

"So, we were thinking that maybe we could push our dinner next week to Saturday."

"What're you going to do on Friday?" She asks.

"Oh, I don't know..."

"Well, perfect. Come here, we'll have a little party."

"I was just hoping we can do it another night?"

"Why come another night when her birthday falls on the exact night that you come here." Emily tells her.

"Saturday's a good night, Mom."

"Not as good as Friday."

"Pretty damn close."

"Not from where I'm standing."

"Well, move then." Lorelai tells her, chuckling.

"I'm sorry. Friday nights are my nights. That's what we agreed on when you borrowed money for Rory's school. The rules haven't changed."

"Mom, I didn't intend for this loan to be a constant source of blackmail, okay? Now, this is my kid's birthday and she will have her party at home on Friday. And that's it. End of story." Lorelai says, breathing out.

In the car, they are all buckling their seatbelts when Lorelai turns to Rory smiling.

"So, how would you like two parties this year?" Lorelai asks.

Lauren groans. "Aw, man!"

"You couldn't get her to cave." Rory says.

"No, but she did agree to make the string quartet learn Like A Virgin."

"Well, you tried." Rory says, disappointed.

"Sweetie, I promise, Saturday night we'll do it up right at home. A Stars Hollow extravaganza."

"So, is this party Grandma's having going to be a big deal?" Rory asks.

"Not really. The Government will close that day. Flags will fly at half-mast. Barbra Streisand will give her final concert again. Now, the Pope has previous plans, but he's trying to get out of them. However, Elvis and Jim Morrison are coming and they're bringing chips."

Rory shakes her head. "You ask a simple question..."

"Hey, my birthday falls on a Friday next year. If we're still having this whole Friday night dinner thing, I just want to say it's not happening. She's not paying for my school." Lauren tells them.

Rory glares at Lauren. "Don't rub it in."

"I wouldn't speak so soon. You are becoming their favorite eleven year old. I mean, she is giving you the pudding bowl."

Lauren rolls her eyes laughing as she sits back in her seat.

At the Gilmore house, Lorelai walks in.

"Laverne, Shirley!" She calls out.

"Kitchen!" Rory yells, as she's on the phone.

Lorelai walks in ."And Justin is just so dreamy. He can't marry Britney." Rory has her back turned rolling her eyes. "I'll just cry, cry, and cry."

"Okay, thanks." Rory says, before hanging up. "Pizza's on its way."

"You're such a good provider." Lorelai says, kissing Rory on her cheek.

"I'm going to go start my homework." Rory says, walking into her room. "Call me when the pizza guy gets here."

"Lauren, Mommy's home!" Lorelai yells. "Show me some attention!" The phone rings. "Hello?"

"Lorelai, what is your work schedule?" Emily asks on the other end.

Lauren runs into the kitchen kissing her mom on her cheek. Lorelai smiles at her daughter, who grabs a piece of apple Lorelai was cutting up and puts it in her mouth. "Why?"

"I want to go shopping."

"With me?" Lorelai asks, surprised.

"I think that goes without saying."

"Only in your world, Mom."

"I want to get Rory a birthday present."

"Well, I'm sure whatever you get her, she'll love."

"Yes, but I want to get her something special. Something she wants, something that you would get her."

"Okay, fine. You can get her the bong then."

"This isn't funny. I hardly see the girl. And we only get to talk at dinner once a week, and it's all about school, and Jane."

"Lane, Mom."

"I thought you might let me into your secret club just this one time and help me buy her something for her birthday." Emily tells her.

Lauren sits down on Lorelai's lap and starts cutting up the apple instead since Lorelai was a little preoccupied. "You're serious?"

"According to you, I'm always serious."

"Okay." Lorelai says, awkwardly as she starts playing with Lauren's long hair.

"Okay?" Emily asks.

"Okay." Lorelai repeats.

"Well, good." Emily says, happily. "I'll meet you at Damion's tomorrow at three."

"Okay."

"And dress appropriately.."

"Don't finish that sentence, Mom."

"I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Attagirl." Lorelai says, hanging up and sighing. "I'm going shopping with your grandmother." She tells Lauren. Lauren starts giggling. "Hey, this is not funny."

"You're right. It's hilarious!" Lauren says, laughing some more.

"No pizza for you." Lorelai tells her.

"Hey, I'm just joking!"

At Chilton, Rory is opening her locker when Tristan slides in next to her.

"Hey."

"What, Tristin?" Rory asks, no pleased to see him.

"I just wanted to say, Happy Birthday." He tells her.

"It's not my birthday."

Tristin lifts up a card. "No, but it will be." He opens the card. "On Friday at 4:03 in the morning, Lorelai Leigh..."

Rory quickly takes it out of his hand. "What is that?" She asks, reading the invitation. "Who else got these?"

"I don't know. Everyone in our class, I think."

Rory slams her locker. "I have to go." She says walking away.

"I'll see you Friday, birthday girl." Tristin yells out.

At the store, where Emily and Lorelai are shopping they are walking around and come across a field of hats.

"Oh, isn't this lovely?" Emily asks as she looks at one.

"Oh, yeah. Lauren use to play dress up with these kinds of hats." Lorelai tells her.

Emily glares at Lorelai. "You are so combative today."

"Well, hat wear does that to me." Lorelai shrugs. Lorelai turns around and sees a guitar shaped purse. "Oh, Mom, look. This is good." She laughs.

"What is that?" Emily asks.

"It's a purse shaped like a guitat. This is great."

"Great for what?" Emily asks, disgusted.

"For Rory."

"What would Rory do with this?"

"She'd put stuff in it and carry it around."

"In public?"

"Yes."

"What would people think?" Emily asks.

"Well, that she's an ax murderer, of course."

Emily ignores her daughter and looks at the jewelry. "What about pearls? A double string of pearls with a cashmere sweater set." Emily suggests.

"Mom, she's a young girl. Think of something young." Lorelai and Emily look around until Lorelai spots something. They walk over to a table. "Oh hey, look. These day planners are adorable. You could get her one of those funky erasers." Lorelai tells her.

"Please be serious. We're shopping for Rory."

"No, Mom, I'm shopping for Rory. You're shopping for your imaginary grand-daughter Barbara Hutton."

"I want to get her something nice."

"I know you do, but you asked for my help, and you're not listening to me."

"Oh, I don't know how to do this. Lets just go." Emily says, trying to walk away.

"Oh, no, no. Come on, Mom." Lorelai says, walking after her. You do know how to do this. Think pudding."

"Pudding?"

Lorelai smiles at her. "Come on. You asked for my help. You're reaching out. A little, not a lot. Don't get freaked. But, Mom, pudding."

"Why do you keep saying pudding?"

"Listen, just look around and pick up something you think she might like." Lorelai says, walking away.

Emily sighs and looks straight forward to a table filled with bracelets. She walks over and pulls a set of three off the rack. "Here."

Lorelai turns around. "Oh, now, that's really good."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"Doesn't look like something you could buy at a car wash?" Emily asks.

"Totally. That's half the charm."

"Oh, no, it's only $12."

"$6 more than a car wash. She'll love that."

"Fine."

"Oh, and Mom, when you call me to find something to get for Lauren's birthday, just let me go get it and I'll put your name down." Lorelai tells her.

"Are you serious? Why?"

"Well, Lauren and Rory are alike in some ways, but Lauren is like me and likes funky crazy things. If you'd gotten her the bracelet, she'd probably wear it around her neck instead of her wrist." Emily gives her a weird look. Lorelai shrugs. "It's just what she does." She says, walking away.

At Luke's, Lorelai walks in holding a bag with clothes in it. She smiles at Luke and walks over to the counter.

"They're not here yet." Luke tells her.

Lorelai sits down. "Alright. You'll have to entertain me until they arrive. Okay, burger boy, dance."

"Will you marry me?" Luke asks her.

Lorelai freezes. "What?"

"Just looking for something to shut you up." Luke tells her.

"You better be nice to me, or I'm not inviting you to Rory Gilmore's birthday celebration this Saturday night."

"You don't have to ask me, you know."

"I know. But I would like you to come."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll see."

"7:00. Don't be late." Lorelai turns around and sees Rory and Lauren walking through. Rory walks over to the table with a somber look on her face. "Wow, nice face you got on there."

"She's been looking like that since I met up with her at the bus." Lauren tells her mom.

They all sit down. "Coffee." Rory says.

"Bad day?" Lorelai asks.

"I've now used the word "suck" so much that its lost all meaning to me." Rory explains.

"Well, maybe this will cheer you up." Lorelai smiles, as she unzips the bag and pulls out a bunch of green tulle."

Rory and Lauren look at it horrified. "What is that?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai starts laughing. "These are our party dresses."

"So, it's a Halloween party?" Rory asks.

"Listen, so I'm shopping today with your Grandmother, and it's a whole three hours of 'who are you buying that for, Mom? Have you met, Rory?' And then finally I talked and she listened. And she wound up getting you something I think you're really gonna like." Lorelai explains.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. And of course, she insisted on buying us these dresses, but I think I can do something with them to make them better."

"Wow. I never seen you so cheery after spending time with Grandma." Lauren tells her.

"Well, it's been a long time since we got together and didn't end up fighting. It was refreshing. It wasn't exactly fun, but I didn't get that shooting pain in my eye like I usually do."

"That's great." Rory says, smiling.

Luke walks up with their coffees, even Lauren. "So, I hear you're having a party Saturday night."

"Yeah. Mom's famous for her blowouts." Rory tells him.

"The best one was her 8th birthday."

"Oh, yeah, that was good."

"The cops shut us down." Lorelai tells him.

"The cops shut down an eight year-old's birthday party?" Luke asks.

"And arrested the clown." Rory laughs.

"I don't want to hear anymore of this." Luke says, walking away.

"So, Lauren how was school today?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, the same old. But everyone is talking about Rory's birthday party so I got a few high- fives down the hallway." Lauren tells them as Lorelai laugh.

"No climbing the roof this birthday. Do you hear me?" Lorelai asks.

Lauren shrugs. "That was one time."

"That was your last few birthdays. I'm going to have to check the punch before you drink it." Lorelai tells her. "So, now tell, why miss lemonhead today?" Lorelai asks, Rory.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Rory lies. "I just got an A-minus on a French test that I should have gotten an A on."

"Aw, honey, an A minus is awesome."

Rory looks down. "Yeah, it's fine." Lauren eyes are sister suspiciously. She knew that look on her sister's face. They both did it when they lied to their mom, and yet Lorelai still has not figured it out.

At their house, it was the middle of the night, and Rory's birthday. Rory is sleeping when Lorelai walks in and kisses her daughter gently on the cheek.

"Happy birthday, little girl." Lorelai whispers.

Rory starts to stur and turns around to meet her mom's smiling face. "Hey." Rory pulls her mom into the bed with her and rest her head on her mom's arm.

"I can't believe how fast you're growing up." Lorelai tells her.

"Really?" Lorelai nods. "Feels slow." Rory tells her.

Lorelai shakes her head. "Trust me, it's fast. You and Lauren are growing so much, it's scary. I remember when I told you I was pregnant with her."

"I was so mad." Rory says, laughing.

"You were four and just wanted me all to yourself. But then when I had her, you loved her, and said you were going to be the best big sister ever. And you are." Lorelai says, in awe. "What do you think of your life so far?"

"I think it's pretty good." Rory tells her.

"Any complaints?"

"Um, I'd like that whole humidity thing to go away."

"Hm, alright. I'll work on that." Lorelai tells her.

"So, do I look older?" Rory asks her mom as she looks at her.

"Oh yeah. You go into Denny's before five, you've got yourself a discount." Lorelai jokes.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Good deal."

"So, do you know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think you're a great, cool kid, and the best friend a girl could have."

"Back at you."

"And it's so hard to believe that at exactly this time many moons ago, I was lying in the exact same position only I had a huge, fat stomach, and big fat ankles. And I was swearing like a sailor..."

"On leave." Rory finishes.

"On leave, right! And there I was..."

"..in labor."

"And while some have called it the most meaningful experience of your life, to me it was something more akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite."

"I wonder if the Waltons ever did this." Rory says, thinking.

"And I was screaming and swearing, and being surrounded as I was by 100 prominent doctors, I just assumed there was an actual use for the cup of ice chips they gave me."

"There wasn't."

"But pelting the nurses sure was fun."

"I love you, Mom." Rory says, smiling, as she scoots closer to Lorelai.

"Shh. I'm getting to the part where he sees your head." Rory buries her face into Lorelai's shoulder. "So, there I was, lying..."

At Luke's, Rory, Lane, and Lauren walk in.

"You should not have to go to school today." Lane tells her.

They walk over to the counter. "Have to. Latin test."

"Geez, every day you have a test. When do you have time to learn anything to be tested on?" Lane asks.

"Hey, wrong table." Luke tells them.

"Since when is there a right table?" Lauren asks him.

"Since the coffee cake I baked for you sister, and the stupid balloons I blew up are at that table over there." Luke points out.

They all turn around and sure enough Luke had made a cake and blew up balloons. "You blew up balloons for me?" Rory asks him, smiling.

"Yeap."

"Oh, Luke, you old softy."

"I count to three, it's gone." Luke tells her.

"Thank you." Rory says, as the three of them quickly get up and walk to the table.

As they sit down Rory sighs and that gets Lauren and Lane's attention. "Are you okay?" Lane asks.

"Yeah, I just..I'm getting old, Lane."

"You seem a little quiet this morning."

"I'm just dreading this whole night. I mean it's bad enough that I have to see these stupid kids from Chilton every day, but tonight? On my birthday? I've never even talked to most of them. And I've only been going to this school for a couple months. God, they're gonna think I am the biggest freak. That I need my grandma to get people to come to my party." Rory explains.

"So, is that the reason why you lied to Mom yesterday?" Lauren asks.

"I did not lie to Mom."

"Yes, you did. You're obviously upset that Grandma invited all these people and didn't even ask you. You should have told Mom the truth and she would have shut it down."

"No. Lauren, did you see how happy mom was yesterday when she got back from hanging out with Grandma? That's a once in a lifetime thing. She's never happy hanging out with her. I didn't want to ruin the mood."

"So, she'll just get upset when we get there tonight to realize that you never wanted these kids to come. Real smooth, Rory."

"You should tell her." Lane says.

"It's just one night." Rory says. "Right?"

"Right." Lane agrees.

"I can stand it for one night."

"I hope so." Lauren says.

Dean walks in catching Rory's attention. Lauren looks, too, and goes to say something, but Rory kicks her in the leg. Dean looks her way, but goes straight to the counter. "Coffee to go, please." He tells Luke. Dean looks back at Rory and smiles before looking forward again. Lauren watches the whole thing and starts smiling herself.

"Here you go." Luke says, handing him the coffee.

"Thanks." Dean turns around and walks to the door, mouthing Happy Birthday to Rory before he walks out. Rory smiles and looks back down at her cake.

At the Gilmore house, the doorbell rings and the housekeeper lets Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren in. Lorelai was already wearing her dress that her mom got her, except she fixed it up. They walk into the living room and see Emily.

"Geez, Mom, leave some servants for the rest of the neighborhood." Lorelai says.

Emily looks up and smiles. "There she is, the birthday girl."

"Hey, Grandma."

"Wow. You really went all out, huh?" Lorelai asks, looking around.

"Well, I wanted everything to be perfect. What do you think?" Emily asks.

"I think Edith Wharton would have been proud, and busy taking notes." Lorelai says. "Here, babes, go change." Lorelai gives Rory and Lauren their dresses.

"Okay." Lauren says, as they leave to go upstairs.

Lorelai takes off her coat and Emily's eye immediately fall to the dress. "What is that?"

"Oh, that's my dress."

"Where's the one I bought you?"

"This is it."

"I thought there was more of it."

"Gee, Mom, the place looks great."

"Did you turn Rory's into a hat, or Lauren's into a scarf?" Emily asks, sarcastically.

"Nice candles. Six inches apart?" Lorelai says, already knowing the answer.

Later, the place is already filled with people chattering. Lorelai looks over and sees Rory sitting by herself. She walks over to her.

"Here." She says, handing her daughter a drink.

"What is it?"

"Shirley Temple."

"What are you drinking?"

"A Shirley Temple black." Lorelai lets Rory smell it.

"Wow." She says, after smelling all the alcohol.

"And I got your Good Ship Lillipop right here, Mister. Where's your sister?" Lorelai asks, looking around.

Rory shrugs. "Last time I see her she was heading upstairs."

Lorelai sighs. "She's probably going up to the roof. Lauren definitely knows how to get a party started. So, do you want something to eat?"

Rory shakes her head. "Everything smells funny."

Emily walks up to them. "There you are. Come. There's some people I want you to meet." She says, grabbing Rory's arm and pulling her up.

A woman walks up to Lorelai and gasp. "Lorelai?"

Lorelai just looks at her. "Yeah." The woman just smiles at Lorelai expecting her to remember her. "Oh, my god! Oh, Mitzi, wow. I haven't seen you since.."

"..Your seventh month."

"I was gonna say high school, but okay."

"Oh, no. Did I say something rude?"

"Oh, no, no."

"No, I did. I said something rude. I've been trying to work on that."

"Well, a noble goal."

"Ever since my divorce, I've been really trying to work on myself. You know, I just, I want to grow." She says, snapping her fingers for the helper to come take her drink. "Lorelai Gilmore, the scandal girl. Now, tell me, what ever happened with Christopher?"

"Christoher is in California."

"Oh, do you hear from him?" Lorelai stutters on what to say. "I'm sorry, is this painful for you to talk about?"

"Well.."

"When did he last call you?"

"Oh, God, you're making progress with the rude thing. Huh, Mitz?"

"Oh, sorry."

"It's okay. Um, he calls like once a week, and we see him at Christmas, sometimes Easter. It's all very civil."

"So, are you married now?"

"No, it's just me, Rory and Lauren."

"Your cats?"

"My kids."

"Rory's right over there." Lorelai says, forcing a smile.

Lauren runs up to them. "Mom, can we please go? This party blows."

"Mom?" Mitzi says.

Lauren looks at the woman with a confused look. "Well, you're not my mom." She tells her.

Lorelai laughs, pulling Lauren closer to her. "And this is my other one."

"Is she for Christopher?"

Lauren looks up at Lorelai. "Mom, who is this woman?"

Rory is walking around the house just as Emily runs up to her. "Rory, there's a whole group of your school friend in the library. Lets go say hello to them." She says, pushing Rory towards that way.

When they walk in Rory looks around and no one turns her way. She was feeling really awkward and nervous. "I have to go to the bathroom." She says, trying to turn away, but Emily keeps a firm grip on her.

"Just say hello first. Come on." Emily pushes her up and walks away.

One of the boys look up and notice Rory. "Who's that?"

"I think it's her party." Another one says.

Rory rolls her eyes and begins to walk out just until she sees Paris. "Paris?"

Paris turns around. "My parents made me come."

"Oh, god!"

"Otherwise I wouldn't be here." Rory walks away. "You believe me, don't you?"

Rory walks passed the front door just as it opens and Tristin walks in. "Oh, coming to greet me?" He asks.

"Hello, Tristin." Rory says, annoyed.

"So, where's my birthday kiss?" He asks.

"It's my birthday."

"So, I'll give you a birthday kiss." Tristin starts walking closer to her.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Okay, I gotta tell you something. I'm madly in love with you."

"Well, good luck with that."

"I can't eat, I can't sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night calling out your name. Rory. Rory."

"Would you shut up, please?"

Richard sees them and walks over to them. "Rory, who's your friend?"

"I don't know, but this is Tristin." Rory tells him.

"Excuse me?"

"Tristin Dugray, sir."

"Dugray?" Richard asks, shaking his hand. "Are you any relation to Janlen Dugray?"

"That's my grandfather, sir."

"Oh, I've done business with Janlen for years. He's a fine man."

"That he is."

"Rory, you have very good taste in friends. I approve."

Lauren quickly walks up to them. "I don't." She says, grabbing Rory's hand and pulling her out of the room. "Can you please tell Mom so that she can tell of Grandma and we can leave." Lauren begs her. "Oh, look, there they both are. Perfect timing." Lauren says, as they both walk over to Lorelai and Emily.

"Oh, there you are." Emily says, grabbing Rory's arm. "I think it's time that you said a few words to your guests."

"What?" Rory asks, nervously.

"Just a little speech to say thank you and tell everyone how it feels to be one year older." Emily explains.

Rory looks at her mom for help. "Mom, I don't think she's..."

"She's the hostess, Lorelai. This is her responsibility."

"I am not the hostess. You are!" Rory tells her grandmother.

"And here it comes." Lauren whispers as she stands back and watches.

"Hey, honey, hold on." Lorelai says.

"This is your party, and these are your guests. And I don't have anything to say to them. So you give the speech."

"Rory!" Emily says, surprised.

"Excuse me." Rory says, walking away while grabbing Lauren's hand in the process.

"What was that all about?" Lorelai asks.

"Lorelai, your daughter has no manners whatsoever." Emily says to her angry. "You should be ashamed of yourself." Emily walks away and Lorelai looks confused.

"Okay, how did this become my fault?"

In Lorelai's old room, Rory and Lauren are laying together on the bed. They hadn't really said anything except good job and that was from Lauren. While they lay there, the door opens and in walks Lorelai.

"Hey, can I come in?"

"It's your room." Rory tells her.

"How are you doing?" Lorelai asks, as she walks closer and sits in front of them.

"I'm sorry I snapped at Grandma." Rory says, sitting up.

"Yeah, huh? That was a pretty Freaky Friday moment we had back there."

"She just went ahead and invited all those kids from Chilton."

"You're kidding? I thought she checked on that with you?"

"No, Mom. She didn't ask Rory or tell her." Lauren says.

"Oh, man. I'm so sorry!"

"It just really made me mad." Rory tells her.

"Oh, honey, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you were happy. It's not very often that there's peace between you two. I didn't want to screw everything up."

"Rory, I appreciate you wanting Mom and I to get along, but you shouldn't keep stuff like that from me."

"I told her not to." Lauren chimes in.

"Well, why didn't you tell me?" Lorelai asks.

"And have Grandma mad at me? NO thanks." Lauren says, shaking her head.

"I feel terrible." Rory tells them. "I mean I never yelled at her before."

"Oh, listen, you'll apologize and all will be forgotten. You'll see." Lorelai starts looking around her room. "It's like time has stood still in this room."

"It must be weird for you to be in this room now." Rory says.

"Yeah, it was werid for me to be in this room then." Lorelai walks over to her dollhouse. "You know, um, they gave this to me with the glass on."

"I now officially know what it feels like to have grown up here." Rory says.

"Hmm, it's not officialy until your huddled in a corner, eating your hair."

"Oh, well, then I officially know what it's like to live here!" Lauren jokes making her mom and sister laugh.

"Do you remember your last birthday here?" Rory asks.

"Yeah. We had just had a fight, and I was lying on the bed just like you two are now."

"What did you fight about?" Lauren asks, as Lorelai walks over and joins them.

"Well, I was pregnant."

"Oh, that." Rory says.

"And I said something at the table about the pate smelling like clorox, and one thing led to another, and I wound up here. I hadn't told anybody yet about me and you." She says, smiling at Rory.

"That must have been really hard on them."

"Yeah. I remember when I finally told them it was the only time they ever looked small to me."

"I guess I better go find Grandma."

"Hmm, give her a minute."

And right on cue Emily walk in. "There you are."

"She'll find us."

"You three are being very rude. This isn't my birthday party, you know."

"Sorry, Mom."

"Honestly, the way you three act."

"Grandma, I just want to say..."

"We'll talk about this later. Now go." Lorelai grabs both her girls and they get up and leave.

As everyone is leaving, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren have their coats in their hands and walk up to Emily.

"Hey, Mom. Great party. One of your best. I even liked those brown mushroom things." Lorelai tells her.

"Grandma, can I talk to you for a sec?" Rory asks.

Emily ignores her. "Richard, the girls are leaving." She says, walking away as Richard walks in.

"Well, Rory, I hope you had a good time."

"Yeah, I did."

"Now, I know that your grandmother has already bought you a gift and signed my name to it. That was apart of our agreement when we got married." He jokes. "However, I feel this occasion calls for something a little extra. Put that towards your trip to Fez." He says, handing her a card.

"Oh, Grandpa."

"You're a good girl, Rory. Happy Birthday." Richard says, before walking away.

Rory turns to her mom and sister. "I don't deserve this."

"Fine. Hand it over." Lauren jokes as she puts out her hand.

Emily walks up to them. "You should get going. You have quite a drive ahead of you."

"Grandma, we're having a party tomorrow at our house. And I mean, it won't be anything like this. But it will be fun. And maybe you and Grandpa could come."

"That's very sweet, dear, but I'm afraid we already have plans. Have a safe trip. Lock the door behind you, okay?" Emily says, walking away.

"Hey, um, why don't you two go help that guy out there put all the presents in the car?" Lorelai asks them.

"Okay." Rory says, taking Lauren's hand and walking away.

Lorelai walks into the dining room where Emily is still cleaning up. "Mom, come to the party tomrrow."

"I can't. I'm busy."

"Mom, your grand-daughter invited you to her birthday party. Please come."

"I've already been to a party for my grand-daughter, and she humiliated me in front of all my friends. I have no desire to relive that experience."

"Mom, give her a break. You invited all these Chilton kids without even asking her."

"They're her schoolmates. I assumed they were her friends."

"You know what they say when people assume things."

"No. What do they say?"

Lorelai hesitates before givine her mom the real answer. "That you shouldn't."

"Very clever."

"Mom, she didn't want them here. She doesn't like them."

"Well, I had to invite them. That's just good manners. Something that your daughters are sorely lacking."

"God, you know, you're doing the same thing to her that you always did to me. You try to control her, and when that doesn't work you just shut her out."

"I'm too tired for accusations right now. Can we do this tomorrow?" Emily asks.

"Mom, I have a crushed kid out in the car!"

"What do you want me to say? Everything's fine. It's forgotten. There. I spent a fortune on this party! I spent days planning it, making sure that every little detail was perfect! I did all this for Rory."

"That's not what she needed, Mom! What she needs is for you to accept her apology and come to her party. That's what she needs! But you don't care what she needs."

"How dare you!"

"You don't even care about what she needs because you don't know her. You never tried to know her, you never tried to know Lauren either, just like you never knew me!"

"Oh, I know you."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"Oh, you'd like to think that. That you're just some huge mystery to me? 'Why does Lorelai do that?' I don't know. She's a mystery to me. Well, you're not so mysterious, Lorelai."

"No, no. What am I then!?"

"Well, right now you're very loud and disruptive to the entire cleaning process."

"Fine. I give up." Lorelai says, trying to walk away.

"OH, you give up? If I had a dollar for every time you gave up..."

"Then you could pay for this party, couldn't you?" Lorelai says, walking away.

The next day, at the house, Sookie is unloading groceries just as Lorelai walks in. She waves and walks straight to the cabinet of mugs.

"I made coffee." Sookie tells her.

"Mmm."

"Hangover?"

"Emily." Lorelai says.

"Oh. Got it. Moving on."

Rory walks out of her room, smiling. "Good morning."

"Morning, popcorn. You want some pancakes?" Sookie asks.

"No, I've gotta get going."

Lorelai gives her a strange look. "Where?"

"The college fair is today."

"So, you're going to get yet another Harvard brochure?"

"I just wanna see if they've changed the pictures."

"Weirdo."

"I'll be back in plenty of time to help you decorate."

"No. This is your party. You do not work. You lounge and mock those who are. Have I taught you nothing?"

"Sorry. I'll try to be better. Bye." Rory walks away.

"Lauren, Sookie is making pancakes!" Lorelai yells as loud as she could.

"Ow." Sookie says.

They hear a thump on the floor and then an ow right after from upstairs. Lorelai starts smiling. "Well, she loves your pancakes."

Later that day, the party of started and everyone was gathered in the Gilmore house having a blast. In the living room, everyone was gathered as they watch Rory open her gifts. Lorelai's was next.

"Okay. Open it. Open it. Open it." Rory begins to unwrap the paper, and when she does she sees a laptop staring back at her.

"No!"

"Do you like it?" Lorelai asks.

"Uh huh!" Rory says, jumping at her mom and giving her a big hug as they all laugh.

"You can take it back!" Lorelai laughs.

"No, I love it. It's perfect." Rory says, looking at it again.

"It's blue and it has a handle."

"It's way too expensive." Rory tells her.

"I know. That's what I told the guy at the store." Lorelai says.

Sookie walks in with a cake with Rory's face on it. "Okay. On three because I'm gonna drop it!" She says, putting it in front of Rory.

Everyone starts singing together. "Make a wish." Lauren yells.

Rory starts blowing out all her candle as everyone starts clapping. "Alright, everybody I need your attention, attention, attention, please." Lorelai says, standing up. "This is a very serious moment. Two priests, a rabbi, and a duck..." everyone starts laughing.

"Mom!" Rory says.

"Alright. I'm kidding. I would like to propose a toast to one of the many good things in my life."

"Because I'm the second good thing!" Lauren yells out, making every laugh.

"The one who is the sweetest.." Lorelai says, looking at Lauren who just rolls her eyes. "and without whom I would have no reason to get up in the morning. My pal, Rory. Cheers. And in honor of this very special girl I now invite you all to help me eat her face."

Sookie hands Rory the knife. "There's something very strange about hacking into my own head."

The doorbell starts ringing. "Geez, who the hell's ringing the bell?" Lorelai yells. "It's a party. Get your ass in here!" Emily and Richard step into sight. Lorelai turns around and smiles nervously. "Or asses, I guess."

"Grandma, Grandpa!" Rory says, running over to them. "I can't believe you're here. I'm so glad you came." She says hugging them both. "Hey, Grandma, look." Rory shows Emily her wrist that the bracelet she gave her is on.

"Why, it looks lovely." Emily says, smiling.

"I want you to meet everyone. Everyone these are my grandparents."

"Hi." Everyone says.

Lorelai and Lauren walk over to them. "Lorelai."

"Emily, Dad."

"Hey, Grandma. Hey Grandpa." Lauren says.

Richard and Emily look at Lauren. "You have quite the get-up." Richard laughs.

Lauren smiles happily. "Aw, thanks, Grandpa. I did it myself!"

Lauren is wearing a funky shirt, jeans, a tutu, and a boa around her neck. "Mom, Dad, can I get you a drink?" Lorelai asks.

"No, thank you." Emily tells her.

"Oh, no, Mom, you're gonna need one. And I have wine glasses that say 'Holiday Inn' on them."

"Stoli on the rocks with a twist."

"Right." Lorelai says, walking towards the kitchen where Sookie is taking something out of the oven. "Um, okay, my parents are here."

"No."

"Yeah, uh, I've cursed in front of them twice, and I'm sure my mom's gonna call child protective services."

"God, when was the last time they were here?" Sookie asks.

"Never."

Sookie looks up surprised. "Not once?"

"Not since we moved here. I mean, they'd come down and visit occasionally when Rory was a baby, and we lived at the Inn, but not since Lauren was born and we lived here."

"Wow. That's big stuff. Is Rory thrilled?"

"Through the roof."

"Oh, that's great."

Emily walks in. "Lorelai, I just tried some of those hor d'oeuvres. They're unbelievable. Who is your caterer?" Emily asks.

"Sookie."

"What's a Sookie?"

Lorelai nods her head towards Sookie. "That's a Sookie."

"Hi, Sookie St. James."

"Sookie's the chef at the Inn, Mom."

"My dear, you are very talented." Emily tells her.

"Thank you."

"Well, you must cater my next party. And when my friend get wind of you, you'll have so much business you won't know what to do with yourself. But remember, I discovered you."

"Mom, Sookie has a job. She's the chef at the Inn." Lorelai explains again. Emily just looks at Lorelai. "The Inn where we work. My Inn. Six days a week, Mom. She cooks there every day. Just give her your number, or we'll never get out of here."

In the living room, Richard is looking under the fire place. "So, how does it look?" Lauren asks her grandfather.

"It doesn't look structurally sound."

"I'll let Mom know." Lauren says, turning away.

Sookie runs into the living room over to Lorelai. "Don't panic."

"Oh, good opening line. What's wrong?" Lorelai asks.

"We're out of ice."

"How can we be out of ice? We had a ton of ice. It was like a penguin habitat in there."

"I don't know how it happened. I just know it's happened. And somehow we have to deal with it."

Lorelai sighs. "Well, I will go and get some then." She says, walking to the front door, but Luke walks in. "Oh, my god! You're a vision! Sookie, we have ice!"

Sookie pokes her head in. "Hallelujah."

"How did you know?" Lorelai asks him.

"Well, good rule of thumb is you can never have too much ice."

Lorelai hugs Luke tightly. "Oh, you're the best!"

Emily walks in just as Lorelai pulls away. "Oh, hi, Mom. This is my friend Luke."

"How do you do." Luke says.

"Fine. Thank you."

"Well, I'd better get these in the freezer before they melt." Luke tells Lorelai.

"Well, not very likely in here." She whispers as Luke walks away.

Outside, Lauren walks down the porch with a magazine in her hand, over to her Grandfather.

"Grandpa." Lauren says, walking over to him.

"Lauren, this is a lovely party."

"I brought you something to read." Lauren says, handing it to him.

"Oh."

"It's not The Wall Street Journal, but there's a quiz in there that determines whether you're a summer or a fall."

"I appreciate this. Thank you."

Lauren laughs and walks back to the party as Richard begins to read.

In the living room, everyone is sitting down reminising about Rory's childhood. Lorelai, Lauren, and Rory are sitting on the couch listening.

"Oh, Morey, you remember the time that Rory made Lauren believe that our old tree stump was a fairy ring?" Babette asks.

"I sure do."

"How old was she then, sugar?"

Lorelai reaches over and brushes her fingers through Rory's hair, smiling. "I think she was about ten and Lauren was six."

"Hey, she was an easy target." Rory says, laughing as Lauren glares at her.

"Oh, god, they were so cute. Lauren used to sit out there with a peanut-butter sandwich, just waiting for the fairy to get hungry."

"Okay, new story. This is making me sad." Lauren tells them. "Rory was mean to me."

Lorelai grabs Lauren and pushes her towards her, kissing her gently on the forehead. "And yet you still followed your big sister everywhere she went." Lauren rolls her eyes, smiling.

"Oh, well, I'm still crushed beyong belief that she quit her ballet lessons." Patty tells them.

"Oh, not me." Lorelai says, looking at Rory. "Miss Perfect work ethic would prance around this room 24 hours a day."

"And I still stunk." Rory says.

"I can vouch for that." Lane tells them.

"That's not true!" Patty says.

"She was pretty bad." Morey says.

"No, don't you listen to them. You had a true gift." Rory and everyone start laughing as Lorelai watches her mom get up and go upstairs.

In Lorelai's room, Emily is looking at a blanket that is set on Lorelai's bed.

"I made that." Lorelai says, walking into the room.

Emily looks up. "Really?"

"From, uh, Rory's old baby clothes."

"How nice. I hope you washed them first."

"Oh, rats." Lorelai says, snapping her fingers. "I knew I forgot something."

"That's quite an assortment of characters you have assembled down there." Emily tells her.

Lorelai smiles. "They're great people."

"This Patricia."

"Miss. Patty."

"She teaches dance?"

"Among other things."

"And this man with the ice?"

"Luke."

"How long have you been seeing him?" Emily smirks.

Lorelai laughs. "Luke? I'm not seeing Luke. He's just a friend."

"Mhm."

"Mom, I swear. Luke keeps me in coffee. Nothing else."

"He seems to like you."

"And you're judging this by what?" Lorelai asks.

"By the way he looked at you."

"Which was how?"

"Like you were about to give him a lap dance."

Lorelai starts laughing. "Mom, he did not look at me like that."

"You're pleased."

"What?"

"You smiled. You're pleased that the ice man looked you like a porterhuose steak." Emily tells her.

"I'm smiling because you're crazy and that's what you do to crazy people to keep them calm."

Emily smiles as she walks over to Lorelai's dresser and picks up a picture of Lorelai standing up in a full leg cast. "What's this?"

"Well, that's me, Mom."

"I know it's you. You're wearing a cast."

"Yeah. That's when I broke my leg."

"You broke your leg?"

"Yeah, three years ago during a yoga class. The headstand portion took a very ugly turn. The good thing was that I brough the smug, blonde pretzel chick down with me. I've since learned that I'm a bit too competitive for yoga." Lorelai explains.

"I never knew you broke your leg." Emily says, still surprised.

"It was no big deal, Mom. If I had been really sick you would have known."

"Yeah." Emily says, putting the picture back. "You know you could get a maid in here at least once a week to tidy the place up." She says, looking around the very messy room.

"I like it cluttered."

"You can't even find the bed."

"Yes, I can. It's the thing I crash into on the way to the closet."

"I should go check on your father." Emily says, starting to walk away.

"It was nice that you came tonight, Mom." Lorelai tells her. Emily turns around. "It meant a lot to Rory. Really."

"Well, she is my grand-daughter, after all. I should be here."

"I totally agree."

Outside, Emily walks out trying to find Richard.

"It's time to go now." She tells him.

"Uh, in a minute, please." Richard says, still reading the magazine.

Rory walks out and meets them. "Rory, we're going to get going now."

"Thank you for coming." Rory tells her.

"Thank you for asking me."

Suddenly Lauren climbs onto the porch railing, from the roof, and jumps down on the ground. Emily jumps up. "Lauren, what are you doing!?"

Lauren walks over to Rory. "Sorry, Grandma. She and her friends do it every year. We still don't understand why."

"Because it's fun to do. Duh." Lauren says.

Richard closes the magazine and stands up. "Lovely party. I enjoyed the reading material immensely, Lauren."

"So, what's the verdict?" She asks.

"I am an autumn."

"Interesting." Lauren says.

"Isn't it."

Lorelai walks out. "Hey, So are you guys leaving? The mud wrestling starts in ten minutes."

Emily smirks. "Goodnight, Lorelai. We had a lovely time. You might want to put a gate up on the roof for your very brave, adventurous daughter."

Lorelai looks over and Lauren just gives her a cheeky smile. "I'd have that chimney inspected if I were you." Richard tells her.

"I'll get right on that, Dad." Lorelai tells him.

Richard digs out another envelope out of his pocket. "Uh, for Fez." He says, handing it to Rory.

"But Grandpa, you already took care of Fez."

"Fez is a very large city." He says, before walking away.

Rory and Lauren walk over to their mom, who puts her arms around them. "So?" Rory says.

"Food fight?" Lauren asks.

"Absolutely." Lorelai says, as they all laugh and run into the house.

In the kitchen, Sookie and Lorelai are cleaning up.

"Next year, for Lauren's birthday we are going to a McDonald's with one of those slides, and that's it." Lorelai tells Sookie.

"The party was a hit." Sookie says, handing Lorelai more dishes.

"And we'll be eating onion dip for breakfast for a week."

"Okay, I'm gonna go check the living room!" Sookie says, walking out.

Through the kitchen window, Lorelai gasp as she watches Rory and Dean outside.

"You didn't have to get me anything." Rory tells him.

"Sorry. That's the rules." He tells her, handing her a box. "When you get older you get a gift."

"I'm sorry about this sort of sneaky thing." Rory tells him. "I just haven't told my mother yet about you. I mean not that there's anything to tell. I.."

"It's okay. This is better."

Rory smiles as she begins to open the box. "Oh, my gosh. It's beautiful." She says, taking the bracelet out.

"Well, I bought the medallion, and then I just cut some leather straps and drilled a hole, and well..you like it?"

"It's amazing."

"Good."

"Thank you."

"Here." Dean takes the bracelet from Rory and begins to put it on her wrist and they grab hands.

Lorelai, who was still watching from the window, was freaking out. She couldn't move, she couldn't talk, she just stood there watching.


	8. Both Of Us

It was a typical day in the Stars Hollow community. Everyone was decorating and taking down decorations from the previous season so get ready for the next one. Through the town Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking through all of the clatter to go over to Luke's for their morning breakfast before school and work.

"One of us has got to do laundry tonight." Lorelai tells them.

Lauren scoffs. "Definitely not me. I did it last time."

"I haven't had clean underwear for three days." Lorelai says, receiving a gross look from Lauren and Rory.

"So, right now under your skirt you're wearing..." Rory says.

Lorelai shakes her head. "Not underwear."

"Mom!" Rory and Lauren say in disgust.

Lorelai smiles. "It's kinda nice actually. Breezy."

"My role model ladies and gentlemen." Rory says.

"How come you two haven't run out yet?"

Rory and Lauren exchange glances. "I don't know. I guess we have more underwear than you."

"That's not true. You both have less. Have you been doing laundry without me?"

"No." Lauren answers, quickly.

"Rory." Lorelai says, looking over at her other daughter, who she knew couldn't keep it from her.

"Okay, one load!"

Lorelai gasp. "And you didn't even ask if I had stuff to throw in, but you ask your sister?"

"She was home and it was a big load already. There wasn't any room." Rory tells her.

"I'm crushed. I'm bleeding. Get me a tourniquet. Oh, no. They're dirty cause Rory and Lauren won't wash them with their stuff."

"I'm sorry." Rory says.

"Me too." Lauren agrees.

"I'll do another load tonight, I promise."

"Nevermind. I'll do my own laundry."

"Fine. Even better."

Lorelai looks at Rory. "I hate doing laundry. Maybe I'll just buy new underwear."

In Luke's, the girls walk in to find Taylor Doose arguing with Luke. "Every other store in town has fall decorations."

"Well, hurrah for the mob mentality." Luke says, walking over to a table.

"We're talk a few streamers and a paper turkey. How is it gonna hurt to have a paper turkey?" Taylor asks.

"No turkeys, no squash, no pumpkins. Nothing colored orange."

"Okay, so you don't like orange." Luke walks behind the counter and turns around to make sure Taylor doesn't follow him. "That's fine. Autumn has many varied hues to toy with."

At the counter, Lorelai, Lauren, and Rory are waiting impatiently. "Excuse me, could we get some coffee, please?" Lorelai asks.

"And a muffin?" Rory asks.

"Warmed." Lauren adds.

"This is an Autumn festival. Your shop is right across the street from the horn of plenty. You're right smack dab in the middle of everything. You have to decorate." Taylor tells him in frustration.

"I don't have to do anything but serve food." Luke tells him.

"And coffee!" Lorelai yells out.

"And muffins." Rory says.

"Taylor, I'm tired of having this conversation with you every year."

"You have lived in Stars Hollow for a long time, young man. It's time you became one of us."

Lorelai starts waving money in the air to get Luke's attention. "Sorry, I guess my pod's defective." Luke tells him.

"Hey, my mom's not wearing any underwear." Lauren yells out to them. Lorelai gasp at Lauren, while Rory starts laughing. "Well, you aren't." Lauren tells her.

"You're just being selfish, Luke." Taylor says.

"Still they don't notice. I can't take it anymore." Lorelai says, standing up and walking behind the counter.

"We're talking about the spirit of Fall."

"What kind of muffin do you want?" Lorelai asks her girls.

"Blueberry." They both say.

Lorelai pours them all coffee and hands it to them. "You know where you can stick the spirit of Fall?" Luke asks, Taylor. Lorelai opens the top for the muffins. "Here, don't use your hands." He says, handing her tongs. He pushes Taylor's decorations back over to them.

"I don't think you're taking me seriously."

"What gave you that idea? No tip?" Luke asks them, as they get up to leave.

"Oh, yeah, here's your tip: Serve your customers." Lorelai tells him as they all three walk out the door.

"Here's another: Don't sit on any cold benches!"

It was after school, and Rory was getting off the bus. She decided to go into the market as she waits for Lauren to meet her. Rory walks around and sees Taylor talking to Dean about how to display their cans. Dean notices Rory as she picks up a box of cornstarch. He smiles and walks over to her.

"You know, you can get 2 for $3." Dean tells her.

Rory looks up, smiling. "Oh, really? Excellent deal."

"You just had a desperate need for some cornstarch?"

"Yes, I have very important thickening needs, thank you." Rory takes a deep breath. "Nice apron."

"Nice uniform."

"Well, you know, I sewed the buttons on with silver threads, so that sets me apart from the crowd." Dean just stands there smiling, making things a little awkward. "I guess I should get going. Lauren is suppose to be meeting me."

"Wait a sec. You want a pop or something?" Dean asks her.

"A pop?" Rory laughs.

"Give me a break. In Chicago they call it pop."

"Well, in Connecticut we call it free soda. And, yes, thank you."

Dean walks away to the soda as Rory follows him. He gets two cans and puts it behind his back. "Alright, guess what's in each hand, you get the soda." He tells her.

"Okay, the whole concept of a free soda is that it's free." Rory reminds him. "You don't have to work for it."

"Sorry. You gotta sing for your supper."

"Or your soda."

"Guess."

"Okay." Rory reaches over. "In this hand you have..." Dean leans in a kisses her. Rory breaks away and looks at Dean in shock. "Thank you." She quickly turns away and starts running out of the market, with the cornstarch in hand. She continues to run, dodging a few cars and people, before finally reaching Lanes and running in. "Lane!" She calls out.

Lane hurries out. "What's wrong?"

"I got kissed. And I shoplifted." Rory says, holding up the cornstarch.

"Are you serious!?" Lane asks. "Who kissed you?"

"Dean."

"The new kid?"

"Yes."

"You got kissed. Oh, my gosh!"

"It happened so fast. I was just standing there."

"Where?"

"Doose's Market."

"He kissed you in the market?"

"On aisle 3."

"By the ant spray?"

"Yes."

"Oh, that's a good aisle."

"What defines a good aisle?" Rory asks, laughing.

"An aisle where you get kissed by the new kid is a good aisle."

"Oh, my god. I can't breathe." Rory says, trying to catch her breath. "He kissed me."

Lane mom's walks up behind them. "Who kissed you?"

"The Lord, Mama." Lane says.

"Oh, Okay then." She says, walking away.

Lane pulls Rory aside. "So, tell me everything."

"So, I go into the store, and he offers me a soda. And then he puts two behind his back and asks me to pick one, and then he kissed me." Rory explains.

"I'm so jealous. That's it. I've got to get some dumb, ugly friends." Lane jokes.

"I have to go tell my mom." Rory says, walking away, but stops suddenly. "Wait. My mom doesn't know about Dean. Only Lauren does."

"So tell her."

"The last time the subject of boys came up, it got very ugly."

"Well, that was different. She thought you wanted to quit school over a guy."

"Yes, over Dean."

"Okay, fine. But she doesn't have to know it was him."

"She'll know."

"How?"

"She'll know. She's Lorelai. She'll know. What do I do?"

"Well, maybe she'll be more open to the concept now that you're in school and doing well and everything."

"Maybe."

"Try it."

"Okay. I gotta go. Lauren is probably looking all over for me." Rory says, turning towards the door.

"Hey." Lane calls out, making her turn back around. "Was it great?"

"It was perfect." Rory laughs as she walks out.

At the house, Lorelai is in the fridge, with all the food out on the floor, while she is on the phone. Lauren storms in and throws her bag on the floor.

"Mom, Rory forgot me! Again!" She yells, walking into the kitchen.

"Honey, hold on." She tells her. "Yeah, can you hear that?" She asks the guy on the phone. The fridge is buzzing. "No, no, it's higher. It's like a high-pitched kind of an 'eeeeee' sound. It started last week."

The front door closes again and Rory walks in. "Mom, is Lauren here?"

"Yes, I am in here, and I am not speaking to you!" Lauren yells at her.

Rory walks in and sighs. "I'm sorry. I had to go to Lane's real quick.

"It only happens when we open the door." Lorelai tells the guy on the phone. "Okay, look, I've already told this to three other people. So, could you just please tell me what is wrong with my fridge." Lorelai sighs. "No I'm not gonna make the noise again. Eeeeee" Rory turns away and walks into her room. "Look Jerry, I don't have a lot of pride, but I do have enough that I do not want to make that noise again. So, could you please tell me what is wrong with the fridge, or connect me with someone who can?" Rory takes the cornstarch out of her booksack and puts it happily onto her dresser. "Thank you." She walks back out and puts her books on the table. Lauren gives her sister a mean glare. "Oh, hi, look here is the deal. You will send someone out here tomorrow between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 because I work and I can't wait four hours for one of you guys to show up. Great! Goodbye." Lorelai says, hanging up, and throwing the phone down.

"So, are they coming tomorrow?" Rory asks.

"Nope. Monday between three and eight. I am completely useless."

"Sorry."

"Oh, god, look at this place. It's a sty." Lorelai gets up, annoyed. "Now I'm crabby. I'm crabby and useless. I hate my life!" She says, walking away.

"You're lucky she's too busy hating her life to yell at you right now!" Lauren tells her sister.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Lauren, I said I was sorry."

"Yeah, sure." Lauren says, following her mom's direction.

At Kim's Antique store, Lorelai walks in and sees no one.

"Hello?" She calls out. "Hello!"

Lane's mom pops up scaring Lorelai. "Oh, god."

"Yes?"

"Quite an entrance. Geez, my heart."

"Rory's not here." Mrs. Kim tells her.

"No, I know. Um, I came to pick up that rocker that I bought a couple weeks ago."

"Six weeks ago." She corrects her.

"Oh, okay. Well, that's a couple times three, that's six." Lorelai jokes as she follows Mrs. Kim. "Math humor. Oh, it's not big with a lot of people. Don't feel bad."

"This is not a storage facility." Mrs. Kim tells her.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"This is a furniture store. Furniture comes in, people buy, then it goes out except when Lorelai Gilmore buys then furniture stays here for six weeks."

"How about I pay you extra?"

"I don't want you to pay me extra. I want you to pick up the thing you paid for in the first place. Here." She says, stopping at the chair.

"Huh. I remember it smaller." Lorelai says, looking at it.

"It's been six weeks. Maybe it grew."

"Right. Well, once again, I'm really sorry. I've just been really busy."

"Maybe you should be less busy. Then you can remember to pick up chairs."

"Right. Absolutely. Smell a rose, got it."

"And then you could keep your daughter from running around kissing boys."

"What?" Lorelai says, confused.

"Lane is a young impressionable girl. She doesn't need to hear about your daughter's kissing."

"Lauren?"

"No, Rory."

Lorelai laughs. "Rory is not kissing anyone."

"Yes, she is. She came in and told Lane she kissed a boy in the grocery store. The grocery store, where we buy our food."

"This does not make any..." Lorelai stops, and remembers what she seen outside the kitchen window for Rory's birthday. "She kissed the boy in the grocery store?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, yes, yes. The boy in the grocery store. Kiss, kiss, kiss."

Lorelai looks stunned. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. She didn't tell me. I have to go." Lorelai says, walking away.

Mrs. Kim sighs when she notices the chair is still there. "You left your chair!"

After leaving Mrs. Kim's, Lorelai decides to take a stroll over to the market. When she looks inside she sees the new guy, Dean, helping bag groceries. She walks in and starts peeking around the aisle, pretending to look at things.

Luke walks up behind her. "Hey."

Lorelai jumps up. "Oh, god! Oh, god! What are you doing!?"

"What are you doing?" Luke asks her.

"I asked you first."

"I ran out of cream."

"Yeah, me, too."

"What are you staring at?"

"Nothing. Don't look. Don't look." She says, pushing Luke away.

"What's wrong with you today?"

"Rory got kissed." Lorelai tells him and she moves Luke and herself around while still trying to watch Dean.

"What?"

"Rory had her first kiss and that guy did it." Lorelai tells him. Luke turns around and they both stand there staring.

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"The new kid."

"Yeap. Oh, look at him. Look how smug he is."

Luke looks down at Lorelai. "He's bagging groceries." He tells her. "It's hard to be smug."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Oh! Look how he handled those lemons."

"What are you talking about?"

"He threw them in the bag. Not tossed them or placed them, but threw them like they meant nothing."

"They're lemons." He reminds her.

"They're symbolic."

"Okay. We need to get your out of here."

"No. That lothario over there has wormed his way into my daughter's heart and mouth and for that he must die."

"That's it. Let's go." Luke says, pushing Lorelai away.

"No." Lorelai argues.

"You're not gonna kill the bag boy."

"Why not?"

"Cause it's double coupon day. You'll bring down the town." Luke says, as he continues to push her until she is out of the market.

"Okay, okay. I'm out. Stop pushing me."

"What are you thinking spying like that?"

"I don't know. I just wanted to see him. I've seem him already but before he was..."

"Rory's boyfriend?"

"Shush, you."

"She's growing up."

"I know."

"There's nothing you can do about that."

"Okay, Mr. Reality, break into somebody else's house."

"Sorry."

They both start to walk. "Why didn't she tell me?" Lorelai asks him.

"What?"

"Why didn't Rory tell me about the kiss?"

"Maybe she didn't know you'd take it so well."

"You want to hear something crazy?"

"Cause all the talk up until now has been so normal?"

"He kind of looks like Christopher."

"The grocery kid?"

"Yeah, he looks likes Christopher."

"Christopher is Rory's dad?"

"The hair, the build, something about the eyes. He reminds me of Christopher."

"Well, that's not too surprising."

"You're gonna quote Freud to me? Cause I'll push you in front of a moving car. This talk was going so well."

"You and Rory are a lot alike. It's not surprising you would have similar tastes in men."

"I guess. But why? Why didn't she tell me? We tell eachother everything."

"This is different."

"But we tell eachother everything else, but this she keeps a secret. It's cause it's a guy thing."

"Probably."

"Well, that's not good. I have to make her understand that I'm okay with the guy thing cause not talking about guys and our personal lives, that's me and my mom. That is not me and Rory."

"Are you okay with the guy thing?" Luke asks.

Lorelai turns away. "Yes."

"Really?"

"Okay ish."

"That's not okay."

"Well, that's okay with an ish."

"Whatever you say."

"She just, she thinks I'll disapprove, right? Well, I won't. I will show her that I think this is great. Once she sees that I think this is great, everything will be back to normal between us, right? Right, okay, good."

"So, you passed the need for an actual person to talk to several minutes ago."

"Oh, yeah, before the gelato stand."

"You're an amazing woman."

"Thank you for noticing."

Later, Lorelai is sitting on the couch reading as Lauren comes downstairs.

"Oh, hey. I feel like I haven't seen you all day!" Lorelai says to her daughter.

Lauren looks at her weird. "We just ate Chinese together."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Okay, yeah, but we barely spoke. Come sit down and talk to Mommy." Lauren does as she is told and sits on the side of her.

"What do you want to talk about?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai gives Lauren a creepy smile. "Just about you, and what you know."

"What do I know?"

"Okay. I am just going to cut straight to the point. What do you know about this new boy in town?"

"What new boy?"

"The new boy that you seen walking with Rory and the one she has been talking to." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, Dean." Lauren says, smiling. "He's cute."

Lorelai quickly puts a finger onto Lauren's mouth. "No. Don't say that. You will not think a boy is cute for a very very long time. Do you hear me?" Lauren nods her head.

"What is wrong with you?" Lauren asks, when Lorelai takes her fingers back.

"Rory kissed this Dean boy yesterday, and she didn't tell me." Lorelai explains.

Lauren's eyes widen up in surprise. "She did what!? She didn't tell me she kissed him. Well, I'm not really speaking to her right now since she did forget him." Lauren says, remembering yesterday when Rory didn't wait for her. "Which you never told her something about by the way!"

"Okay, Lauren, stay on one subject. Rory and Dean. What do you know about him?"

Lauren sighs. "Um, not much. I know he is from Chicago and he use to watch Rory all the time when she read. It's actually pretty creepy. Wait. How did you find out that Dean kissed Rory if she never told you?"

"Mrs. Kim told me because Rory went over there to tell Lane."

"Ahhh. So, that is why she forgot me."

When they both hear the door open, they both act like they are doing something else when Rory walks in. "Hey, sorry I'm late." Rory tells them.

"Oh, hey. No big deal. Um, there's Chinese in the fridge."

"Okay."

Lorelai ushers Lauren to stay seated as she gets up and walks into the kitchen. When Rory opens the fridge door, Lorelai walks up behind her. So, kissed any good boys lately?"

Rory looks at Lorelai. "Who.."

"Mrs. Kim."

Rory huffs as she slams the fridge door. "Of course."

"So, he's cute."

"Yeah, he is."

"Can he spell?"

"He can spell and read." Rory tells her as she walks away to get a plate. "How long have you known?"

"Since this morning. You didn't think you were going to be able to keep it a secret, did you? You were making out in the market."

"We weren't making out. It was just one kiss."

"Yeah, well, by the time that gets to Miss. Patty's it's a scene from 9 1/2 weeks."

"So.." Rory says, as they stand their awkwardly staring at eachother

"So.."

"What now?"

"Now? Nothing."

"No? No lecture about kissing a boy?"

"No. why, did you do it wrong?"

"No. I don't think."

"I didn't love the way I found out, but you're getting older. These things are bound to happen occasionally. Actually, I think it's great."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do. I'm thrilled."

"Thrilled?"

"Yeah."

"You're completely weirded out by this, aren't you?"

"No, you're crazy. I'm perfectly find with it."

"You don't seem fine. You seem the completel opposite of fine."

"Wel,, you're projecting that on me because you don't want to think that I'm fine when I am as I've said, fine."

"Okay."

"Never been finer."

"Got it. You want some?" Rory asks, since Lorelai is still standing up looking at her.

"No, thanks. I'm fine."

It was another night, and the girls were getting ready for their movie night that they have once a week. They are walking to the market to get videos and junk food.

"Okay, we have to be really quick because the video store's gonna close. So stick to our list. No impulse buying like toothpaste or soap." Lorelai says, walking to the market door. Rory suddenly stops and Lorelai and Lauren turns around. "Rory?"

"Hey, you know what? I think we have enough stuff to eat at home." She tells them.

"Really? Where do you live? Cause the home I left had nothing."

"We're ordering pizza. That's enough."

"Rory are you crazy? You can't wait Willy Wonka without a lot of junk food." Lauren tells her.

"Yeah." Lorelai agrees. "We're going in." Rory still doesn't move making Lorelai laugh. "Rory, it's fine."

"It's too weird."

"I'm gonna have to meet him eventually."

"Okay. How about next year?"

"I'm going to be so cool in there, you will mistake me for shaft."

"There will be no interrogation."

"I swear."

"No kissing noises." Rory says, pointing to both Lorelai and Lauren, who just smile. "No stories from my childhood. No refering to Chicago as 'Chi-town.' No James Dean jokes. No father with a shotgun stares. No Nancy Walker impressions."

"Oh, come on!"

"Promise me."

"I really and truly promise." Lorelai says.

Rory looks at Lauren. "I promise, too, now can we please go to the market?"

Rory inhales. "Okay. Let's go." They walk in and start looking around. "I don't see him."

Lorelai grabs a basket. "Alright, well, maybe he's on a break."

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe he's on a break. Okay, good so we can shop."

"Yeah."

"Do we want marshmallows?" Lauren asks, picking a bag up.

"Mmm. And Jellybeans. And chocolate kisses. Cookie dough we have at home, peanut butter...Ooh! Do you think they have that thing that's a sugar stick on the side but then you dip it in the sugar on the other side and eat it?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, my gosh. I love that stuff!" Lauren says, laughing.

"We are gonna be so sick. It's amazing that we still function." Rory says. As they walk to another aisle Rory sees Dean in the front. "There he is." They all look.

"Rory, he's tall. That must have been some back-bender, that kiss."

"Mom."

"Make sure you warm up next time."

"Okay, we are leaving now." Rory says, grabbing them both.

Lorelai laughs. "Sorry. Done now. He's got great eyes. You got to love a guy with great eyes."

"Yeah." Rory says, smiling.

"And a nice smile." Lauren adds in.

"Very nice."

"Think we can get him to turn around?" Lorelai asks.

"It's nice, too." Lauren says, making Lorelai and Rory both look down at her in surprised. Lauren shrugs. "What?"

Lorelai puts down the groceries at the counter. "You girls having another movie night?" The woman asks.

"Yeah. It's a Will Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, that's nice. Isn't that the one with Gene Hackman?"

"Uh, Gene Wilder." Dean corrects her.

"You're a Wonka fan?" Lorelai asks him.

"Yeah."

"Um, Dean, this is my mom, Lorelai, and you already know my sister, Lauren." Rory says, introducing them. Lorelai smiles at her. "Mom, this is Dean."

Lorelai puts out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Dean."

"Yeah, you, too."

"Nice apron."

"Um, thanks."

"$41.83" The woman tells her.

"Oh, wow. It's expensive to slowly rot your insides, isn't it?"

Dean hands Rory the bag. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Lorelai and Lauren walk up to them. "So, Dean, nice meeting you. Hope to see you again."

"Yeah."

Dean walks away when a guy calls his name. "See that wasn't so bad."

"You're right."

"I said nothing embarrassing, nothing stupid."

"I appreciate that."

"Chill out, Supermarket slut." Lorelai jokes.

"See even a little information in your hands is dangerous."

"Mom, Rory, come on before the video store closes!" Lauren says, pushing them out.

"Okay, geez." Lorelai says, when they reach outside. "I need coffee." She tells them.

"Mom, the video store closes in ten minutes!" Lauren whines.

"Well, you and your sister run to the video store, and I'll go get coffee." Lorelai tells them.

"Fine."

"Go, go, go, go, I'll meet you both a Luke's." Lorelai says, taking the bag from Rory before the two girls run off.

Lorelai starts to walk away just as the market door opens again and Dean runs out. "Hey, um, you forgot your red vines." He says, handing it to her.

Lorelai gasps. "Oh, wow! You totally saved the night! Thanks."

"Sure." Dean says, standing there a few seconds in silence before turning back around.

"Hey!" Lorelai says, stopping him. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Me? Uh, well, I don't know."

"Well, do you want to come over? We're ordering pizza, we got a movie. The neighborhood's got a pool going to see who falls into a sugar coma first. It's usually Lauren. It might be fun."

"Uh, um, uh..." Dean stutters as he turns his head to find Rory.

"Oh, it's totally casual. I'm sure Rory would love it."

"Okay, sure." Dean says, finally agreeing.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. What time?"

"Seven sound good?"

"Sounds fine."

"Let me give you our address."

"That's okay. I know where you live." Dean tells her.

"Right. Of course you do. Um, so see you tonight."

"Bye."

"Bye."

As Lorelai makes her way over to Lukes, she runs into her daughters. "So?"

"Got it." Lauren says, happily, putting the bag up to show her.

"Score! You know, on the one hand I'm glad it was in, but on the other hand, what kind of world do we live in where no one has rented Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory?"

"Well, we rented it." Rory says.

"Thank God for us. Oh, hey, I invited your friend over to watch it with us."

"What friend?" Rory asks.

"Dean."

Rory stops walking. "What?"

"Yeah, I told him what we were doing tonight, and he was totally into it. So...why are you looking at me like that?"

"You invited Dean to our house?"

"Yes."

Lauren shakes her head. "Way to go, Mom."

"Are you crazy?"

"Why are you mad?"

"Because we haven't been out on a date by ourselves yet. My first date with Dean is gonna be with my mother and little sister? What is wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry. I thought you would be happy about this."

"In what universe would I be happy?" Rory asks. "This isn't Amish country. Girls and boys usually date alone."

"I don't think of it as a date. I thought of it more as a hanging out kind of session."

"Well, I don't want our first hanging out session to be with my mother and sister either."

"Stop saying mother like that."

"Like what?"

"Like there's supposed to be another word after it."

"Yeah, and it's not like I did this to you. I was with you, and plus I've met Dean already." Lauren tells them.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Yes, I know, and you embarrass me every time you talk to him."

Lauren gasps. "I do not!"

"I can't believe you did this." Rory says, as she starts walking again. "I'm so humiliated."

"You're totally overreacting." Lorelai tells her. "I invited him to a movie and pizza, not ot Niagara Falls."

"He's the boy that I like."

"I know. I looked for one that you hated, but it was really short notice."

"And now he's forced to come and sit with me, my mother, and sister and eat crap."

"Well, I just invited a friend of yours to hang out. What's the big deal? I mean, what if Lane had done it?"

"You're not Lane. You're my mother. You inviting him over is like Grandma inviting a guy you liked over."

"You're comparing me to my mother?"

"No, I just.."

"I'm Emily Gilmore now? My, how the mighty have fallen."

"I didn't mean that."

"I wasn't trying to humiliate you."

"I know."

"If I was Emily Gilmore I'd be trying to humiliate you. Look, I'm sorry, I screwed up. I was trying to...look, I'll go. I'll uninvite him. I'll tell him that it's canceled on accound of I just found out that I'm my mother and I have to go into intensive therapy right now."

"No, you can't uninvite him. He'll think I wigged out or something."

"Well, then, I'll just disappear and you guys can be alone."

"No, Mom. I am watching this movie!" Lauren says, sternly.

"Oh, and have it look like my mom arranged a date for me?" Rory asks. "No!"

"What do we do?"

Rory sighs. "He has to come."

"It won't be so bad, okay? Just pizza and a movie, and hanging out. I promise you won't feel like your mother is there."

"But I will be there. I am not missing this movie." Lauren tells her.

"Okay." Rory says, sarcastically.

At the house, Rory is having a bit of a moment as she tries to find something to wear. She has clothes spread out all over her bed and she is standing over them thinking. Lorelai walks in.

"This is good. Add some cold cream, and some curlers, and let him know what he'll be coming home to every night." Lorelai jokes.

"This was supposed to be a simple night. Watch movies, eat junk, go to bed feeling sick. End of story. Now I'm supposed to look pretty and girly, which is completely impossible because I am gross and I have nothing ot wear."

"Do you want some help?"

"No." Rory looks around one more time. "Yes."

"Okay." Lorelai starts picking clothes randomly off the bed. "Let's see. This and.." Lorelai puts up a sweater. "This says, 'Hello, I'm hip and cute, but also relaxed since this is something I just threw on, even though it looks fantastic on me."

Rory looks at her mom, surprised. "How did you do that?"

"What?"

"I've been staring at that top for twenty minutes. It was just a top. You walk in, and in three seconds it's an outfit."

"It comes from years of experiencing fashion brain freeze just like the one you had." Lorelai explains.

"How do you do it?"

What?"

"This whole guy thing? I mean, I've watched you when you talk to a man. You have a comeback for everything. You make him laugh. You smile right."

"I smile right?" Lorelai asks.

"And then you do the little hair flip."

"Oh, twirl. It's a hair twirl." Lorelai says, demonstrating.

"And then you walk away. And he just stands there, amazed, like he can't believe what just happened."

"That's because I just stole his wallet."

"I'll never be able to do that. Trig, I can do. But boys and dating, forget it. I'm a total spaz." Rory says, sitting on her bed.

Lorelai sighs and sits next to her. "Listen. The talking part, you just get used to. The hair twirling, I can teach you. And the leaving him amazed part, with your brain and killer blue eyes, I'm not worried. You'll do fine. Just give youself a little time to get there."

"Is half an hour enough?"

"Plenty. Come on. Dab on some lip gloss, clear but fruity. Maybe a little mascara. Wear your hair down and your attitude high." Lorelai says, throwing the sweater at Rory and getting up.

"You're like a crazy Elsa Klensch."

"Oh, thank you. Come on, now, hustle. We got a man coming over."

An hour later, Rory, Lorelai, and Lauren are sitting on the couch, waiting for Dean to arrive.

"What time did you tell him to get here?" Rory asks.

"Seven."

"Maybe something happened. Maybe he's not coming."

"Maybe he's just late, Miss. German Train." Lauren gets up and walks to the window. When she looks out she sees Dean talking to Babette.

"Uh oh." She says.

"What?" Rory asks, as she and her mom get up and walk to the window.

"They've got Dean." Lauren tells them.

"Wait here." Lorelai says, walking out the side door.

"So, Dean, you like jazz?" Babette asks him.

"He sure does!" Lorelai says, running out. "It's all we ever hear about, right? Jazz. Jazz. Jazz. Jazz. Jazz. Hey."

"Hey, sugar. We were just getting to know your young man here."

"Yeah, I see that. So, Dean, would you mind going inside and helping Rory out? There's a struggle with a pickle jar lid that I think she's about lose."

"Oh, sure, yeah." Dean says.

"Oh, it was nice talking to you, Dean." Babette says.

"Yeah, you, too." Dean walks away.

"Oh, is he cute?" Babette says to Lorelai.

"Yeah, he is."

"And that Chuck Heston chin of his! Is he Rory's boyfriend?"

"Oh, no, they're just friends."

"Well, that's not what I heard. Kissing in Market."

"Okay. Well, I have to get back inside and shower. So, I'll talk to you guys later." Lorelai tells them.

"Yeah. Have a good evening. Oh, and don't forget to invite us to the wedding. Oh, won't their kids be gorgeous!"

"Oh, god, I hope not." Lorelai says, running back into the house.

Inside the house, Dean and Rory are talking when Lorelai comes in.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I got here, like, a half hour." Dean tells Rory.

"We believe you."

"We'd believe you if you said you got here three hours ago. Would you like a tour of the house?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, okay."

"So, this is the living room, where we do our living."

"And where Lauren is sitting very impatiently." Lauren adds in.

"And upstairs is my room and Lauren's room, and the good bathroom. And uh,." Rory points to the picture of her naked butt when she was baby that is sitting by the lamp. Lorelai slowly puts that down without Dean noticing. "The kitchen is right through here. You ever heard of a fridge yodel before?"

Dean walks into the kitchen. "Thank you." Rory whispers to Lorelai.

"You're welcome." They follows Dean. "Well, you have your basics. Microwave for popcorn, stove for storing shoes, refridgerator, which is completely worthless."

"Interesting." Dean says.

The doorbell rings. "Got it!" Lauren yells as she runs to the door.

"Rory, you take over as tour guide. Make sure to show him the emergency exits." Lorelai says, before walking away.

"That's my mom." Rory says.

"She's got energy."

"Yeah, well, she's 90 percent water, 10 percent caffeine."

Dean turns around to see a closed door. "So, what's in there?"

"Um, that's my room."

"Really? Can I see it?" Dean opens the door and starts looking around. "Wow. Very clean." Dean walks over to Rory's stereo and starts looking at her cds. "How much does it suck that they use Pink Moon in a Volkswagen commericial."

"Oh, I know." Rory says, as she stands outside her room.

"So, are you gonna come in?"

"Oh, no, I've seen it."

"I mean, you look like you're glued to the door there."

"No, I'm just, uh, observiing my room from a new perspective. I hardly ever stand here. It's really making me rethink my throw pillows." Rory tells him.

"Would you like me to get out of here?" Dean asks.

"No, I'm fine with you looking around."

Dean picks up a stuffed animal chicken. "Nice chicken."

"Or, you know at least I was."

At the front door, Lorelai is talking to Sookie who is holding dessert in her hands.

"We do not need dessert, Sookie." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, everybody needs dessert. Lauren you need dessert, right?"

Lauren walks back into the foyer. "Sure I do." She says, grabbing the dessert tray from Sookie and going back into the living room.

"So, where is Rory?"

"With Dean." Lorelai tells her.

"Dean? Oh, that's right. Yeah, Dean is here."

"Yeah, right. Okay. You need to go now."

"Please. I just want one little peak."

"No."

"Okay, fine. So, uh, how are you doing?"

"Sookie."

"I'm concerned."

"You're stalling."

"Am I?"

"Sookie." Lorelai turns and sees the pizza guy at the door, so she opens it.

"Hey, Lorelai." He says.

"Hey, Joe. What do I owe you?"

"$15 even."

"Okay."

Lauren runs in. "Oh, pizza!" She takes it from Sookie and runs back to the living room.

Lorelai hands Joe the money and he leaves. "Sookie, she's already freaked out that I invited him here. If she thinks I'm parading him around in front of all my friends, she'll kill me."

"But, I just want.."

"Death, bloody and slow, okay?"

"Mom, is that the pizza?" Rory yells out.

"Yes!" Lauren answers for Lorelai. "Hurry up so we can start!"

"Okay, bye. Now." Lorelai opens the door for Sookie and pushes her out.

Lorelai, Rory, and Dean go into the living room where Lauren has already made herself comfortable and is eating a piece of pizza.

"Thanks for waiting for us, sweets." Lorelai says, as they sit down.

Lauren shrugs. "I didn't know how long you guys were gonna be. You're lucky I didn't start the movie without you."

"Excuse her. She loves movie night and she hasn't seen this movie since she was little so she's a little excited." Rory explains to Dean.

"Now we didn't know what kind of pizza you liked so we got everything." Lorelai tells him.

"Everything is fine." He says, as he hands out napkins to everyone.

In the middle of the movie, somehow everyone ends up on the floor. Lorelai, Rory, and Dean are sitting, indian style, as they watch, while Lauren is layed back on a pillow resting again her mom's legs.

"Who needs more?" Lorelai asks.

Rory reaches over to the pizza box. "I do."

"Wow. You can eat." Dean says.

"Yes, I can. Oh, that's bad, isn't it?" Rory asks, hesitantly.

"No, uh, most girls don't eat. It's good you eat."

"I'm all for it." Lorelai tells them.

"Let's talk about something besides my eating habits, shall we?"

"Ooh oh oh, Oompa Loompas!" Lorelai and Lauren both say as one gets excited and the other one hides her eyes.

"My mom has a thing for the Oompa Loompas and Lauren is petrified of them." Rory explains.

"I don't think finding them amusing constitutes a thing." Lorelai says.

"No, but having a recurring dream about marrying one does."

"And why were you so excited to watch this if you're scared?" Dean asks Lauren.

Lauren looks up at him. "I just don't like them, okay? I like the rest of it. They are just short and orange with green hair. It's creepy."

"She use to have nightmares when she was little about them. She slept with me for two months after watching the movie, poor thing." Lorelai laughs, brushing her fingers through Lauren's hair. "Oh, and don't get me started on your Prince Charming crush, okay?" She tells Rory.

"Ooh, Prince Charming, huh?" Dean says, amused.

"It was a long time ago." Rory tells him. "And not the Cinderella one, the Sleeping Beauty one."

"Cause he could dance."

The girls look at Dean, confused. "Yeah." Rory says.

"I've got sisters." He tells them.

"So, come on, Dean, tell us some of your embarrassing secrets." Lorelai says.

Dean smirks. "Well, I have no embarrassing secrets."

"Oh, please."

"I bet I know one." Lauren says.

"What?" Dean asks.

"The theme from Ice Castles makes you cry."

"Oh, that's a good one." Lorelai tells her.

"That's not true."

"Oh, I've got one." Lorelai says. "Um, at the end of The Way We Were, you wanted Robert Redford to dump his wife and kid for Barbra Streisand."

"I've never seen The Way We Were." Dean admits.

"Are you kidding?" Rory asks.

"What are you waiting for? Heartache, laughter.."

"Communism."

"All in one neat package."

"I'll have to experience that sometime." Dean tells them.

"Next movie night." Lorelai tells him.

"It's plan." Rory says.

The microwave starts beeping. "Oh, I'm gonna get the popcorn. Lauren, help, please." Lorelai says, lifting Lauren up in the process.

"It's okay. I'm not watching the movie." She says, sarcastically, as she follows Lorelai into the kitchen.

"Bring the spray cheese." Rory tells them.

"So, uh, at what point does the outside get to suggest a movie for movie night?" Dean asks Rory.

"It depends. What movie are you thinking of?"

"I don't know. Boogie Nights, maybe?"

Rory chuckles. "You'll never get it passed Lorelai."

"Not a Marky Mark fan?"

"She had a bad reaction to Magnolia. She sat there screaming for three hours, I want my life back. And then we got kicked out of the theater. It was actually a pretty entertaining day."

"Yeah?" Dean asks, scooting closer.

"Yeah."

"I guess I'll to come up with a different movie then."

"I guess you will."

Lorelai begins to walk back into the living room, with the popcorn, until she notices how cozy Rory and Dean were and she decides to stop and push Lauren back into the kitchen.

"Mom, what are you doing? The movie."

"Lets just let them have some alone time, okay? I promise I'll get the movie again for you. Just sit in here with me." Lorelai tells her as they walk back into the kitchen and sit down. Lorelai pulls Lauren onto her lap and they start reading a random magazine.

Later, Rory and Dean are still sitting together watching the movie in silence now. Rory looks over at Dean. She wanted to say something, but all of a sudden she became nervous. Dean looks back at her.

"Hey."

"I'll be right back." Rory says, jumping up and going into the kitchen. When she walks in Lorelai and Lauren are in the same position. "Mom."

They both look up at the same time. "What?"

"What are you doing in here?" Rory asks.

"Trying to find the best bathing suit for my bust size." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, get back in there."

"Why? What happened?" Lauren asks.

"Did the bag boy try something?" Lorelai asks.

"He's sitting there and he's watching the movie, and he's perfect, and he smells really good." Rory tells them.

Lorelai and Lauren look at eachother then back at Rory looking completely confused. "What?" Lorelai asks.

"He smells really good and he looks amazing, and I am stupid. I said, thank you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You said thank you?"

"When he kissed me."

"Wait. He kissed you again!?" Lorelai asks, not believing it. "What, is he just out of prison or something?"

"No, not now. Yesterday, at the store."

Lauren starts laughing. "Oh, alright. Strike the prison comment." Lorelai tells her. "So, wait, he kissed you and you said thank you?"

"Yes."

"Well, that was very polite."

"No, it was stupid. And I don't know what I'm doing here. You two are sitting in the kitchen. What kind of chaperone are you?"

"Me? I'm not trying to be a chaperon. I'm a girlfriend."

"Well, switch gears cause I'm freaking out here!"

Lorelai smiles. "You really like him, don't you?"

"Yeah. I do."

"Well, okay, then, just calm down."

"I just don't want to do or say anything else that's gonna be remotely moronic."

"I'm afraid once your heart is involved it all comes out in moron."

"Just please come back in." Rory begs.

"Okay. Lets go then." Lorelai says, as she and Lauren stand up.

"Wait. We can't go back in together, though." Rory says, stopping them. "Because that would be too obvious."

"Right. Okay. I'll go in first, and you and Lauren go to the bathroom."

"Together?" Lauren asks.

"Tell him I had to wash my face, and Lauren is helping me."

"No, that's so weird." Lauren says. "Just say that Rory is washing her face, and I'm changing because I'm cold, because I am, and I think there's some warm ones in the bathroom."

"Alright, great. Teamwork." Lorelai says, walking towards the living room, and Rory and Lauren make way to the bathroom. "Hi, I'm back." She says, sitting back down and putting the popcorn on the floor in front of them. "Rory went to wash her face and help Lauren find some warm clothes."

"Oh, okay." Dean says.

It was quiet as the movie plays, so Lorelai turns off the tv deciding to talk to Dean now that no one was around. "Dean. I don't know exactly how to say this, but, um, this is a very different kind of household you walked into tonight."

"Yeah, I know."

"See, Rory is my daughter."

"Ah, here comes the talk." Dean says, sarcastically.

"How about I talk, you listen?" Lorelai asks. "Rory is a smart kid. She's never been much for guys. So the fact that she likes you means a lot. I don't believe she'd waste her time with some loser."

"But you're watching me."

"Sweetheart, the whole town is watching you. That girl in there is beloved around here. You hurt her, there's a not a safe place within 100 miles for you to hide. This is a very small, weird place you moved to."

"I've noticed."

"So, just know all eyes are on you."

"Anything else?"

"She's not going on your motorcycle." Lorelai adds.

"I don't have a motorcycle."

"She's not going on your motorcycle." She repeats.

"Fine. She won't go on my motorcycle."

"Curfew will be enforced. You will not detract from her schoolwork, and you're gonna start handling those lemons better."

"What?"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking. I reserve the right to change, alter, tweak, or add to this list of rulse at any given time without any written notice. Am I clear?"

"You're clear."

"Good."

"My turn to speak?" Dean asks.

"Fine. Go ahead."

"You can lay down all the rules you want. And you can have the whole town spy on me, and stare at me, and chase me through the streets. But I just want you to know that I'm not going anywhere. I need you not to hate me. If you hate me, then I don't have a shot in hell with Rory."

"Rory has her own mind."

"Yeah, but you're her best friend, and what you think means everything to her, and you know that."

Lorelai smiles. "I want to like you, cause Rory likes you."

"But you don't."

"I want to. And I usualy get what I want."

"Fair enough." Lorelai turns the movie back on. "She's taking a long time on her face."

"Yeah, well, Rory is a perfectionist."

After the movie, Rory and Dean are standing outside.

"Tell your mom thanks for inviting me." Dean tells Rory.

"I'm sorry if this was totally weird. I mean with my mom inviting you over, and watching the movie with her and my sister.."

"Hey, no, uh, it was good. Really."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Dean and Rory both start to lean in and kiss eachother again. "Thank you." Dean says, laughing when they pull apart.

Up in Lorelai's bedroom, Lorelai is laying down with her eyes closed with Lauren laying right beside her. Rory walks in and sits down next to them.

"Oompa Loompas?" Rory asks, since Lauren is sleeping in Lorelai's bed.

"Yeap." Rory nods her head, understanding. "So, that went well."

"Yeah, not bad."

"Did I humiliate you?"

"I don't know. What did you say to him when I went to the bathroom?" Rory asks.

"That you're pretty." Lorelai says, opening her eyes and smiling at her daughter.

"Liar."

"Yeah, well."

"I'm gonna go to bed." Rory says, standing up.

"Okay."

Lorelai sighs, which stops Rory. "Mom, what's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"Yes, there is. Come on. Tell me."

"Nothing. I just..I really wanted you to tell me about that kiss." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm so sorry. I really wanted to, I swear. I just got scared and..."

"I know. I'm not mad. I just wanted to hear about it. That's all. It's no big deal. It's okay. I'm fine. It's one too many caramello bars. I'm sorry. You have school, I have work. So, time for bed." Lorelai says, pulling the rest of the covers onto Lauren.

"Okay. Good night."

"Okay. Goodnight, hon."

Rory hesitates before walking out and turns back around. "Mom, I know this is lame and totoally after the face, but.."

Lorelai sits up quickly and Rory bounces on the bed making Lauren groan. "Start from the beginning and you leave anything out, you die." Lorelai tells her. "Where were you?"

"Okay. I was in theaidle where the ant spray is."

"That's a good aisle."

"That's what Lane said." Rory says as she continues her story making Lorelai smile like crazy and jump in excitment as she hears it.


	9. Good Time Comin On

Lorelai is laying in her bed, wide awake, when she looks over outside her window she sees the wind blowing, and leaves falling down against her window. Lorelai couldn't help but smile excitingly as she gets up and quietly walks downstairs and looks outside the living room window. She cracks it open just a little so that she can smell the air, before walking over to the answering machine and turning it on. Max's voice appears and she sits down, wrapping herself up in a blanket as she listens.

"Lorelai, it's Max. Medina. Max Medina. And once again we miss each other. It's now 2:00 in the afternoon on Thursday, and I'm in my office grading a paper entitled: Emily Dickenson, Get A Life. Anyhow, as I sit here losing my faith in mankind, I wonder if we're ever gonna actually go on that date we talked about many moons ago. I teach a night class in Stamford twice a week, and when I pass that Stars Hollow sign on the turnpike, I think, 'out there is a beautiful woman that I someday hope to spend time with.' Anyhow, I'm just thinking about you. I don't know, maybe next week we can find some time. Bye, Lorelai Gilmore." Lorelai smiles like she had never smiled before as she listened to the man on the answering machine. She quickly presses the replay button to hear it yet again, but when she does Rory walks out.

"Mom?" Rory calls out as she walks into the living room.

"Sorry." Lorelai apologizes turning off the machine.

"What are you doing up?" Rory asks, as she turn on the lamp beside her mom.

"I couldn't sleep."

"It's freezing in here." Rory says, walking over to the window, but before she closes it Lorelai stops her.

"Wait. Close your eyes and breathe." Rory does as she is told. "I smell snow." Lorelai tells her.

"Ahh, it's that time of year." Rory says, grabbing a blanket and walking to the couch, covering both herself, and her mom.

"Can you smell it?" Lorelai asks.

"You know, it's like dogs and high-pitched noises. I think it's something only you can smell."

Lorelai smiles widely at her daughter. "I love snow."

"Really? I had no idea." Rory says, sarcastically.

"Everything is magical when it snows. Everything looks pretty. The clothes are great. Coats, scarves, gloves, hats."

"Thermal underwear, wool socks, earflaps." Rory adds in.

"Do you know the best things in my life have happened when it snowed?" Lorelai asks her.

"Why, yes, I do."

"My best birthday."

"Your first kiss."

"Your first steps. They all happened when it snowed. I feel good. Tingly."

"It's called frostbite."

"You are mocking your mother, the woman who birthed you."

"I'm sorry."

"During a snowstorm, might I add."

"So, how soon is it supposed to hit?" Rory asks.

Lorelai thinks for a second. "Mmm. Tomorrow." She nods. "Definitely tomorrow."

"Okay, then tomorrow it is."

"What?"

"You, me, Lauren, doughnuts, coffee, standing out in a snowstorm."

"At midnight?"

"At midnight."

"You are my favorite daughter." Lorelai jokes.

Rory laughs until she notices the answering machine by them. "So, how many time are you gonna listen to that?"

"Till it stops being sexy."

Rory grimaces. "Stop. That's my teacher you're talking about. I have to respect him."

"Okay, well, if it makes you feel any better, while he's being sexy he's also being grammatically correct."

"Better. Thank you."

"Sorry I woke you up."

"It's okay. It's all fodder for the tell-all. Goodnight." Rory says, kissing her mom on her forehead.

"Goodnight."

Rory gets up, turns off the lamp, and goes back into her room to sleep. Lorelai waits until all is clear before grabbing the answering machine and pressing the play button again as she throws the blanket above her head, listening, and smiling happily as his voice feels the room once again.

It was morning, and at the Inn, Lorelai is busy getting everything ready for the snow when Rory, Lauren, and Lane, who is dressed in a band uniform, walk in. Rory is digging in her bag, Lauren is sneezing uncontrollably, and Lane is talking like a crazy person.

"And then one day I look over, and it's Rich." Lane tells them. "Rich Bloomenfield."

"Where is my chemistry book?" Rory asks. "I had it at your house yesterday, didn't I?"

"Rory, focus, please."

"I'm sorry. I just can't find my book." Lauren starts sneezing again, and coughing. "Lauren, you need to find Mom. You are way too sick to go to school."

Lauren shakes her head as she sneezes one more time. "No, I'm not, Rory. I'm fine."

"You are not fine." Rory tells her as she continues to look in her bag. "You sound worse than you did this morning."

"Mom's going to make me stays here if I don't go to school."

Lorelai walks over to them. "Hey, babes. Sergeant Pepper." Lorelai says to Lane.

"Mom, do you know where my..."

"Big scary Chemistry book is? Behind the desk." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, thank God." Rory says, walking away.

Lorelai looks up at Lane's feathered hat. "Wow."

"Yeah." Lane says.

Lauren starts coughing. "Whoa, where did that cough come from?" Lorelai asks, her youngest.

"I'm fine." Lauren says, putting on a fake smile at her mom.

Lorelai chuckles. "You are not fine. You don't even sound close to fine." Lorelai puts her hands up to touch Lauren's face, and starts feeling her forehead and flushed cheeks. "You my dear girl have a fever. There's no way you are going to school."

"But, Mom. I have a test in English." Lauren whines.

Lorelai shakes her head. "No, Lauren. You are too sick. They will just send you home anyway. This always happens the day of the first snow with you."

Rory walks back over. "Yeah, and she sounds worse than she did this morning, by the way."

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Thanks a lot, Rory."

Lorelai pulls Lauren over to her, lovingly, and holds her close to her. "So, is Sookie in the kitchen?" Rory asks.

"And there she'll stay. Come on, little one. Lets go lay you down in my office until I leave." Lorelai says, pushing Lauren forward.

"Okay, so, where were we?" Rory asks, Lane as they walk to the kitchen.

"I just met my soul mate." Lane tells her.

"Right. Rich Bloomenfeld. Does he still where the Star Trek shirt?" Lane rolls her eyes as they walk into the kitchen. "Hey, Sookie."

Sookie turns around. "Hey, kitty-cats. Cinnamon buns are over there."

"Do you have any of those rocky road cookies that you made yesterday?"

"I can scrounge some up." Sookie tells her, walking away.

"So, anyhow, Rich has this amazing hair." Lane explains.

"Really?"

"Oh, my gosh it's so perfect. It's thick, but it's not too thick, and it's got really good natural wave. So, he probably uses way less product than most guys."

"Always a plus. Hey, what time is it?" Rory asks, changing the subject.

"I don't know."

"I have to get to the bus stop. Dean's meeting me there."

"I'm trying to talk to you about this." Lane says, impatiently.

"I know. We'll talk on the way."

"Here you go." Sookie says, walking up to them and handing Rory a bag of cookies.

"Thank you, Sookie."

Lorelai runs in just before they leave. "Hey, sweets, I have a Locksmith coming to the house today, like five, and I don't know how long it will take, so tell Grandma and Grandpa I'll be late."

"I'll relay the time message, but what about Lauren? She's sick. Are you still going to bring her?" Rory asks.

Lorelai shrugs. "I'll see how she is feeling when we leave here. But if she is still feeling like crap then I may just have to stay with her or find someone to stay with her while I go." Lorelai notices the bag of cookies in Rory's hands. "What is this? You hate rocky road cookies."

"I do not."

"I'm sorry. That must be my other daughter, Shmory."

"We're leaving now." Rory says, trying to walk away, but Lorelai grabs her arm.

"Wait a minutes. I know who likes rocky road cookies." She says, putting her arm around Rory.

"Who?" Sookie asks, curiously.

"Dean. They're for Dean." Lorelai smiles.

Rory glares at her mom. "She's bringing baked goods to a boy. Wow, serious." Sookie jokes.

"Here, Dean, these cookies are for you, because you're keen." Lorelai says, in the most girly voice ever.

"Stop." Rory begs.

"Rory's in love." Sookie says, happily.

"Love, love, love, Dean, Dean, Dean." Lorelai says.

Rory pulls away and she and Lane leave quickly out of the kitchen. Lorelai and Sookie start laughing. "You need meds for Lauren?" Sookie asks.

"Yes, please."

In Lorelai's office, Lauren is already sleeping on the couch that is in Lorelai's office, when Lorelai walks in. She couldn't help but smile, and feel sad for her little girl that was so sick. It happened every year at this time for Lauren. She was miserable for a week, and when Lauren is miserable and sick for a week, she gets clingy. Lorelai must be in arms reached or Lauren should know where her mom is at, at all times. Lorelai wasn't sure why Lauren was like that. Rory never was clingy. If anything, she liked to be alone when she is sick. Lorelai didn't want to wake her daughter up, but she knew she had to.

"Lauren." Lorelai whispers, as she walks over to her and feels her head again. It felt even warmer than before. "Lauren, baby, you need to wake up. Sookie gave me some medicine to give you."

Lauren opens her eyes slowly, looking into her mom's bright blues and smiling face. "I don't need medicine. I'm fine." Lorelai sighed. Lauren was also difficult when it came to taking medicine.

"Lauren, you need to take it then you can go back to sleep. It'll make you feel better. I promise." Lauren slowly sits up. "Atta girl." Lorelai says, lifting the cup up for Lauren to drink. Lauren makes a nasty face as they medicine goes down her throat.

"That's gross."

Lorelai chuckles. "Okay, lay back down. I'll be back to check on you." Lauren nods her head and lays back down. Lorelai reaches over and kisses her daughter gently on her cheek, before getting up and walking out.

In town, Rory and Lane are walking towards the bus stop.

"I just, I just can't believe it." Lane says, still going on about Rich. "I mean, I've known him since the 6th grade, but suddenly he's different. He's not gangly anymore. You remember how gangly he was?"

Rory is rummaging through her Chemistry book to find something, not really paying attention to Lane at all. "I'm sorry, what?" Rory asks, finally looking up at her friend.

"You're not listening to me."

"I am. I'm sorry. I just couldn't find my bookmark. Okay, go ahead." Rory says, putting everything down to listen.

"Okay. Here are the problems facing the whole Bloomenfeld-Kim situation."

"One: hypenation would be a pain." Rory tells her.

"Two: he's my band partner. Romance would be completely awkward. Three: he's never even looked at me like I'm a girl or something resembling one." Lane says, as they both sit on the bench. "Four: there's no way I could convince my parents he was Korean. But I can't help it. I'm obsessed. Did I tell you about his hair?" Lane asks, amazed.

"It's on his head, right?" Rory asks.

Dean suddenly walks up and peeks his head between them. "Hi."

Rory smiles. "Hi."

"Lane." He says.

"Dean."

"Here." Dean says, handing Rory a book and sitting next to her.

"How'd you like it?" Rory asks.

"Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." He jokes.

Rory starts laughing. "Aha! You liked it. You liked Jane Austen. I knew you would. Lane, Dean likes Jane Austen."

"Wow. Who would've thought." Lane says, not excited at all.

"I told him he would. But he was all: Forget Jane Austen. You have to read Hunter Thompson."

"You do have to read Hunter Thompson." Dean tells her.

"Not as much as you needed to read Jane Austen." Lane was growing annoyed, feeling like a third wheel in this conversation.

"What's that?" Dean asks, grabbing the bag of cookies.

"Just some cookies."

"Rocky road." Dean says, surprised.

"Yeah."

"Wow, she brings me cookies. How can I repay her?"

"How about a little Charlotte Bronte?"

"How about something else?" Dean leans in and kisses her. Lane looks at them awkwardly.

"That's good, too." Rory tells him.

"OKay. I gotta go." Lane says, grabbing her things. "I'm gonna be late for homeroom. I have that perfect attendance certificate in my sights."

"See you later." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, see you."

At the Inn, Lorelai walks in almost jumping up and down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have flakes. Flakes have been sighted." She announces to everyone. "Flakeage, if you will, has begun." She says, walking over to the front desk and stops suddenly when she sees Lauren sitting in Michel's chair blowing her nose. "Lauren Lorelai Gilmore, what are you doing out of my office?" Shes asks, sternly.

"Mom, I don't want to miss the snow." Lauren tells her.

"Please, get her out of my chair before she blows her germs all over it." Michel tells Lorelai.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Lauren, tonight me, you, and your sister will have our nightly ritual, but for you to do it you have to be better. So, please go back to my office and lay down. I'm actually going to be in there shortly to check your temperature again." Lorelai orders, as she points in the direction of her office.

Lauren jumps off the chair. "I hate being sick!" She yells, walking away.

"Michel, it's the first snowfall of the season." Lorelai tells him, cheerfully. "It's very lucky. Make a wish."

"Get away from me."

"Oh, you're not supposed to say it out loud." The phone rings and Michel goes to answer it. "The world changes when it snows." She says, to herself. "It gets quiet. Everything softens."

Michel hands Lorelai the phone. "It's your mother."

"And then the rain comes." She sighs, and grabs the phone. "Hi, Mom."

"Have you seen the news?" Emily asks her.

"Ever?"

"A bad storm's heading your way. It's already hitting us here."

"Well, don't panic. I'll ge the ark, you get the animals."

"I just sent Lance to pick up Rory at school. The roads are terrible. Black ice everywhere. It's just a mess out there. I hate this kind of weather. So, anyhow, what time will you get here?"

"Well, gee, Mom, I don't know. Let's see. Black ice, treacherous roads. I guess I'll just put on my red-white-and-blue leotard, grab my golden lasso, and fly the invisible plane on over."

"You're not coming?"

"Well, if it's as bad as you say it is, I don't see how I'd get there. Plus, Lauren is sick with a bad cold and I don't think I want to drag her out all that way to just get worse." Lorelai explains.

"Well, I guess it'll just be the three of then."

"I guess so."

"And you know, Rory should probably spend the night tonight, also."

"Okay."

"And if it's still bad tomorrow..."

"Mom, why don't you see what the weather does before you feel out a change-of-address card for her."

"Fine. Have you brought Lauren to the doctor?" Emily asks.

"No."

"Lorelai, for your child to get better, you need to take her to the doctor. You're not a doctor, you know?"

"Oh, shoot. I thought this was a hospital I've been working at all along. Mom, Lauren just has a cold. She gets this every year, around this time. I've given her medicine, and she is laying down in my office right now. She'll be fine."

"Hey, Grandma." Rory says, walking in.

"Rory's here." Emily says, excitingly.

"Put her on a sec." Lorelai tells her.

"Rory, it's your mother."

Rory takes the phone from her. "Hey."

"Hi. Things bad out there, huh?"

"It's crazy. Snow coming down everywhere. And let me just tell you, saddle shoes are not the best all-weater footwear."

"Oh, you fell!"

"Twice."

"Yikes. I'm sorry."

"So, what's the deal? Are you coming over tonight?" Rory asks her.

"No, I guess, I'm pretty much stuck in the Hollow tonight. Your sister is sick as a dog and I don't want to bring her out if it's that bad."

"Bummer. Well, we can take our snow walk tomorrow night?"

"Absolutely. Lauren will be thrilled and hopefully feeling better by then. Alright, now, honey, tell Grandmad you arrived there not a member of the junior league. I'd like you to leave the same way."

"Call if you get lonely even though I know Lauren will not leave your side."

"I will. Bye." Lorelai smiles, as she hangs up.

Later that day, Lorelai is up in Lauren's room, making her feel comfortable and giving her all the necessities she may need.

"Alright, you have your magazine, your tea, your ipod, and I am going to go get your some soup, okay?"

Lauren looks helplessly at her mom. "Please don't leave me." She begs.

"Lauren, I will be ten minutes. I promise. I'll ask Babette to come sit with you while I'm gone, okay?"

"Hurry."

Lorelai smiles. "I will. I love you." She says, kissing Lauren on her forehead.

"I love you." Lauren tells her as Lorelai walks out of the room.

In town, the re-enactment guys are walking through town, passing Luke, and Lorelai walks up laughing.

"There goes the fire chief, the police chief, and the one paramedic with a valid license. I feel safe. Don't you?" She asks, Luke.

"Look at them. All relatively intelligent men, but there they are dressed up in costumes, standing out in a snowstorm, and for what?"

"Because it's tradition."

"Tradition is a trap that allows people to stick their head in the sand. Everything in the past was so quaint, so charming. Times were simple, kids didn't have sex. Neighbors knew each other. It's a freaking fairytale. Things sucked then, too." Luke explains, bitterly. "It just sucked without indoor plumbing."

"I think some traditions are nice. Birthdays, holidays, taking a walk in the first snow of the season."

"I didn't get the Hallmark card for that one."

"When I was five, I had a reall bad ear infection, and I had been home in bed for a week, and I was very sad. So, I wished really hard that something wonderful would happen to me. And I woke up the next morning, and it had snowed. And I was sure that some fairy godmother had done it just for me. It was my little present."

"Your parents never explained the concept of weather to you?" Luke asks her.

"I am making a point, mouthy mcgee. Of course, many years later, I realized that logically, the snow was not there for me personally. But still, when it snows something inside me says, hey, that's your present. I don't think it'll ever change."

"My father use to be one of those guys." Luke tells her.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, he even had his own musket. Never had to rent it."

"Where's the musket now?"

"Hew as buried with it."

"Wow."

"Yeah, he loved that musket."

"That's nice, in a disturbing sort of way."

"So, if this is your walk of the first snow of the season, where's your daughters? Shouldn't they be walking along with you?" Luke asks.

Lorelai sighs. "Well, Rory is stuck in Hartford with my parents, and Lauren is at home with a cold. I was actually going get her some soup. So, I'm going do that and enjoy my present by myself for a little bit." Lorelai smiles, before walking away.

With soup in hand, Lorelai is walking cheerfully through town, but stops when she sees a very familiar man standing in front of her. Max turns around and looks forward like he has seen a ghost or something as he looks at Lorelai. Lorelai walks over to him.

"Well, well, well." Max says.

"What's up, Teach?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I live here. What are you doing here?" Lorelai asks.

"I was on my way back from Stamford. My car decided to stop."

"Here?"

"Yes."

"In my town?"

"Yes."

"Good car."

"It's nice to see you."

"You, too."

"You know, a minute ago I was really angry about something, and now I just can't remember what it was." He tells her.

"Well, that's snow for you." Lorelai laughs.

"I guess so."

"So, this is quite a predicament you're in. Stranded here in a strange town with no one you know. Oh, wait."

"Where's Rory tonight?"

"She's in Hartford with her Grandparents."

"That must be nice."

"Whatever you say."

"So, Rory's in Hartford?"

"Yes."

"And I'm in Stars Hollow."

"Correct."

"And you're.."

"Holding soup for my sick kid at home." Lorelai says, holding up the bag she is holding.

Max closes his eyes. "Oh, the other one." He remember.

Lorelai laughs. "Yes, the other one. I have another daughter, you know?"

"Yes. Lauren. How is she?"

"Sick."

"Man."

"Yeah. Would you like to come over? I'm sure she won't mind." Lorelai jokes.

Max smiles. "Sure. Let me give this man my keys and then we can be on our way."

"Great."

At the Grandparents, Rory is doing her school work at the table, while Emily is on the phone.

"I just don't understand why you waited so late to call. Are you sure? Fine. All right. Yes, Goodbye." Emily says, hanging up. "Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do now."

"What's the problem, Emily?" Richard asks, as he continues to read his newspaper.

"The problem is that apparently Florence cannot get here because of the storm."

"Florence?"

"Our cook."

"Oh. We'll just have to go out, then."

"Oh, please, Richard, pay attention. We can't go out. It's miserable out there."

"We'll figure something out then."

"What? What will we figure out?" Emily asks, frustrated.

"I don't know, but.."

"I hate the damn snow!"

"Emily, calm down."

"This is a serious problem. These Friday dinners are the only proper food that child eats all week."

"Rory, are you in any way malnourished, or in need of some international relief organization to recruit a celebrity to raise money on your account?" Richard asks her.

"I'm good." Rory tells him.

"She's good, Emily."

"You sense of humor rears its ugly head of the oddest of times, Richard."

"Emily, I'm not the mastermind behind some great scheme to spoil your dinner plans, and I don't care to be treated as such."

"So, you're fine with having no dinner tonight, is that it?" Emily asks.

Richard puts down his paper. "I certainly am not."

Rory walks over. "Hey, how about I check the fridge? I'm sure there's something in there we could whip up."

"Whip up?" Emily repeats.

"Yeah, come on. It'll be fun, I promise." Rory says, walking towards the kitchen.

"Well, come on, Mr. We'll figure it out." Emily tells Richard. When they open the refridgeration, packed up leftover and a box of frozen pizza is sitting there. "Nothing."

"Not a blessed thing." Richard says.

"Hey, there's frozen pizza." Rory says, grabbing it.

"How did that get there?" Emily asks, confused.

"Maybe you bought it and forgot about it."

"I've never bought frozen pizza. It must belong to Anna."

"The maid." Richard says.

"Yes."

"Got one!" He says, happy with himself for finally knowing on of their helpers.

Rory starts taking it out of the box. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna make it."

"Oh, Rory, you're not serious?"

"That hardly looks like dinner."

"I agree. Rory, that's food you eat at a carnival or in a Turkish Prison."

"I promise you're gonna love it." Rory tells them. "Listen, just leave it up to me. You guys go back into the living room, and I'll call you when it's ready." Richard and Emily just look at eachother and shrug. "Hey, Grandma?"

"Yes?"

"What are the odds of you knowing where a cookie sheet would be?" Rory asks.

"I'd say very slim." Richard answers for her.

Emily glares up at her husband. "Nevermind. I'll find it." Rory tells them.

"Very slim? Thank you for that." Emily says, as they walk out.

On their way to Lorelai's house, Max and Lorelai are conversating.

"So, tell me something about yourself." Lorelai tells him.

"Like what?"

"Um, have you ever been married?"

"Nope."

"Ever been close?"

"Once."

"And?"

"She's in Thailand now."

"Sex trade?"

"Bank of America."

"It's usually one or the other." Lorelai jokes.

"She went there on business. She did well. She never came back." Max explains.

"Oh, sad." Lorelai says, looking at him sadly.

"It was, at the time. But if it was meant to be..."

"Oh, he believe in fate." Lorelai smiles.

"Fate, poetry, love. They all go together, don't they?"

Lorelai laughs. "Yes, they do."

"How about you?"

"Oh, I've never been married." She tells him.

"Ever been close?"

"Uh, my daughters dad proposed."

"What happened?"

"The bell ran. I was late for Chem lab."

"You ever sorry that you didn't?"

"Oh, no. We were so young. And my life would've been completely different. You know, I wouldn't live here. I wouldn't work here. I probably wouldn't have Lauren. I wouldn't be walking here with you." She says, looking at him as they stare at eachother, gazing in eachother's eyes.

At the Grandparents, Richard is on the phone, and they are still waiting for the food to be finished.

"Oh, this is getting ridiculous, Aaron. I will not continue to have these conversations with a child! Yes, he is a child. Well, when he's worked 30 years at the company, that's when he's not a child. Until then, I don't care what his opinions are. Aaron, are you listening to me? Good, because I am hanging up on you now."

Rory was growing restless waiting, so she got up from the window and started walking upstairs to her mom's old room. She starts walking around, looking at everything. Rory opens one of the drawers and takes out a photo album that is in there. She opens it up and starts looking at the old pictures. She stops when an old photo falls out of the album. She picks it up and looks at it closely, realizing that it's her parents when they were teenagers. Emily runs in.

"There you are. You must come downstairs immediately." She says in a panic.

"What's wrong?"

"The stove is buzzing."

"It's just the timer, Grandma."

"I know it's the timer, Rory. What I don't know is where it's located or how to turn it off."

"Okay, let's go." Rory says, ushering her grandma out of the room.

In the dining room, Richard and Emily are staring strangely at their pizza, while Rory grabs a pieces and chows down.

"You want to eat it before it gets cold." She tells them. Emily cuts a piece and puts it in her mouth, but almost chokes. "How is it?"

"Not cold." Emily tells her.

"Mmm, it's quite tasty." Richards says. "Emily, we should have this more often."

"What?"

"Perhaps instead of that horrible salmon that keeps showing up."

"That salmon is a fine delicacy."

"Try it again, Grandma. It's probably cooler now." Rory tells her.

"No thank you. I'm fine."

"You know what?" Rory says, getting up. "It's really good if you add some extra parmesan to it." She says, throwing a bit onto Emily's pizza. "This is Mom's special trick. Frozen pizza is a staple at our house. Mom's become a major doctoring genius. She'll put anything on it. One time Sookie came and brought us some Foie Gras, and Mom stuck it on a pizza."

"How was it?"

"Pretty good, once we took the Foie Gras off." Rory finishes putting the parmesan cheese on Emily's pizza. "Okay, that's good." Emily just stares at it. "Try it. Please?" Emily starts cutting it with her knife. "If you want to get really crazy, you can pick it up."

"Well, alright." Emily says, picking up the pizza, with her hands, and putting it in her mouth. "Mmm! That's wonderful!"

"See?"

"Rory, pass me that cheese." Emily gets up and brings it over to Richard and starts putting it on Richard's pizza. "Trust me. It makes all the difference."

"I'll be right back." Rory says, getting up and running upstairs. She comes back down with the photo album she was looking at before. "I found this in Mom's room." She says, walking to the table.

"What's that?" Emily asks.

"Pictures."

"Oh, my goodness, I haven't seen that in years." Emily opens it. "Oh, look at this." Richard starts laughing.

"That's one fluffy white dress." Rory says, looking at the picture of her mom when she was a baby.

"Yes, there were 12 petticoats underneath it. We got it in London, remember, Richard?"

"She looks like a little princess."

"Yes. Well, if memore serves, I believe about two minutes after that picture, her highness dumped a glass of grape juice all over it."

"Look, Emily, it's Hopey." Richard points out.

"Hopey?" Rory asks.

"My younger sister." Emily tells her.

"Has she been here when I was here? I don't remember her."

"Oh, she lives in Paris. Our great expatriate." Richard tells her.

"I haven't seen her in such a long time." Emily says.

"Maybe we should take a trip this year."

"That would be nice."

"Maybe Rory could go with us."

Rory smiles. "I'll start packing tomorrow." Emily turns the page to a picture of Emily and Richard on their wedding day. "Oh, is that you guys?"

"Yes, it is."

"That is our wedding picture." Emily tells her.

"That's an amazing dress."

"It should've been. My mother had three seamstresses working round the clock making it."

"You still have it?"

"It's upstairs packed away somewhere. I'll save it for you if you like."

"Oh, Emily. Rory's too young to be thinking about things like that." Richard says.

"Oh, please. Every young girl thinks about her wedding. I know I did. I knew from the time I was twelve that I wanted lilies and orchids with a silver bow wrapped around them for my bouquet."

"You also knew that you wanted to marry Errol Flynn."

"Oh, really?" Rory asks, laughing. "Grandma had a thing for the pirate guy?"

"I did not have a thing for the pirate guy."

"She was mad about him." Richard tells Rory. "She even tried to get me to grow one of those little mustaches."

"You're kidding."

"Richard, stop."

"She wanted me to swing from a chandelier. Luckily, I was on the fencing team at college, or I would have married Lucinda Lester by now."

"Actually, Lucinda Lester looked a lot like Errol Flynn." Emily jokes. "I should have married her. It would've been very modern of me."

Rory turns the page to an older picture of her mom dressed in a white long dress. "Wow! Mom looks really beautiful here." Rory says.

"Yes, she does." Emily says.

"What was the occasion?"

"Who would like some coffee?" Richard asks, changing the subject.

"That was her debutante gown for her coming-out party." Emily explains.

"Mom had a coming out party?" Rory asks, surprised.

"No, she didn't." Richard answers.

Rory finally gets it, that Lorelai was pregnant with her when she was suppose to have the party. "Oh."

"Yes, well, things happen, don't they?" Emily asks.

"If you'll excuse me, I have some business calls to make." Richard says, getting up from the table.

"I'll go get that coffee." Emily says, also getting up and walking away, leaving Rory there, alone, just thinking about what just happened.

At Lorelai's, Max and Lorelai are walking up to the house.

"So, this is it, my house." Lorelai tells him.

"It's nice."

"Thank you."

"Good porch. Nice windows. Front door." Max tells her when they reach it. Which opens, I assume."

"Yeah." Lorelai says, hesitantly.

"Something wrong?"

"No. Nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure?"

Lorelai sighs. "Okay. It's just that you're about to meet my other daughter. My younger eleven year-old daughter, who may not at first seem like she is eleven because she acts like she is twenty-five sometimes, but my daughter. My sick daughter right now, who is very clingy when she is sick. Lauren has never really met any of my 'friends' so this will be new to me and her."

"You don't think she'll like me?"

"No. Well, I don't know. Like I said, you're meeting her at a very weird time right now. See I have very strict rules when it comes to dating. I keep my personal life totally separate from my life with Rory and Lauren. You know, I never want them to feel unsettled, or like their life could just shift at any moment. And they come first, and this is their house, too.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No, no, no. Just beware. That's all I'm saying."

Max nods his head. "Alright. Well, lets get this soup to her."

Lorelai walks to her front door and slowly opens it and lets Max in. "Babette, I'm back."

Babette stands up quickly and walks over to them. "Hey, sugar." She notices Max. "Oh, hello." She says, flirting with him.

"Max, this is my neighbor Babette. Babette, my friend, Max. His car broke down so while it's getting fixed I decided to bring him here."

"Oh, you don't have to explain anything to me, sugar."

"How's Lauren doing?" Lorelai asks.

"She was asking for you about five minutes ago. She said something about your ten minutes is up. But then she fell right to sleep. I'm gonna get going and leave you two alone."

"Thanks for watching her Babette."

"Anytime." Babette says, grabbing her coat.

"Nice meeting you." Max says.

"It was nice meeting you, too, honey." Babette looks over at Lorelai and nudges her arm. "Oh! The chin." She tries whispering, but Max hears her anyway. Babette walks out and Lorelai laugh, awkwardly.

"I better go and check up on her." Lorelai says, grabbing the soup from Max and going upstairs. When Lorelai reaches Lauren's room, she sees her daughter sprawled out with kleenex surrounding her. Deciding not to wake her up, Lorelai pulls the covers over Lauren and turns off her lamp before walking out. Lorelai comes downstairs and heads into the kitchen. "She is still out like a light." Lorelai says, putting the soup on the counter. "So, how do you like your coffee because I've built up such a tolerance to it, I usually make it too intense for most people."

"Don't hold back." Max tells her.

"Okay."

"Can I help?" He asks her.

"Um, yeah, you can fill up the pot."

"Ooh, I'm very good at that." He says, grabbing the pot from Lorelai. "Six cups sounds good?"

"Fine. What are you gonna have?" She jokes.

Max laughs. "You do know that was a leading question, right?"

"Really? How so?" She asks, as Max gets closer and closer to her and kissing her softly on her lips. "How bad do you want that coffee?"

"Not that badly." He tells her.

"Such a good answer." She says, grabbing Max around the neck and kissing him again. They keep making out, walking towards the living room, not breaking a thing between them. Lauren slowly makes her way down, noticing the make out session going on with her mom and this strange man she has never seen before.

"Mom?" She says, scaring both Max and Lorelai.

"Oh, god! Lauren, you scared me." Lorelai says, holding her chest.

Lauren makes her way all the way down the stairs still staring at Max like he was killing her mom or something. "You were going get soup." She says, in a raspy voice. "You never said you were bringing a man home, too."

Lorelai and Max smirk. "Uh, Lauren, this is Max. Remember the guy I was talking to you and Rory about? Mr. Medina? Rory's English teacher." Lorelai explains.

Lauren squints her eyes, thinking. "But why is he here?"

"His car broke down, so I just brought him here while he waited. Max, this is my daughter Lauren."

Max puts out his hand to shake Lauren's. Lauren just looks at it before looking back up at Max. She points at her runny nose and messy hair. "I'm sick. I wouldn't want to get you sick, too." She tells him.

"It's okay. I think I can handle it." He tells her.

Lauren slowly grabs Max's hand and shakes it. Lorelai puts her hand on Lauren's forehead to check for a fever. "Mom, your hand is so cold." Lauren whines.

"Yeah, and you still have a fever. Come on. I have your soup and you need to eat." Lorelai tells her.

"But I'm not hungry anymore." Lauren tells her, as Lorelai takes her daughter's hand and leads her to the kitchen.

"Max, make yourself comfortable. It's going to be awhile." Lorelai yells out.

Max looks around the living room before walking over to the couch and sitting down.

An hour went by, with a lot of fussing and fighting, and Lorelai forcing the soup down Lauren's throat, but they finally finished and made their way into the living room with Max. Lorelai and Max are sitting together with Lauren sitting right in the middle of them leaning her head in her mom's chest with Lorelai's arm wrapped protectively around her daughter. Lauren put up a fight about going back to her room, so Lorelai let her stay down with her.

Lauren looks over from the movie they are watching at Max and just stares at him before saying something. "So, are you and my mom, like, dating?" She asks him.

Max and Lorelai exchange looks. Max looks back down at Lauren and gives her a soft smile. "I would like to if that's okay with you and Rory."

Lauren shrugs. "She's a big girl. She can do what she wants."

Lorelai chuckles. "Thanks, hun."

"Do you have any kids?" Lauren asks him.

Max shakes his head. "No kids."

"Ever been married before?"

"Nope."

"Ever been close?"

Max looks at Lorelai who is trying not to laugh. "Once. But it didn't work out."

"What were you doing here?"

"I teach a class in Stamford and ride through here to get home." Max explains.

"How do you get your hair like that?"

"Lauren!" Lorelai covers Lauren's mouth with her hand.

Max starts laughing. "You ask a lot of questions."

Lauren takes her mom's hand. "I like to know a lot. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

They all get quiet for a few minutes before Lauren decides to interrupt again. She looks back at Max with a serious face. "You really like my mom, huh?"

Max looks at Lauren, then over at Lorelai who is also listening with a smirk on her face. Max answers without taking his eyes off of Lorelai. "Yeah. I do. I like your mom a lot."

Satisfied with that answer, Lauren just turns her head back to the t.v. and rests her body again on her Mom's body. Lorelai kisses Lauren gently on her head as she still looks at Max with awe in her eyes.

A hour or so, went by and Lauren was fast asleep on her Mom.

"I think I should go. It's getting late." Max tells Lorelai.

Lorelai sighs. "Why don't you just stay here?"

"Oh, I don't know." He says, pointing to Lauren.

Lorelai smiles. "She is sick. And probably won't even remember this whole night tomorrow because of the meds I've been feeding her. Really, the couch is comfortable. And there's pillows and blankets. And the bathroom's through there. And the kitchen has nothing in it but running water, if you get thirsty." Lorelai looks at the window. "And it's an awful night."

"Okay. If it's not a problem." Max agrees.

"Not at all. Let me just take this one upstairs and we'll be out of your way." Lorelai says, slowly standing up and reaching for Lauren.

"Oh, wait. Let me help you." Max says, moving Lorelai aside and picking up Lauren. He looks a Lorelai, curiously. "Do you feed her?" Max asks, jokingly because of how light Lauren is.

Lorelai laughs. "Quite a bit actually. She never stops. It's pretty sickening. Her room is just right upstairs." Lorelai tells him, as they both make their way upstairs to Lauren's room. Max slowly puts Lauren down in her bed gently, as Lorelai grabs the covers and puts them over her daughter while she kisses her daughter on her cheek. "Thanks for this."

"It's not a problem. She's a great kid. And beautiful, too. She looks just like her mother." Max tells her, making Lorelai laugh. They walk out into the hallway, closing Lauren's door behind them. "Could I at least give you a kiss goodnight?" Max asks.

"Only if you intend to live till morning." Lorelai tells him as she leans in and kisses him on the mouth.

"Goodnight." Max says, pulling back.

Goodnight." Lorelai smiles, walking away to her room.

The next morning, Lorelai gets woken up by the sound of a car pulling up. She jumps out of bed and runs over to the window, just in time to see Rory getting out of the car her grandmother provided for her. Lorelai hurries to put on her shoes and jacket and meets Rory outside before she can make it to the door.

"Hi!" Lorelai says.

"Hi! What's up?" Rory asks, suspiciously.

"Nothing. What's up with you?" Lorelai asks her.

"You have something to tell me." Rory says, reading her mom's expression.

"Boy, you're so smart. Right. Okay. Here we go. I've got a boy in the house." She says, quickly.

Rory looks at her mom, confused. "You what?"

"Nothing happened, I swear. He slept the whole night on the couch, and you know him."

"I do?"

"And you like him! I don't know if that's relevant. I just thought that I would throw that in there." Rory pushes her way into the house. Lorelai looks at her daughter, nervously. Sure, Lauren, was easy when she wanted to be when it came to Lorelai's man friends, and well she was sick. But Rory had been gone all night and she actually knows this man, so Lorelai is expecting things to get difficult. Rory and Lorelai walk into the living room and stand over the couch. "That's Mr. Medina." Lorelai whispers.

"I know. My English teacher is on my couch." Rory whispers back.

"It was the snow." Lorelai tells her. "You know how I get. It's like catnip. I was walking. He was there. His car was broken. It was the snow." Rory is still looking down at Max, trying to believe what she is seeing. Lorelai nudges her daughter a bit. "Rory, say something." Rory walks away and goes into the kitchen. Lorelai follows her in. "Rory, talk to me. How do you feel?"

"I don't know." Rory tells her, as she makes herself a cup of coffee.

"Take a guess: Angry, frustrated, nauseous?"

"Weird. I feel weird. Has he been here all night?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh, my gosh. Did he go to the bathroom? I have stuff hanging in there!"

"Honey, you knew I was gonna date him, right?" Lorelai asks her. "This isn't a total surprise."

"Yes, I knew you were going to date. I just didn't expect for him to be here at our house in the morning."

"I know."

"I don't even remember ever there being a man in our house."

"Yeah, well, I kind of broke the rules."

"God, why is this so weird for me?"

"Because I should have told you first."

"No."

"Because I should have talked to you before I did this."

"No."

"Because you're afraid he smooshed the couch pillows out of shape?"

"Do you love him?"

"I, uh." Lorelai stutters. "We hadd one date. It was a great date. World series level. But it was just a date. Honey, I promised myself a long time ago that I was gonna keep all this stuff separate from you girls. And I want you to know that still stands, okay? This was a one-time thing. I'm not gonna start just bringing guys home. This is not a trend."

"You can, you know?"

"What?"

"Bring guys home. I mean if you like someone, you should feel comfortable doing that."

"I appreciate that."

"I want you to be happy."

"And I love you for that."

"Plus, I know you're not a cat person. So, you truly will be along if you don't find someone."

"Okay. Look. Someday, I will bring someone home. But when I do, I just want to be sure it's the guy."

"Mr. Medina's not the guy?"

Lorelai shrugs. "I don't know. He might be. But right now, it's just you, me, and Lauren."

"Oh, god. Lauren." Rory says, suddenly remembering her sick sister. "Did she meet him?"

Lorelai laughs. "Oh, yes. She met him, and her snot nose met him."

"How'd she take it?"

"I don't know. She asked him questions, but I doubt she will really remember what happened last night due to the medicine that was in her system."

Rory smiles. "I'm going to go and check on her."

"I am going to go and wake the man up." Lorelai tells her as they both make their way to the living room. One to the couch and one upstairs. Rory stops in the hallway, upstairs, hearing her mom laugh with her teacher. She takes out the picture she took from the album of her mom and dad and looks at it before going into her sister's room and closing the door.


	10. Tonight Is The Night

Well, it was another Friday night at the grandparents house, and everyone is sitting quietly eating their food, except for Richard, who is on a business trip.

"Your grandfather called last night and told me that he has a special gift for you two from Prague." Emily tells Rory and Lauren.

"Wow, Prague. How amazing is it that he's going to Prague." Rory says.

"It's suppose to be lovely." Emily tells them. "Very dramatic castles everywhere."

"Do you know the cell that Vaclav havel was held in is now a Hostel?" Rory asks. "You can stay there for like $50 a night. Hey, maybe on our big trip to Europe we could go there and stay in his cell."

"Absolutely."

"Then we shoudl go to Turkey and stay in that place from Midnight Express." Lauren adds in.

Emily notices Lorelai picking her food. "Lorelai, what are you doing?"

"Getting rid of the avocado." Lorelai tells her.

"Since when do you not like avocado?" Emily asks.

"Since the day I said, 'Gross what is this?' and you said, 'avocado."

Emily looks over and sees Lauren doing the same. "Please don't tell me you don't like avocados either."

Lauren grimaces. "No, Grandma. Sorry. I don't like tomatoes either."

Emily sighs and then looks at Rory. "I'm focusing on you now. Tell me all about the Chilton formal next week."

Lorelai looks up surprised. "There's a formal?"

"How do you know about the formal?" Rory asks her grandmother.

"Yeah, how do you know about it?" Lorelai asks.

"I read my Chilton newsletter." Emily tells them.

"Since when do you get a Chilton newsletter?"

"Well, as a mjor contributor to Rory's education, I figured I had the right to ask for a newsletter to be sent to my house."

"Are you serious?"

"And it's a good thing, too, since you don't bother to read yours. One of us should be up-to-date on the goings-on at Rory's school."

"So, you have a formal coming up?" Lorelai asks her daughter, changing the subject before a fight broke out.

"Yeah, but I don't think I'm gonna go." Rory tells them.

"Nonsense. Of course you're going." Emily tells her.

"Mom, if Rory doesn't wanna go, she doesn't have to go."

"Well, I don't understand why she wouldn't wanna go."

"I know you don't."

"I'm gonna go get another coke. Lauren, you need some?" Rory asks, taking her cup and getting up.

"Sure." Lauren says quickly, following her sister to the kitchen.

"What did you say to her?" Emily asks Lorelai.

"What are you talking about?"

"If she doesn't wanna go then it must be because of something you said."

"Mom, I promise. All I ever said to her about dances is that you go, you dance, you have punch, you eat, you take a picture, and then you get auctioned off to a biker gang from Sausalito."

"Lorelai, this is serious."

"Mom, I said nothing, okay? Rory's disdain of formals is totally her own. Let's just drop it, please."

"Fine."

In the car, Lorelai and her girls are on their way home.

"Why didn't you mention the dance?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Because I'm not going."

"Oh. But why aren't you going?" Lorelai asks.

"Because I hate dances."

"Good answer. Except you've never actually been to a dance."

"So?"

"So you have nothing to compare it to."

"No, but I can imagine it."

"That's true. However, not really since you've never actually been to one you're basing all your dance opinions on one viewing of Sixteen Candles."

"So?"

"So you should have a decent reason for hating something before you really decide you hate it."

"Trust me, I'll hate it. It'll be stuffy and boring, and the music will suck. Since none of the kids at school like me, I'll be standing in the back listening to 98 Degrees, watching Tristin and Paris argue over which one of them gets to make me misterable first."

"Wow. You definitely just made me not want to go to my first dance." Lauren says from the backseat.

"Hey, shush in the back. You are not helping." Lorelai says, pointing her finger towards Lauren. "Or it'll be all sparkly and exciting, and you'll be standing on the dance floor listening to Tom Waits with some great-looking guy staring at you so hard that you don't realize that Paris and Tristin were just eaten by bears."

"What guy?" Rory asks.

"I don't know. Maybe the guy who hangs out in our trees all day waiting for you get home."

"Dean does not hang out in trees."

"He bashed his head in a branch last week when I came out the house too quickly." Lauren tells her.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Why do you care all of a sudden if I go?"

"I don't care if you go. I just don't want you to miss any experience because you're too afraid."

"I'm afraid? Of what?"

"Of asking Dean, of him saying no, of going to a dance with a bunch of kids who haven't accepted you yet, of dancing in public, of finding out you should never be dancing in public." Lorelai laughs.

"Okay, okay, I get it."

"Listen, I know you are not Miss. Party Girl. That's my other daughter." Lauren laughs from the back. "But sometimes I wonder, do you not join in because you really don't want to, or because you're too shy? If the reason you don't wanna go is because you really don't wanna go and not because you are in any way afraid, then this is the last time I'll mention it. I promise."

Rory sits there thinking for a moment. "I don't have a dress." She tells her.

Lorelai shrugs. "I could make you one."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. We could get some great shoes, and some new earrings. We could get your hair done."

"Can I help?" Lauren asks, excitingly.

"Oh, yes. We'll get all into it." Lorelai tells her.

"You won't think I'm an idiot?" Rory asks, hesitantly.

"It depends on what hairstyle you choose." Lorelai tells her. "This dance could be great for you."

Rory just turns away, thinking about how she was going to ask Dean, or if Dean would even want to go in the first place.

In town, Rory and Lane are walking through the snow, talking.

"He is going to say no." Rory tells her best friend, Lane.

"Why would he say no?"

"Why would he say yes?"

"Rory, listen, there's absolutely no point in having a boyfriend if he can't go to the dance with you." Lane explains.

"He's not my boyfriend." Rory tells her.

"Really?"

"No."

"What is he then?"

"He's my gentleman caller."

"Okay, Blanche."

"I don't know what he is, but he's not my boyfriend. Do you think he's my boyfriend?"

"I think you guys spend a lot of time not kissing other people, if it isn't that sort of thing." Lane tells her.

"Girlfriend."

"You."

"Boyfriend."

"Him."

"No, it sounds weird."

"Look, have you had the talk yet?" Lane asks.

"Yes, Lane. Babies come for the stork." Rory says, sarcastically.

"The other talk."

"What other talk?"

"'We've been dating a few weeks now. Where do we stand? What are we to eachother? If another girl asks you out, do you feel free to go?'''

"How is it you know so much about this?" Rory asks, chuckling.

Lane smiles. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." She says, proudly, as they walk up Doose's market and look into the window to find Dean. "There he is."

Rory starts getting nervous and turns away. "I should do this later."

Lane hurries and grabs her. "No. No, you have to do this now."

"Why?"

"Because I have to go home soon and my mom threw out the t.v. because she caught me watching V.I.P. So, I'm bored, and I need some entertainment."

Rory takes a deep breath and exhales. "Okay, here I go." She says, turning away and walking into the market where Dean is just picking up a box. "Hey."

"Oh, hey." He says, a little surprised.

"You're busy."

"Yeah, I just have to put the new green bean shipment on the shelves. You wanna help?"

"Yeah, sure." Rory says, following Dean to the back. "So, do you work on Saturdays? I forget."

"Well, it depends. Sometime I come in if I don't have any plans. Why?"

"See, there's this thing at my school on Saturday. Well, it's not really at my school, but it's kind of given by my school."

Dean sets the box down on the shelf and starts unpacking the cans. "What is it?" He asks.

"Well, it's this kind of thing where you go, and they play music and you're supposed to get dressed up and dance, and then there's chicken."

"Chicken?"

"Well, I don't know if there's chicken. But at these kinds of things they often serve chicken because it's probably cheaper and people eat it. So, the logic behind the chicken choice really isn't that bad."

Dean just stares at her. "I'm lost."

"It's a dance."

"Ahh."

"And it's not like I'm dying to go or anything, but it is a new school and being a part of the social activities is really important at Chilton." Rory explains.

"So, are you asking me to go to a dance with you?"

"Yes. I mean if you wanted to go, I would go, too."

"Well, that would probably be good since it's your school." Dean tells her.

"Right. So, do you wanna go?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"Uh, I've never actually been to a dance before."

"Because they're lame?"

"Yeah, and it's not the way I ever wanted to spend my time. I mean, I'm not a big joiner."

"Okay, fair enough. More beans, please." Rory says, turning away and grabbing the beans.

Dean looks at Rory. "You wanna go, don't you?"

"No, I don't. I have no desire to go at all. I was just thinking out loud, that's all."

"So, uh, what would I have to wear?"

"What?" Rory asks, surprised.

"To this dance. What would I have to wear?"

"Anything you want."

"Come on."

"No, really, whatever you're comfortable in is fine."

"Rory."

"Some sort of pants would be good. It's coat and tie." She finally admits.

"Oh, man." He laughs.

"But you could probably get away with a coat and no tie." Rory tells him.

"Okay."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Rory jumps up and kisses Dean. "Thank you!" She says, walking away.

"You're welcome."

Rory walks passed the window that Lane is still standing at and gives her a thumbs up.

At the house, Lorelai is busy getting Rory's dress together for the big day, but when she bends down to fix it a the bottom, the mannequin falls right on top of her, making her crash to the ground. Lorelai kicks it off of her and quickly gets up when the doorbell starts to ring. She grabs onto her back as she walks over to her door where Sookie has already let herself in.

"Extra thread." She says, holding up the box to show Lorelai.

"Oh, God bless!" Lorelai says, happily. "I've been working to hard to finish Rory's dress, I haven't been able to get out." She says, as they walk back into the living room.

Sookie gives Lorelai as weird look. "You're walking funny."

"I know. Rory's dress made a pass at me, and I think I pulled something getting up."

Sookie bends down and pulls the mannequin back up. "Here. Sit. Sit. Sit." She ushers Lorelai to the couch. "Hey, you know what? I got an ace bandage in my bag. I'm not sure how we can wrap it, but maybe we can do something creative." Sookie says, sitting beside Lorelai and opening up her bag revealing all sorts of medication.

"Wow!"

"Okay, I got Percodan, Vicodin, Darvocet, and uh.." Sookie pulls out a bottle. "Well, take this one. It's a muscle-relaxer." She says, handing it to Lorelai. "Very mild. I promise."

"Thanks."

"Okay, I've gotta go. You sure you're gonna be okay?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay." Sookie gets up and walks to the door, leaving. Just as the door closes, though, the telephone rings. Lorelai gets up, grabbing her back, and walking to the phone.

"Ow." Lorelai whines. "Ow. Ow. Ow." She picks up the phone. "Yeah?" She answers.

"You sound terrible." Emily says, on the other line.

"I'm fine, Mom. I just stubbed my toe." She lies.

"You should get rid of the clutter in your living room."

"Maybe."

"That room is a hazard."

"Ah! I've seen the light. Everything goes." Lorelai says, annoyed, as she sits back down. "What else you got?"

"I wanna talk about Rory's dance. It's just killing me that she's not going."

"Uh-huh."

"This may seem frivolous and silly to her now, but believe me, these are the kind of experiences you regret missing later."

Lorelai maneuvers the pillows around to make herself comfortable. "Okay."

"And regret can make you bitter. Do you want Rory to be bitter?" Emily asks.

"Well, sort of."

"Lorelai!"

"What? She could make some cash off of it. Become a crazy oscar levant kind of celebrity, go on talk shows, heckle Regis."

"I wish you would take this seriously."

"Mom, Rory is going to the dance." Lorelai finally tells her.

"She is?" Emily asks, enthused.

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, that's wonderful! I'm thrilled."

Lorelai slowly sinks her way off the couch, and lays on the floor. "I'm, uh, I'm making her dress right now."

"You're making her dress?"

"Yeap."

"But why?"

"Well, so she'll look really ugly and people will point and throw rocks."

"Why don't you let me buy her a dress?" Emily begs.

"Mom, you were thrilled five seconds ago, remember?"

"You're not using the curtains, are you?"

"Mom, I gotta go."

"Uh, just one more thing." Emily says, quickly. "Take a picture of Rory for me, please?"

"I will."

"On the stairs. And one by the front door. And one as she's getting ready. You know, putting her hair up, putting her makeup on."

"Okay, do you want one when she's shaving her legs? You know, one leg up, in the tub, waving the disposable razor in the air?" Lorelai asks, sarcastically.

Emily rolls her eyes. "This is a once in a lifetime event. You get to be there and I don't. If I got enough pictures, I could at least line them up in chronological order and pretend I was there."

"Mom."

"Maybe bind them together, make a flipbook out of them."

"Mom." Lorelai says, stopping her. "Would you like to come over on Saturday and see Rory go to the dance?"

"Why, what a nice idea. I'd love that. Thank you. I'll see you at 7:00." She says, hanging up.

Lorelai throws the phone and exhales real loudly.

At Chilton, Paris is selling the tickets when Tristin walks up to her.

"Hi, Tristin."

"Paris."

"Two, I assume?"

"You assume right."

So, who are you taking?" Paris asks.

"Why, are you free?" Paris starts stuttering as she tries to answer. "No, what am I thinking? You wouldn't be free this close to the dance." He says, handing her the money for the tickets.

"Here's your change."

"Hey, is your hair shorter?"

"Yeah. Quarter of an inch."

"Really?"

"I got it trimmed."

"It looks good."

"Thanks."

Tristin turns away and notices Rory standing in line reading. "And she's reading again. How novel."

"Goodbye, Tristin."

"Well, did you ge the 'novel' thing? Because..."

"I said goodbye." Rory interrupts.

"What are you doing here?"

"I like lines." She says, looking at her book.

"The guy's suppose to buy the tickets." He tells her.

"Really? Does Susan Faludi know about this?" She says, sarcastically.

Tristin starts smiling. "No, unless, of course, there is no guy."

"No, there's a guy."

"A cheap guy."

"Well, what can I say? I like 'em cheap." Rory tells him. "Sloppy, too, bald spot, beet gut, and the pants that slip in the back, giving you that good plumber shot. That sends me through the roof."

"So, who is he?"

"How many languages can you say 'none of your business' in?"

"Does he go to this school?"

"No, he doesn't."

"Uh-huh. Look, okay, I'll confess something to you. I don't have a date."

"Well, I hear Squeaky Fromme's up for parole soon. You should keep a good thought."

"I actually thought you'd like to go with me."

"You did not."

"Well, I did, too." Tristin tells her.

"You did not, because you are not stupid."

"Why, thank you."

"Slimy and weaselly, yes. But stupid, no. You'd have to be stupid to think that, given our history, I would ever, barring a piano or a safe falling on my head, wanna go anywhere with you. Ever."

"Okay, fine." Tristin says. He was getting rather annoyed and angry at Rory's attempts to turning him down. "I'll take Cissy."

"I'll send her a condolence card."

"Yeah. Well, at least she won't be buying her own ticket." Tristin says, walking away.

Rory makes it to the front and hands Paris her money. "Two please."

"Idiot." Paris says.

"Excuse me?"

"He was totally nice to you and you were a big jerk."

"If you like Tristin so much, you go out with him." Rory tells her.

"I don't have enough change."

"Pay me later."

"What am I, your versateller? Wait for change. I need change! Now!" Paris yells at the guy on the side of her, who quickly gets up. "There's no way you are going with someone better than Tristin." Paris tells her.

"Whatever."

"You probably don't even have a date. You're probably going to come down with some rare form of flu that only hits losers on dance night."

"You know what? I don't want my change. Money makes people shallow." Rory says, turning away just as the guy sits down with the money.

Paris takes it from him. "I've got your change! Hey! Hey, if you think I'm keeping this dollar, I'm not!" She yells, but Rory keeps walking.

It's finally Saturday night, and Rory is getting ready, while Lorelai is sitting on the couch reading a magainze. Lauren comes down and notices that her sister is still not out yet.

"Come on, already, Rory!" Lauren yells.

"I'm primping." Rory yells.

"You're sixteen. You have skin like a baby's ass. There's nothing to primp." Lorelai tells her. Lauren sits back down on the floor, in front of the couch and her mom, where her homework is layed out on the coffee table.

"Okay, okay, here I come." Rory tells them as she walks out in her dress, and her hair up, but with boots on. Lorelai and Lauren gasp.

"Wow. Someone hit you with a pretty stick." Lorelai tells her.

Rory twirls around. "This dress is amazing. You outdid yourself."

"It's beautiful. Babe, you look beautiful."

"Yeah, Mom, you are so many my first dance dress." Lauren says, staring at her sister.

"Come here." Lorelai says, waving Rory over.

"What?"

"Stray hair." She says, as Rory sits down in front of her as she fixes it.

"Hm, I think my favorite part is the shoes." Lauren says, laughing.

"The heels hurt." Rory admits.

"Well, beauty is pain." Lorelai tells her.

"I'll just throw them on on my way out."

"You should put them on now and let your feet get really numb."

"That's sick."

"Go get me the hair spray."

"Okay." Rory says, getting up.

The doorbell rings. "It's open!" Lorelai yells.

"It's me!" Sookie says, walking in. "I got tacos!" She says, walking in and holding up a bag.

"Yay!" Lauren says, jumping and running over to Sookie.

"I got a bunch of hot sauce and a few extra burritos that you can put in the fridge incase you get hungry later."

Lorelai smiles. "You take such good care of me."

"Hey, Sookie, look." Rory says, coming back in.

Sookie gasps when she turns around. "Oh, my god! You're a movie star!"

"Alright, let me spray. Shield the tacos." Lorelai says.

"You don't move! I got it." Sookie says, taking the spray away from Rory. Lauren grabs the tacos and runs to the kitchen with them. Sookie goes to spray but ends up spraying her eyes. "Oh!"

"Sookie."

"Are you okay?" Rory asks.

"Wrong way. I got it."

"Yeah, sweetie. Hand that to your mother, and my eyelashes are all stuck together." Sookie says.

Rory hands the spray to her mom and sits down. "Honey, are you sure you're alright?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm fine." Sookie says, walking towards the kitchen.

"Lauren, help Sookie! She sprayed her eyes."

"Okay!" Lauren yells back.

Lorelai starts spraying Rory's head, a lot. "God!"

"Okay." Lorelai stops. "That'll be good for six slow dances, four medium ones, one lambada, but if you wanna do any moshing I suggest another coat." She says, acting like she is going to spray again.

"No, I think I'm good." Rory laughs.

"Oh, is this soap." They hear Sookie ask.

"No!" Lauren says, running to stop Sookie.

The doorbell rings again, and Rory runs to the kitchen, while Lauren runs back into the foyer and opens the door. "Grandma's here!" She says, a little surprised.

"Hi, Lauren. Why are you yelling?"

"No reason. Come on in. She says, opening the door wider.

Emily walks into the living where Lorelai is still laying down. Lauren comes in, too, and sits back on the floor. "Where is my other grand-daughter?" Emily asks, setting her stuff down and getting her camera ready.

"Wow. Feeling the love." Lauren says, sarcastically.

Lorelai brushes her fingers through her daughter's hair lovingly. "She's in the kitchen."

"Oh, perfect. I wanna be all ready for the big entrance. How's the light in here? Never mind. I'll take one with the flash and one without to make sure we've got it right." Emily says, getting ready.

"Wow, Mom, look at you. You'd think Anne Taylor was having a sale or something." Lorelai jokes.

Emily rolls her eyes. "Okay, Rory, come in here, please."

Rory comes in with a napkin tucked in her dress, while she is eating a taco. "Hey, Grandma." She says, making Lauren laugh, hysterically.

Emily turns around not amused. "She has lived with you too long."

"Honey, lose the bib and the taco, put your shoes on and come back out. Let Grandma take the pretty picture."

"Okay." Rory says, turning away.

Sookie comes in with her eyes closed. "I'm gonna get going." She tells them.

"You are not driving." Lorelai tells her.

"I walked." Sookie turns to where Emily is not standing. "It's nice to see you again, Mrs. Gilmore, or at least make out your shape."

Lorelai starts laughing. "Call me in fiftenn minutes, or I'm sending Lauren out to find you."

"Well, and you call me if I need to come over and help you up the stairs or something." Sookie says.

Lorelai starts hesitating trying to hide what was happening from her mom. "No, I'll be fine."

Sookie grabs her things and leaves. Emily looks back at her daughter. "Why would you need help up the stairs?"

"No reason." She says, quickly. "Rory, let's go. Your public awaits!"

"Why aren't you moving? Lauren, why isn't your mother moving?"

Lauren looks at her mom then at Emily trying to figure out something to say. "I'm comfortable. That's all." Lorelai tells her.

"Are you hurt?"

"I have a little back spasm. That's it. It's not big deal."

Emily stands up and walks over to Lorelai. "What kind of back spasm?"

"I don't know, Mom. Just a normal one."

"There is nothing normal about a back spasm." Emily tells her. "The fact that it has the word spasm in it means it's not normal."

"Alright, here she is, Mom. Get your camera moving." Lorelai says, as Rory walks out.

Emily stands up quickly and starts taking pictures. "Oh my! You're gorgeous. I'm so glad you decided to buy her a dress." Lauren looks up at her mom, who is just smiling, with a confused look.

Suddenly, a car starts honking outside. "That's Dean." Rory tells them.

"Hey, come here." Rory runs over to her mom, and kisses her on the cheek. "Have an amazing time!"

"I'll chronicle the whole evening for you, I promise." Rory tells her. "Bye, Grandma." Rory kisses her, too, on the cheek, and walks towards the foyer.

"Where are you going?" Emily asks.

"To the dance." Rory tells her.

"You do not go running out the door when a boy honks."

"Mom, it's fine." Lorelai tells her.

"It certainly is not fine. This is not a drive-through. She's not fried chicken."

"But I told him to honk and I'd meet him out there. We agreed."

"I don't care what you told him. If he wants to take you out, he will walk up to this door and knock, and say, 'good evening,' and come inside for a moment." Rory sighs. "Like any civilized human being would know to do."

"Now, Mom, this is silly. I have met him already."

"Well, I haven't."

"Yeah, but.."

"We will wait until he comes to the door." Emily tells them.

"He doesn't know he's suppose to." Rory tells her.

"He'll figure it out." Dean honks the horn again. Rory looks at her mom for help, but Lorelai knew there was nothing she could do about it. Rory crosses her arms, huffing, as they all sit there, silently, waiting for Dean to come up to the door. "He's not a very bright boy, is he?"

"Mom, please." Lorelai begs.

Finally, the doorbell rings, and Rory runs to it. "Don't rush!" Emily tells her.

Rory stops, but then runs again when she knew her Grandma wasn't looking. Rory opens the door. "Hey." She says, to Dean."

"Hey. I thought I was supporsed to honk."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Emily walks into eyesight. "Young man, come in here, please." Dean walks in and Rory closes the door, following him into the living room.

"Hey, Dean. Meet my mother, Emily Post." Lorelai jokes.

"Emily Gilmore."

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Great rap session. You guys are out of here. Have fun."

"Be home by 11:00." Emily tells them.

Dean and Rory both look at Lorelai who mouthes 12:00. "Bye Grandma. Bye Mom. Bye Lauren."

"Bye!" Lorelai and Lauren both say.

Dean and Rory rushed out the door, just as Emily turns around towards Lorelai. "What do you know about this boy?" She asks.

"I know that Rory likes him, and that his parole officer has high hopes for his rehabilitation." Lorelai tells her, jokingly.

"Does he drink?"

"Like a fish."

"That's not a crazy question." Emily says, as she walks towards to window and looks out of it.

"It is a crazy question, Mom because if I had knowledge of him being a drinker, he would not be with Rory now."

"Yes, but.."

"Mom, please relax. Dean is a good kid. Rory's gonna have a great time. You got your pictures. And tomorrow I will call you and give you all the details."

"What are you going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"You certainly can't be left alone."

"She's not alone, Grandma. Remember your other grand-daughter here." Lauren says, annoyed, not looking up from her homework.

"I certainly know you are here, Lauren, but your mother can barely move. She's been sitting there since I got here."

"That's because this is a right comft couch." Lorelai tells her.

"Maybe I should stay."

Lauren sighs, leaning back again the couch. "No, no, Mom. You really don't have to do that. I have Lauren here and she can help me with whatever I need."

"What if you need to go the bathroom?" Emily asks.

"I don't go anymore, Mom. I gave it up cold turkey."

"I'm staying." Emily says, sitting down.

"No, Mom. I can stand, okay?" Lorelai says, standing up. "I'm up, okay. See? I'm fine." She says, trying not to show how bad she is hurting. Lauren looks up at her mom and shakes her head.

"Move." Emily tells her.

"What?"

"Move. If you're fine, then move."

"I can move." Lorelai is still standing there still. "This is me moving."

"Mom, sit down. It's not working." Lauren tells her.

"Rats." Lorelai says, giving up and falling back onto the couch.

"I'll go start some tea." Emily gets up and walks towards the kitchen. "Please tell me you have something besides Lipton."

Lorelai glares at her mom as she walks into the kitchen. "A stroke would be so good right about now."

Lauren starts back on her homework. "Great. Look what you started." She tells her mom, who just sighs and leans back in the couch.

In the car, on the way to the dance, Rory and Dean are driving silently. Rory couldn't stop thinking about what was going to happen when she showed up at the dance. If Paris or Tristin would just embarrass her when they seen her.

"Maybe we should just forget about this." Rory tells him.

"Okay."

"I mean, it's just a dance. What's the big deal?"

"Beats me."

"And these kids at my school...awful. Have you seen The Outsiders?"

Dean smiles. "Yeah, I have."

"Just call me Ponyboy." Dean laughs. "But I heard this place is beautiful. Old and historic. Maybe we could just go in for a minute."

"Fine."

"Or not."

"Fine, too."

"I don't know. Why can't I decide?" Rory asks, growing frustrated with everything. "This is stupid. What do you think?"

"I think that you look amazing tonight." Dean tells her.

Rory smirks. "Maybe just a couple minutes won't hurt."

At the house, Lorelai is laying down on the couch with Lauren still sitting in front of her. Emily hangs up the phone after talking to her maid.

"So, Mom, you really, really don't have to do this. I have Lauren here. You know, we have stayed by ourselves, without Rory before. I think we can manage." Lorelai jokes, making Lauren laugh a little.

"Don't be silly. I couldn't possibly leave you alone like this. And Lauren won't be up all night so she can't help you."

Lauren scoffs. "Uh, Grandma, I'm not just going to leave my mom alone. What kind of daughter do you think I am?"

Lorelai smiles as Lauren tries to fight back at Emily. It reminded her so much of herself it was scary. "Lauren Gilmore, you are eleven years old. What if something happens and you need to get your mom to the hospital? You cannot drive."

"Mom taught me how to drive the car when I was nine. I so can drive."

Emily glares at Lorelai. "You did what?"

Lorelai shrugs. "What? It's not like she's actually going to do it. Just incase of an emergency and I was teaching Rory so I thought why not teach Lauren, too? She's actually pretty good."

"I'm not going anywhere." Emily tells them as she turns away and opens the hallway closet.

"What are you doing, Mom?"

"I'm trying to find the candlestick I bought you."

"What candlesticks?"

"The baccarat candlesticks I bought you last year for Christmas." Lorelai and Lauren look at eachother, knowing exactly what she was talking about now. "I assume that you stuffed them in the back of the closet somewhere."

"Uh, no, I did not stuff them in the back of the closet." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, then, where are they? I don't see them out."

"Well, see, we didn't actually have a big use for the crystal candlesticks." Lorelai tells her. "So, I kind of.." Emily walks back in. "...exchanged them."

"For what?"

"A monkey lamp."

"Pardon me?"

"It's a lamp with a bunch of monkey on it, Grandma." Lauren explains.

"Baccarat crystal candlesticks for a monkey lamp?" Emily asks, not wanting to believe it.

"They're really, really happy monkeys, Mom." Lorelai says.

"Where is this lamp? I want to see it."

"It's right there on the desk." Lorelai points out.

Emily walks over to the desk and sees the lamp. "Oh, my god! They're holding coconuts and leering."

Lauren jumps on the couch. "It's funny." She tells her.

"You traded my lovely gift for a semi-pornographic leering monkey lamp? How could you?" Lorelai shrugs. "This is not just about the bad breeding of returning a gift. This goes to the very heart of the question of taste. You were given something of substance, and you cast it off for a ridiculous slighty sinister barroom decoration?" Lauren gets back on the floor, slowly, and starts working on her homework again, starting to feel bad for what they did, as Lorelai just sink down further and further into the couch. "Explain this to me, Lorelai." Emily says, angry.

"My back hurts." She says, in her most pathetic voice she could muster up and poke out her lip.

At the dance, Dean and Rory had just walked in and are looking around.

"Well, it's a very good room." Rory says.

"Looks historical."

"I commend the person who suggested this location."

"So, we could just get our picture taken and leave." Dean suggests.

"We could."

"Or we could dance a little first."

"Yeah?"

"I stressed 'a little.'" Dean tells her.

"Something slow."

"That sounds good." Dean says, taking Rory's hand and walking over to a table just as a slow song comes on. "Slow song."

"Let's go." Rory says, as Dean pulls her onto the dance floor, but they end up running into Paris and her date.

"Rory."

"Paris."

"I see you came."

"You sold me the ticket."

"I'm Jacob." Paris' date says, introducing himself.

"Hi, I'm Rory. This is Dean."

"Hi." Dean says.

"Hi."

"Excuse us." Paris says, pulling her date away.

"So, that's Paris?" Dean asks.

"Yes, it is."

"She seems fun." He says, sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah, she is."

"Okay, so this dancing thing is not something I want you to get used to or comment on."

"Now, that goes both ways."

The song starts play and they both sway to the music. "Hey, if I kiss you is a nun gonna come out and boot me out of here? Dean asks.

Rory smiles. "It's not a catholic school."

"So I can kiss you?"

"Yeah, you can kiss me." Rory says, as Dean leans in and they start kissing. Tristin is watching from afar and getting angrier as he watches.

"So, Ponyboy, you happy?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, I'm happy.

At the house, Lorelai is laying on the couch with her legs resting onto of the couch, and Lauren is sitting on the floor, finally finishing up her paper. Emily walks in and puts a plate of food on the table.

"Oh, my gosh. What's that smell?" Lauren asks, covering her nose.

"Yeah, Mom, I think somebody already ate that." Lorelai tells her.

"That is a mashed banana on toast." Emily tells them. "Lauren, I use to make this for your mother when she was a little girl."

"You did?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, whenever you got sick. I made this."

"You sure it wasn't the other way around?" Lauren asks, glaring at the toast on the side of her.

"You don't want it?"

"No, no, I want it." Lorelai tells her.

"I'll just take it back." Emily says, grabbing the plate.

"No, Mom, I said I want it."

"Mom, I don't think you should eat that." Lauren tells Lorelai.

"Are you sure?" Emily asks. "Because I can throw it away.

"Relinquish the banama, please." Lorelai says, taking the plate from her mom and putting it back on the table.

Emily sits down in front of Lorelai. "You can't possibly be comfortable like that."

"Mother, please, this is the first position in 24 hours that has not made me crazy."

"Alright."

"You're not eating."

Lorelai takes the toast of the plate and looks at it before looking back at Emily. "Mom, please don't make me eat this."

"Well, you have to eat something. I'm sure Lauren hasn't had dinner yet, either."

Lorelai throws the toast back on the plate. "Well, Sookie left us some burritos in the fridge."

"Well, I'll go warm it up for you." Emily says, getting up.

"We can eat it cold." Lauren says, not looking up from her paper.

"Oh. I'll just go get it then." Emily says, somberly.

Lorelai notices the face. "Hot's better, though." She says, changing their minds.

Emily smiles. "I'll be right back."

"Lauren, grab me that medicine bottle that Sookie left." Lauren reaches over and hands it to her mom. "Thanks." Lorelai opens it and takes a couple and pops them in her mouth.

At the dance, Dean and Rory are finished dancing as they walk away from the floor.

"Okay, uh, I need something to drink." Dean tells her. "You want some punch?"

"Sure."

Dean walks away leaving Rory to look around and realize that she is actually having a good time afterall.

Back at the house, Emily and Lorelai are watching tv. This time Lorelai is sitting up, resting her legs on the table.

"Oh, look, Barbara Stanwyck. I just love Barabara Stanwyck." Emily says.

"Yeah, she's good." Lorelai says, agreeing.

"And that wonderinful voice. That husky, deep voice. I just love that voice."

Lorelai smiles at her mom. "You know, Mom, you have kind of a Barbara Stanqycky voice."

"No, I do not."

"I mean it. You couldn've gotten Fred MacMurray to off Dad if you really wanted to."

Emily looks over and smirks. "You do enjoy teasing me, don't you?"

Lorelai laughs. "You know, I really do."

"You know, Rory looked so lovely tonight."

She did, didn't she?"

"I just can't get over how she's grown up into that little woman who walked out of here."

"I know. You know what, Mom?"

"Hmm?"

"I made the dress." Lorelai tells her.

"You did a lovely job."

"Thank you."

"With the girls and the dress."

"Thank you."

Lauren comes downstairs holding her paper in her hand. "I cannot get this last part in my paper right." She says, frustrated.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "You know, you're just like sister sometimes."

Lauren walks over to them and throws her paper on the table and kneels down in front of it. "I just want it to be perfect."

"Okay, well, lets hold off on the perfection for tomorrow. Right now, I just want you to come sit with me." Lorelai says, tapping Lauren on the shoulder.

Lauren rolls her eyes, playfully and jumps up onto the couch, snuggling close to her mom. Emily watches from the corner of her eye how close the two were, and smiles as Lorelai plants a small kiss on Lauren's head. "Well, let me get this out of your way." Emily says, taking the plate of toast. "You really don't remember me making this for you when you were sick?"

"I don't. I'm sorry." Lorelai says.

"Well, I did, and you loved it." Emily tells her.

"You know what? Let me give it a try."

Lauren looks up at Lorelai. "Mom, please don't. It doesn't look safe. I would like you to live for my first dance, please."

Lorelai laughs, grabbing the toast and taking a bite out of it. She starts chewing it and puts the rest back on the plate. "Yes?" Emily asks.

"It's even more disgusting than I thought it was gonna be." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, it is not." Emily says, taking a bite, too. "Oh, my god! It's horrible!" Emily says, standing up. Lauren and Lorelai start laughing, hysterically. "What on Earth was I thinking?"

At the dance, Dean and Rory are sitting down, enjoying eachother's company.

"So, uh, you wanna maybe go?" Dean asks.

"You're bored. I'm sorry. Yeah, let's go. Right away." Rory says, quickly trying to get up.

"I'm not bored. I thought there's still a little time left. Maybe we could get a cup of coffee somewhere, hangout a little, too, take a walk. You know, just us."

"That'd be nice." Rory tells him.

"I'll get the coats." Dean says, leaving the table.

While he is walking back to Rory, Tristin walks up to Dean.

"You know, we haven't met." He says, stopping him.

"No, we haven't."

"I'm Tristin."

"Ah, yes, we have."

"What are you talking about?"

"Rory's mentioned you." Dean tells him.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't get quite so excited about it."

"Oh, why, did she say something mean?"

"She said you're a jackass."

"Really?"

"Actually, no. Rory doesn't use words like that. I embellished a little."

"Oh, so you're the big, strong protector? Little Princess needs a protector?"

Rory notices what's going on and gets up, quickly. "What's your problem man?" Dean asks.

"Nothing. I just don't like your girlfriend."

"Really? It doesn't look that way to me."

"I don't really care how it looks to you."

"Hey, you got in my path, not the other way around." Dean tries to walk away, but Tristin steps in front of him. "You're kidding, right?" He laughs.

"Why, are you going somewhere?"

"Get out of my way, 'Dristan.'''

"Aren't you clever?"

Rory walks up to them. "Hey, what's going on?" She asks.

Dean hands Rory her coat. "Nothing. Just getting to know your boyfriend." Tristin tells her.

"It's going real well, don't you think?"

"Yeah. We're just about to build a clubhouse."

"Okay, well, I hate to break up the party, but we should go." Rory says.

"Oh, why? Little girl's got to be home?"

"Stop!" Dean yells.

"No, I think you two make a very cute couple. Is your horse and buggy parked outside? Gotta get home for the barn raising?"

"Let's go." Dean says, grabbing Rory's hand. Tristin steps in front of Rory. Dean pushes Tristin. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"You will not push me again!"

"Are you seriously trying to act tough? You're wearing a tie, for God's sake!"

"Outside! Now!"

Dean starts laughing. "I'm not fighting you. I'd be like fighting an accountant. I'll call you when I need my taxes done." Tristin runs over and grabs Dean, pushing him. "You don't want to fight me, Tristin!" Dean yells, pushing Tristin off of him.

"Why not?"

"Call I'll kill you, idiot!" Dean walks back over to Rory. "Come on, Rory." Tristin rushes over to them, but Dean turns around and stops him. "You will not come near her ever again." He says, finally walking away.

At the house, Lorelai and Lauren managed to fall asleep on the couch, with Lauren laying in front of her mom. Emily reaches over and takes the remote out of Lorelai's hand.

"What are you doing?" Lorelai asks, not opening her eyes.

"Go to sleep." Emily whispers.

"The movie's not over."

"I'll tell you how it ends." Emily gets up and pulls the covers over her daughter and grand-daughter. She pushes the hair out of Lorelai's face and rubs her fingers gently over Lauren's cheek, as she lays comfortably in her mom's arms, resting her head in the crook of her neck.

Outside the square, Dean and Rory walk down the gazebo.

"That was quite a dance." Dean tells her.

"I seriously don't know what got into him." Rory says.

"I do."

"What?"

"He has a thing for you."

No, he doesn't. It's just a game to him or something."

"He has a thing for you." Dean repeats.

"He does nothing but insult me and make miserable."

"He has a thing for you."

"I don't know how I feel about this whole situation."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Having my boyfriend defend my honor. It's weird."

"Boyfriend?" Dean asks.

"What?"

"You said boyfriend."

"No, I just meant boyfriend." Rory says, nervously. "In the sense that the defending-me thing was very boyfriendly, but only ins the broadest sense of the word which doesn't apply at all here."

"You are seriously babbling."

"I didn't mean that you were my boyfriend."

"Okay."

"I don't think you're my boyfriend."

"Okay."

"Dean."

"What?"

"Are you my boyfriend?"

"In the broadest sense of the word way?" He asks.

"No, in the real 'Hi, this is Dean, my boyfriend,' kind of way."

"Well, I am if you want me to be."

Rory stops walking. "I do."

Dean turns around. "Okay." He says, smiling, walking back over to her.

"So, it's settled."

"Yes, it is."

"You're my boyfriend."

"That's the consensus."

Rory smiles as they continue to walk. "I'm feeling pretty good about this decision."

"Well, I'm very glad to hear it." Dean tells her.

They by Miss. Patty's studio and see that door is open. "I guess Miss. Patty forgot to lock up."

"I've never really seen in here before." Dean says. Inside, they are standing in front of the wall where all Patty's pictures are hanging. "Are all these women really Miss. Patty?"

"Yeah. She said she's done everything there's to do in show business except set fire to the hoop the dog jumps through." Rory explains.

She drops her purse. "I'll get it." Dean says, bending down. "God, this weighs a ton." He says, picking it up. "What do you have in here?"

"I don't know." She says, grabbing it back. "A lipstick, $5 bill, gum, hairspray, a book."

"A book?"

"Yeah."

"You brought a book to the dance?"

"Yeah."

"You thought there'd be a lot of downtime?" Dean asks.

"No. I just take a book with me everywhere. It's just a habit."

"So, uh, what are you reading?" Dean asks, as he pulls out the book.

"The Portable Dorothy Parker." Rory tells him.

Dean starts reading it. "Cheery." He says, sitting down on the bean bag chair.

"It's funny, thought." Rory says, sitting next to him. "Hey."

"What?"

"Thank you for tonight. It was perfect."

"You're welcome." Dean leans in and kisses Rory before settling back and reading the book together.

The next morning, Dean and Rory somehow ended up falling asleep with eachother. Patty walks in with a group of women. They walk over and gasp when they see who it is.

"Oh my goodness. It's Lorelai's girl. Patty, Rory Gilmore is here." One of them says.

"What?" Patty says, confused, as she walks over.

"She's over here, asleep with the bag boy from the market."

Patty reaches over and starts shaking Rory. "Rory, honey, it's Miss Patty." Rory starts waking up. "Rory? Rory? What are you doing here?"

"Miss. Patty?" Rory says, groggily.

"Yes, have you been here all night?"

"Oh, no! Dean, wake up!" Rory says, freaking out.

"What time is it?" Dean asks.

"It's 5:30 in the morning." Patty tells him.

"Oh, my god, we fell asleep!"

"Calm down, I'll explain it to your mom." Dean says, helping Rory get her things.

"Where's my purse?!"

"I got it. Relax!"

"I have to go." Rory says, running out of the studio.

"Rory, wait up!" Dean yells, chasing after her.

"I have to go!"

"I'm going with you. We'll explain. It'll be okay."

"No, you can't come with me." She says, as they continue to run together. "You shouldn't be near my house right now."

"It's not our fault."

"I know. I just have to get home."

"Please. Please let me come with you." Dean begs.

"No!"

"Rory."

"I have to go home!"

At the house, Lorelai and Lauren are still sleeping until Emily shakes them awake.

"Lorelai, Lauren! Wake up. Wake up, now!"

"What?" Lorelai says, half asleep.

"Rory's not home." Emily tells her.

Lauren shoots up. "Rory's what?" Lorelai asks as she sits up.

"I sat in that chair all night. I dozed off for one second. The next thing I know, it's 5:30 and she's not here."

Lauren gets up and runs to Rory's room. "Rory?" Lorelai calls out as she gets up.

Lauren looks at the empty room and still made bed before walking out and looking at her mom who is walking towards her. "She's not here, Mom."

"She's not there. Aren't you listening?" Emily asks, following her.

Lorelai starts paniking when she sees the empty room, too. Lorelai turns around quickly, and grabs the phone. "Lauren, call Lane." She says, handing it to her daughter. Lauren nods her head and runs out of the kitchen.

"What are you doing? Call the Police!" Emily yells.

"Mom, stop it!"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find my cell phone. What do you think I'm doing?"

"You need to clean up around here. What is there was an emergency!? What if Lauren was choking!?"

"Mom, stop yelling."

"Rory is missing!"

"I know that, and your yelling is not helping me." Lorelai tells her.

The house phone starts ringing and Lauren answers it. "Rory?" She says, quickly. "Oh, Miss. Patty." Lorelai and Emily stand there watching. "Okay! Thanks, I'll tell her." Lauren says, hanging up. "Rory's okay."

"Where is she?" Emily asks.

"She and Dean were at Miss. Patty's." Lauren tells them.

"What is that? A motel?"

"It's a Dance Studio." Lorelai tells her.

"She said that she found them asleep and woke them up, and Rory's on her way home now." Lauren explains.

"And what state were they found in?" Emily asks.

Lauren looks at her grandmother with a confused look. "Mom, don't answer my eleven year-old daughter that." Lorelai says.

"She didn't do anything." Lauren spats at Emily.

"Lets just try to be calm until we know what happened." Lorelai says.

"What do you mean? We know what happened."

"Lauren, babe, go upstairs. I'll let you know when Rory gets here." Lauren shakes her head and runs upstairs. "No, we don't." Lorelai tells her mother.

"They were out all night!"

"I'm gonna make some coffee." Lorelai says, walking away to the kitchen.

"Lorelai, I've watched you do a lot of stupid things in your life and I have held my tongue."

Lorelai gives a sarcastic laugh. "Huh, you've what?"

"But I will not stand by and let you allow that girl to ruin her life."

"Mom." Lorelai says, as she begins to make her coffee. "Back off."

"She spent the night out with that boy, the one you let her run off to that dance with."

Lauren slowly comes back downstairs and sits against the wall, on the staircase, listening.

"So help me God, I will not get into this with you." Lorelai says, annoyed.

"She's doing the same thing you did."

"No, she's not."

"She'll get pregnant."

"No, she's not." Lorelai says, glaring at her mother.

"She's gonna ruin everything, just like you did."

"No, she's not! No, she's not! No, she's not!" Lorelai yells, slamming the coffee pot on the counter. "Rory is a good kid, Mom! She's not me!"

"No, you're right. Lauren is just like you!

"Don't you dare bring Lauren into this, Mom! She's a good kid, too. My kids are great!

"What kind of mother are you to allow this to happened?"

"I don't know, Mom. What kind of mother were you?"

"You're gonna lose her. Just like I lost you."

"I'm not gonna lose her. Do you hear me? Even if I hadn't gotten pregnant, you'd still have lost me. I had nothing in that house. I had no life. I had no air. You strangled me. I do not strangle my kids!"

"Oh, you're so perfect, and I was so horrible. I put you in good schools. I gave you the best of everything. I made sure you had the finest opportunities, and I am so tired of hearing about how you were suffocated and I was so controlling. Well, if I was so controlling why couldn't I control you getting pregnant and throwing your life away?"

"Get out!"

"What?"

"You will not come into my house and tell me I threw my life away. Look around, Mom. This is a life." Rory walks in quietly, and sees Lauren sitting on the stairs listening. Lauren looks over at her sister, and all Rory could see where Lauren's green eyes glistening because of the tears that were fighting to come out. She felt bad for doing that to her little sister, and she felt bad for what she was hearing right now between her mother and grandmother. "It has a little clor in it, so it may look unfamiliar to you. But it's a life. And if I hadn't gotten pregnant, I wouldn't have Rory and I wouldn't have Lauren."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Maybe I was some horrible, uncontrollable child like you say, but my children aren't. They are smart and careful, and I trust them. They are gonna be fine. And if you can't accept that or believe it, then I don't want you in this house!"

Rory and Lauren watch Emily storm out of the house. Rory walks into the kitchen where Lorelai is standing in front of the sink. "Mom, thank you for saying all those..."

Lorelai turns around facing her daughter. She was so angry. "What were you thinking, stay out all night?" Lorelai asks, interrupting her daugther. "Are you insane?"

"I'm sorry. It was an accident."

Lorelai walks over to her. "You're talking to the Queen of staying out all night. I invented the concept. This is no accident! You can't do this. Period!"

"Nothing happened." Rory tells her mom, pleading for her to believe her with her eyes.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up with my mother here and find out that you never came home?"

"So all this is about Grandma being here?" Rory asks.

"No, it's about the feeling of complete terror when your kid isn't in her bed in the morning."

"I'm sorry."

"And it's a different kind of terror when you find out she's spent the night with some guy!"

"I didn't spend the night. We fell asleep."

"You are going on the pill." Lorelai says.

"What?!"

"You are not getting pregnant!"

"I'm not sleeping with Dean!"

"Damn it!" Lorelai says, frustrated as she grabs two coffee mugs.

"What happened to all that stuff you said to Grandma? What happened to trusting me? Where did all that go?"

"I think it's back on Patty's yoga mats."

"This is crap! You know I didn't do anything. You know this was an accident. You're just mad because I screwed up and I did it in front of Grandma, and she nailed you for it. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I screwed up, and I'm sorry that you got yelled at but I didn't do anything, and you know it!" Rory yells, as she turns away and walks to her room, slamming the door behind her.

Lorelai tries to hold back her tears as she walks out of the kitchen to go upstairs and talk to Lauren, but when she reaches the stairs, she sees Lauren sitting down. Lauren looks up at her mom with tears streaming from her eyes. She shakes her head and gets up, running back upstairs. Lorelai sighs, falling onto the couch, letting her own tears fall as she sat alone.


	11. Forgiveness & Stuff

It was a typical day in Stars Hollow. Everyone in the town are getting ready for Christmas. They are putting decorations up and getting ready for the big play that they put on every year for it. Lorelai and Rory were still not speaking to eachother, well just not full sentences, since the mishap that day Rory didn't come home after her dance. Lauren was just annoyed with both her mom and sister. Lorelai did take up for her daughters, but deep down she was scared for Rory and what Rory may or may have not done with Dean. In Lauren's eyes, Lorelai was her hero, but now, knowing that Lorelai really didn't have a lot of trust in her girls like she said she did, really hurt Lauren and she wasn't sure if she would be able to forgive her mom for that. But Lauren knew this wasn't just Lorelai's fault. Lauren was mad at her sister for doing all of this in the first place. If Rory would have just came home instead of accidently falling asleep at Miss. Patty's then all would be good and maybe Lorelai and Emily would finally have a good relationship, but who would ever let that happen?

At the gazebo, Rory is standing there, with a coffee in hand, when Lane runs up to her.

"Hey, I thought we were meeting at Luke's." Lane tells her.

"We were?" Rory asks. "Oh, my god. I'm so sorry. I forgot."

"Let me guess. You and Lorelai haven't made up yet?"

"Nope. Things are still very Miracle Worker, plus Lauren is upset with me, too. God, how did everything get so screwed up?" Rory asks in frustration as she and Lane sit down on the bench.

"I think you staying out all night with Dean has something to do with it."

"And my grandmother being there to witness it didn't help."

"Never does."

"It sucks. Things were good. School was good. Dean was good. Now my mother, and my sister, and I are barely speaking. Mom and Grandma are barely speaking. Dean's new name is narcolepsy boy."

"How's he taking it?" Lane asks.

"I don't know. I haven't talked to him since it happened."

"That's four days ago."

"I know."

"Has he called?"

"I told him not to."

"And he listened?"

Rory starts smiling. "No."

"Good boy."

"Okay. I really need to talk about something else now." Rory tells her.

"You went shopping." Lane says, noticing the bag by Rory's feet.

"Yes, I did. I got a mooing cow-shaped timer for Sookie, some cardio salsa tapes for Michel, a book for Dean."

"You got Dean a book?"

"Yeah, Metamorphosis."

"Metamorphosis?"

"It's Kafka."

"Very romantic." Lane says, sarcastically.

"I think it is romantic."

"I know I always dreamed that some guy would get me a really confusing Czechoslovakian novel."

"I think he'll appreciate it."

"A book send the wrong message." Lane tells her.

"What are you talking about?"

"You have to look at what a gift says to the other person, not to you. Remember two years ago, I got my mom that perfume?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. To me that said, 'hey mom, you work hard. You deserve something fancy.' Now to my mother, it said, 'hey Mom, here's some smelly sex juice, the kind I use to lure boys with.' and resulted in me being sent to Bible camp all summer." Lane explains.

"Yeah, but.."

"Just imagine that you actually gave Dean something really romantic and he gave you a football. Your hypothetical romantic present is saying that you really, really like him. And his present is saying, 'hey man, let's just be friends.'"

"And you're saying that this book..."

"is a Czechoslovakian football, yes."

"So then what do I get him?"

"What you should do is find out what he's giving you, and then gauge your gift accordingly."

"But doesn't that kind of take the fun out of it?" Rory asks.

"Gift-giving is serious business. If you don't believe me, try spending a month at Korean Bible camp."

At the Inn, Lorelai is working on some paper work at the front desk when the phone rings.

"Independence Inn. Lorelai speaking." She answers.

"Lorelai." Emily says on the other end, making Lorelai look up at what she is doing.

"Mom, hello."

"I wanted to talk to you about the Christmas dinner this Friday."

"Ah, Christmas dinner."

"You forgot."

"Well, Mom, there's been a lot going on around here lately." Lorelai tells her. "Your Christmas shindig's not high on my list of things to obsess about."

"Well, I'm sorry if the timing's bad, Lorelai, but the world does not always revolve around you."

"Thanks for the tip."

"Cocktails are at six. Dinner is at eight."

"I probably won't be there for cocktails."

"Why not?"

"Because I have to work."

"You can't leave work early?" Emily asks.

"No, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not in my job description."

"Well, then don't come."

"What?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"Don't come." Emily repeats. "This is obviously an enormous burden for you."

"Yeah, but..."

"Just send Rory and Lauren."

"You're telling me not to come to the Christmas party?" Lorelai asks, a little hurt but what her mother is saying.

"Well, you're obviously too busy."

"I had the German measles in fifth grade. I still had to show up to the Christmas party."

"Lorelai, let's be honest here. I'm not too happy with you right now. And I assume you're not happy with me."

"My polka-dot dress matched my face, and still I had to sit through twelve courses."

"I am tired of forcing you to do all those terrible things that infringe upon your life. And I do not have the energy to pretend that they way you treated me the other day was in any way acceptable."

"So, you're uninviting me to Christmas dinner?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, I am."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Okay, anything else?"

"I believe that's all."

"Okay, well, great, Mom. It's been swell talking to you." Lorelai hangs up the phone and tosses it on the desk. She really could not believe her mother just uninvited her to Christmas dinner that they go to every year. It was actually the only time she really enjoyed the food.

At the house, Rory and Lauren are getting ready while Lorelai just sits on the couch.

"I wish you'd change your mind." Rory yells from the kitchen to Lorelai.

"It's not my mind that needs to be changed." Lorelai tells her.

"I don't think she meant it."

"Oh, she meant it."

"Well, maybe she thinks she meant it at the time, but I bet she won't mean it when we show up without you."

"And without a map to follow that reasoning. I say, take a hat, it's cold outside."

"So, you just wanna hold a grudge."

"Yes, it burns more calories."

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is. How do you think your Grandma got those legs of hers?" Lorelai asks. "She's not exactly a stairmaster gal."

"Mom."

"Never saw her on the running track."

"Okay."

"Don't remember the country club organizing a tae-bo-class."

"Fine, forget it." Rory says, annoyed. "Should I put your name on Grandma's present?"

"Yes. Sign it "The Innkeeper formerly known as her daughter."'

Lauren comes downstairs, dressed up, as Rory walks into the kitchen holding the present. "You know what I think?" She asks.

"What?"

"I think you're acting a little immature." Lauren tells her mother.

"I'm not acting."

"What about the apple tarts? You wait all year for those apple tarts." Lauren says, as she and Rory put on their coats.

Lorelai stands up, sighing, and walks over to them. "I can live without the apple tarts.

"You've made up songs after eating five of them with lyrics that contradict that last statement." Rory reminds her.

Lorelai picks up the keys and hands them to Rory. "Oh, you know what? You have to go. You're late."

Lauren looks up at her mom, not believe they are going without her. "You really won't come?" She asks.

"Sorry, kid. But you and your sister have fun."

Lauren rolls her eyes as she follows her sister to the door. "Drive carefully. Watch out for ice. Bring me back one of those tarts!" She yells just has the door closes.

At the Gilmore's, Emily and Richard are chatting with their friends in the living room just as the doorbell rings. Emily walks away and goes to the foyer to open the door.

"Hi, Grandma." Rory says, as she and her sister walk through holding the present for them.

"Rory, Lauren, come in. You both look lovely."

"This is from us and Mom." Rory says, handing her grandmother the gift.

"Well, aren't you thoughtful?" Emily says, taking it and putting down under the tree.

"You know, Mom actually picked it out." Lauren tells her.

"Rory, Lauren, do you know Hollan Prescott?" Emily asks, ignoring Lauren's comment.

"We met her last year." Rory says.

"Holland, look who's here." Emily says, leading the girls into the living room.

"Hello, girls."

"Richard, Allan, look who's here."

"Hello, Rory, Lauren." Richard says.

"Hi." Allan says. "Where's your mother?"

Lauren and Rory look at eachother trying to figure out something to say, but Emily steps in. "Lorelai couldn't come tonight."

"She couldn't?" Richard asks, surprised.

"No, she had to work."

"Grandma, can I talk to you alone please?" Rory whispers.

"You both need something to drink." Emily says, ignoring her, and walking away.

Rory follows her grandmother out of the room, while Lauren stands in the living awkwardly. "I wanna apologize about the other night."

"Rory, please. This is a party."

"I messed up. It's my fault."

"This is not the time or place to discuss this. Your mother should've taught you that."

"Please don't be mad at her." Rory begs.

"I'm not mad at anyone." Emily tells her. "Now go back in and join the party. Here takes this to your sister." She says, handing the drinks to Rory. Rory just sighs and turns back around to go into the living room.

At the house, Lorelai is fixing up the decorations in the living room while she is on the phone.

"Yes, Joe, I know it's Friday night, but I ordered my pizza an hour ago. Oh, no, I did not hear about the delivery van. Huh! Well, I am very, very sorry to hear that. Now, was it a fairly new van? Great. Okay. Well, Joe, as with most tragedies in life, there comes a time when you just need to pick up and move on. So what's the next phase of the delivery saga? Mm-hmm. Well, how long until your brother's back with the razor scooter? Okay, uh-huh. Alright. Just call me when he gets there. Bye, Joe." Lorelai hangs up the phone. Lorelai sighs, as she walks into the kitchen and opens up the fridge. She takes out a bag of salad and ranch dressing, when she goes to eat it she suddenly hears something in Rory's room. She walks in, turning on the light, just in time to be face with Dean's head looking into Rory's window. Dean sighs seeing that he's been caught. Lorelai walks closer to the window and opens it up. "Well, hi there." She greets him, smirking.

"Hi."

"How you doing?"

"Fine."

"Good. Good. Shouldn't you have a squeegee with you or something?" Lorelai asks.

"I was just.."

"Looking for Rory?"

"Yeah."

"She's not here."

"Okay."

"I'll tell her you tapped." Lorelai tells him.

"Thanks."

"Mm-hmm." Lorelai goes to close the window but sees that Dean has no intention of moving. "Something else?"

"I just wanted to say that things got all messed up." He tells her.

"Yes, they did."

"And I'm sorry."

"Uh-huh?"

"But nothing happened."

"Okay, I have to go." Lorelai says, getting awkward but the situation.

"We sat down, and we were reading this book and then we fell asleep." Dean explains quickly.

"Pick a more interesting book next time." Lorelai suggests.

"So, am I like public enemy number one with you?"

"Number one? I don't know. Would you settle for top five? Cause I'm still a little hot for that crazy bomber guy who's been living in a cave for a year."

"Please just tell me where I stand." Dean begs.

"I don't know where you stand, okay? All I know if my sixteen year-old daughter didn't come home one night and you had something to do with that."

"I told you, nothing happened."

"I heard."

"Look you can hate but you have to believe me. I would not let anything happen to her."

"You happened to her." Lorelai tells him.

"I won't hurt her."

"You know, I was sixteen when I had Rory. That is the same age she is now."

"I know."

"She wants to go to Harvard."

"She will go to Harvard, and if she doesn't, it won't be because of me." Dean stands up, figuring this wasn't going anywhere.

"I don't hate you." Lorelai tells him before he gets the chance to leave.

Dean turns back around. "No?"

"No. Though I did imagine twenty different ways to remove your head from your body."

"Yeah? Which one looked the best?"

"Hedge clippers." Lorelai smiles. "Dull ones."

"Well, I mean, sure. You wouldn't want it to go quick."

"Exactly."

"Okay, I'm gonna go."

"Dean."

"Yeah?"

"You know we have a really nice front door." Lorelai tells him. "You might wanna use it sometimes."

"Got it."

"See you."

Dean smiles before walking away and Lorelai closes the window.

At Luke's, Lorelai walks in and sits at the counter. Luke grabs a mug and starts pouring her coffee.

"Rory and Lauren coming?" He asks.

"No." She says, taking off her coat.

"Rory on a date?"

"No."

"Good. So you forbid her to see the bag boy." Luke says.

"I really rather not talk about it." Lorelai tells him.

"Just tell me you forbid her to see the bag boy."

"I did not forbid her to see the bag boy."

"Are you crazy!?"

"Well, he looks like he's moving up to produce, so he suddenly become quite a catch." Lorelai says, joking.

"That kid is trouble. I hope you are never letting Lauren date. Ever."

"Can I order, please?" Lorelai asks.

"The first time I looked at him I thought he was trouble."

"Excuse me, I'm the one who told you I thought he was trouble. You told me I was crazy." Lorelai reminds him.

"You are crazy, and he is trouble."

"He is not trouble. He's 6'2", he's beautiful, and he's completely in love with my daughter."

"Trouble."

"Big time." Lorelai says, finally agreeing.

"I'll get you a burger."

"Wait. Can I see a menu?"

Luke turns back around. "You need to see a menu?" He asks, confused.

"Yes."

"You come here every day."

"I know, but I usually order the same thing, and tonight I'm in the mood for something different."

"A menu."

"Piece of paper, liste of food offered."

Luke hands her the menu. "Okay. Here." Lorelai takes it and starts reading it. "It's not in Japanese."

"Don't you have any kind of holiday special, something festive?" Lorelai asks.

"I just got some grey poupon. It's French."

"Tongiht my parents' big Christmas celebration. There's good food, these amazing apple tarts, big tree." She says, smiling as she thinks about it. "The only holiday I actually enjoy going over there for, and this year I'm uninvited."

"Why the hell would anyone celebrate Christmas two weeks early?"

"Did you even hear the part about me being uninvited?"

"To your parents' fake Christmas party?"

"Yes."

"I did hear that."

"Do you care?"

"Obviously you do."

"Yes, I do, and I don't know why."

"You liked going."

"I did."

"Your daughters are there without you."

"They are."

"You and your girls aren't getting along right now. And you feel bad at being separated at a time you usually share together." Luke explains.

"Wow."

"Did I mention you come here every damn day?"

"I'll have a burger." Lorelai says, handing him the menu back.

"Coming right up."

At the Gilmores, everyone is sitting around the table eating.

"Emily, you've outdone yourself yet again." Holland tells her.

"Yes, I can't imagine the hourss you spent slaving over a hot stove." Allan jokes.

"You're teasing me, Alan."

"It's delicious, Emily."

"A compliment for my Chef is a compliment for me. Thank you, Alan."

"Well, I, for one, would like to know where Henry is at this hour." Richard says, talking about work as usual. "Probably gallivanting around London like a bull out to stud."

"Richard, please." Emily begs.

"Well, uh, how's he suppose to negotiate the contract tomorrow morning, if he's been out at all hours with some cheap tramp?"

"Knowing Henry, she wasn't cheap." Alan tells him.

"This is wildly inappropriate dinner conversation, especally in front of two young ladies." Emily tells them.

"Is it unbearably hot in here?" Richard asks as he messes with his tie.

"Richard, don't loosen your tie at the table."

"So, what are your plans for the Christmas holidays, girls?" Holland asks.

"We'll probably just be hanging out with our mom." Rory tells her.

"Oh, it's such a shame she couldn't come. She's always such a kick."

"Lorelai wasn't feeling well, so I suggested she stay home." Emily tells them.

Lauren and Rory both look down at their plates before they knew the real reason. "It is hot in here. I'm gonna lower the termostat." Richard says, getting up.

"Poor thing. What's wrong with her?" Holland asks, still on the subject of Lorelai.

"She has the touch of the flu." Emily tells her. "Richard, forget the thermostat!"

"Wait. I thought you said she was working."

"Well, she was supposed to work, but then she caught the flu. So, one way or another she couldn't have made it."

"Tell her we missed her."

Rory looks up and smiles. "We will."

"Richard?" Emily calls out. "Oh, for Heaven's sake." Emily gets up to follow where Richard went.

At Luke's, Luke brings over a burger that he dressed up to look like Santa Claus.

"What did you do?" Lorelai asks as she looks down at her burger.

"You wanted something festive." Luke tells her.

"You made me a Santa burger." Lorelai laughs.

"It's no big deal."

"He has a hat."

"Yeah, I just cut a piece of wonder bread, you know poured on ketchup, piped on some cream cheese." He explains.

"No one has ever made me something quite this disgusting before." Lorelai says in awe. "I thank you."

"You're welcome."

Lorelai's phone starts ringing and Luke points to the sign that says no cell phones. "What?"

"Outside."

"Are you kidding? It's the North Pole out there."

"Hey, this sign isn't just a decoration."

"Honey, nothing in here is a decoration." Lorelai tells him as she digs through her purse for a her phone.

"It disturbs the other customers."

"Oh, really? Maybe we should take a vote. Who thinks we shouldn't use cell phones in here?" She asks everyone. Everyone raises their hands. "Well, screw democracy." She says, putting up her phone, but it stops ringing. "Perfect. Now I have to check my voicemail." Lorelai starts listening to her voicemail. "Oh, my god!" She says, hanging up.

"What's going on?" Luke asks.

"Uh, my father's in the hospital." Lorelai says, packing up her stuff.

"What?"

"He collapsed or something. I don't know. I need a cab. I need to call a cab." Lorelai rambles. Where's the phone? I need, uh, can anybody give me..I'm holding a phone."

"Whoa. Calm down." Luke says.

"No, I can't calm down. I need a cab, uh, what's the number? God. It's something cabs, or cabs something, something. 1-800-Cabs? Can somebody tell me the damn number of the cab guy?" Lorelai yells, hysterically.

"I'll drive you." Luke offers her.

"But there's food, and there's people, and a burger with a face."

"Okay, everybody out, we're closed!" Luke yells. "Let's go! Food's on me. Put on your coat and get your stuff." He tells Lorelai. "Come on, my truck's out back."

On the way there, Luke is driving really slow which is making Lorelai really aggravated.

"Look."

"Relax." He tells her.

"We're being passed by senior citizens."

"I'm going as fast as I can."

"Bye, Grandma, Bye." Lorelai waves.

"There's ice on the road, those people aren't being safe." Luke tells her.

Lorelai tries to listen to her voicemail again. "They aren't being safe. At least they're getting somewhere."

"You've check it five times. I've listened to it twice. It's not changing."

"Grandpa's in the hospital. Please come. No details, no info. Who taught her to leave a message like that?"

"I'm sure she was in a hurry."

"A person needs details. Why is he in the hospital? How bad is it? What are the circumstances involving him being in the hospital? These are simple questions."

"We'll be there very soon, and you'll know everything."

"What if he's dead?"

"He's not dead."

"How do you know?"

"You're psychic now? You're suddenly getting visions while you drive at 20 miles an hour in the oldest truck known to man? I'm sorry. You're killing yourself to get me there and I'm yelling at you. I don't mean it."

"I know."

"I feel like this is one of those moments where I should be remembering all the great times I had with my dad. You know the time he took me shopping for a barbie, or to the circus, or fishing. My mind is a complete blank."

"Well, I'm sure it happened."

"No, it didn't. We never did any of that. He went to work, he came home, read the paper, he went to bed. I snuck out the window. Simple. He was a very by the numbers guy. I was never very good with numbers."

"I'm sure he loves you."

"You know, my dad is not a bad guy. He lived his life the way he thought he was supposed to. He followed the rules taught to him by his non-fishing non-barbie buying dad. He worked hard. He bought a nice house. He provided for my mom. All he asked in return was for his daughter to wear white dresses and go to Cotillion and want the same life he had. What a disappointment it must have been for him to get me."

"I can't imagine anyone seeing you as a disappointment." Luke tells her.

"I bet you'd buy a barbie for your daughter."

"Yeah, well, I'd probably give her the cash to buy it herself and then meet her by the baseball cards." Luke admits.

"You'll be a great dad."

"You make a great mom."

"Yeah, it's just the daughter part.." She laughs. "I don't have down yet."

"Okay, hold on. That camaro is dust." Luke says as he starts driving faster down the highway.

At the hospital, Emily is taking to one of the nurses up front.

"But why can't I see him?" She asks.

"They're running some test."

"Well, I'd like to meet this doctor who's testing him."

"You will."

"Some strange man is working on my husband. I have a right to meet this person."

"You will."

"And I wanna see the room you'll put him in."

"You will."

"And stop saying, you will!"

"Ma'am, please wait here."

Rory runs up to her grandmother. "Did you find out anything?"

"Please. They run this place like the C.I.A."

"Maybe I should call Mom again."

"Nevermind, I'm sure she's very busy."

"That's not true. I bet she.."

"Rory, go get your grandfather a paper. The Wall Stree Journal or Barron's, whatever they have." She says, handing Rory money.

"Okay." Rory says walking away.

Emily turns back around and starts arguing with the nurse again. Lorelai and Luke hear her and immediately run in the direction her mother's voice is at.

"Mom."

"Lorelai." Emily says surprised.

Lorelai walks over to her. "What's going on? How is he?"

"You came."

"Of course I came. How's Dad?"

"That's what I've been trying to find out. But this woman keeps pestering me with idiotic questions like the number of my insurance policy, and how long we've had it."

"I need to get this information." The nurse tells Lorelai.

"You need to get sensitivity training." Emily yells at her.

"What if I fill out, uh, this information." Lorelai offers. "And you can go find someone who can tell us how my dad is, or I can go and you can continue to discuss this with my mother."

The nurse looks at Emily. "I'll go." She says, walking away.

"You got rid of her." Emily says.

"Yes. So tell me what happened."

"I don't know what happened. He was hot, and he went to turn down the thermostate, and then..." Emily stops when she notices Luke. "Were you on a date?"

"What?"

"You have an escort."

"No, it's Luke, Mom."

"Which is her way of saying we were't on a date." Luke tells Emily.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"How am I supposed to know? It's Friday night. You're here with a man."

"With Luke, Mom."

"It's not insane to assume a date was involved."

"You're right, okay? It's entirely possibly that I was out on a date."

"Just not with me." Luke adds in.

"I was eating at Luke's when I got the message. He gave me a ride. End of story. Is Dr. Reynolds here?"

"Yes. Joshua got here a while ago. He was supposed to come back the minute he knew something." Emily tells her.

"Well let's go find him."

"You can't find me. You can't find anyone." Emily says frustrated. "Everyone just keeps disappearing behind those doors."

"Well, come on. Let's go." Lorelai tells her as she turns around and walks through the double doors.

"I didn't know you could do that." Emily says, following her daughter.

"I'll wait here." Luke says sitting down in one of the chairs just as Rory and Lauren walk up to him.

"Luke?" Rory says, confused.

"I gave your mom a ride. We weren't on a date."

"Oh, okay."

"Mom's here?!" Lauren asks him. She was a nervous wreck right now.

"She and your grandmother just went back to see if they could find a doctor." Luke explains to her.

"Did they find out anything else about Grandpa?" Rory asks.

"I don't think so. But give your mom a couple of minutes back there. I bet she finds something out."

Rory and Lauren both sit down on either of Luke. "Thanks for bringing her." Rory tells him.

"You're welcome."

"Hey, you okay?" He asks Lauren.

Lauren looks down at her hands. "I don't want him to die."

"You tell him that when you see him, okay? People like to hear that." Lauren just smiles up at him.

Rory looks up and sees Lorelai walking through the doors. "Mom." She says, walking over to her.

"Hey, you two." Lorelai hugs Rory.

"It was horrible. It happened so fast." Rory says, sitting back down.

Lorelai walks over to Lauren and kneels down in front of her, brushing the stray hairs out of Lauren's face. "He's about to come out of the big testing room any minute, so just hang in there." She tells her girls. "How you doing?" She asks Lauren. Lauren just looks at her mom and then bends forward, hugging her mom tightly around the neck. "Oh, I know." Lorelai says, sadly, kissing her daughter on the cheek. Lauren lets go and Lorelai pulls Lauren off her seat and into her lap as she sits down.

"Where's Grandma?" Rory asks.

"Kicking some patient out of the room with the good view." Lorelai tells them.

"Really?"

"I hope they get him unhooked fast." She jokes. "Otherwise he's going without the life-support machine."

"So, how long before they bring him back?"

"Very soon."

"I'd like to do something." Rory says.

"Like, uh, rollerblade?"

"Like get some coffee or make phone calls, or do something that isn't standing here waiting."

"Okay, got it. Well, as partial as I am to the phone, I'm voting for the get coffee idea."

"Okay, good. Luke, tea?"

"Peppermint, perferably." Luke tells her.

"Come with me, Lauren." Rory says, putting her hand up for Lauren to take and they start walking before Lorelai jumps up.

"Hey." She says, going up to them. They both turn around. "He's gonna be fine."

"I was just getting to know him." Rory tells her.

"I know."

"I don't want him to.."

"He's not." Lorelai tells her. "Go get your coffee." She says, smiling down at her kids as she watches them walk off.

Lorelai turns back around and sits down by Luke again. "You were very brave for them." He tells her.

"Yeah, well, it's my turn. God, this sucks."

"Hey, come on, you gotta think positive here. Bright side, good thoughts." Lorelai nods her head. "Rainbows, unicorns." Then she just gives him a weird look. "Clown. Little, cute, furry...Okay, I'm out."

"Thank god."

Emily walks out. "Alright. We've secured him the room, but the pillows are completely unacceptable. I'm gonna see if I can find some down one and some slippers. I'll be right back." She says, walking away.

"We'll be here." Lorelai calls out. A guy in a bed rolls out in front of Luke and Lorelai and Luke sighs and bends his head back. "Geez, are you okay?" Lorelai asks, worried.

"Yeah, I'm just not real big on hospital, you know." He tells her. "The smell, people being wheeled by with tubes sticking out of them, you know. Draining fluids, gaping holes."

"Okay. Listen, why don't you go home?"

"You want me to go?"

"You don't look so good."

"Thanks."

"That's not what I meant. You know, you always look good."

"Yeah?"

"I mean, you always look healthy."

"Okay."

"But you don't look so healthy now. Now you look..."

"Unhealthy."

"Yes." Luke just smiles at her."Oh, what? So I said you looked good? We're not in fifth grade. 'You look good.' Big deal. Stop staring at me." They look up when they see Richard being wheeled out. Lorelai stands up quickly and follows them. "How is he?"

"He's a little groggy right now." The nurse tells her.

"But what's going on? How were the tests?"

"The doctor'll have to tell you that. I'm just a transport guy."

"Well, when is the doctor coming out?"

"I'm not sure, but you can go with your dad until he gets here."

"Thanks."

"Go ahead. I'm good." Luke tells her.

"Uh, that's okay." Lorelai tells him. "I'm gonna go find my mom and my daughters and tell them he's back up."

"I can tell them when they get here." Luke tells her.

"That's okay. Um, I think they'd like to know now." Lorelai turns around just as Emily walks up to her.

"Lorelai, you always ran me over."

"Well, good thin we're in a hospital."

"Where were you going?"

"To find you. They brought Dad up."

"Well, come on." Emily says, walking passed Lorelai.

"You go ahead, Mom. I'm gonna go find Rory and Lauren."

"Fine." Emily says, continuing to walk away.

"You know I could look for Rory and Lauren." Luke tells her.

"No, that's okay. I'll do it."

"I thought so." Rory and Lauren walk up to them with coffee and candy in their hands. "Oh, look, it's Rory and Lauren."

Lorelai turns around. "The coffee machine was jammed, so I got us some chicken soup and some pez." Rory tells them.

"I was just coming to look for you two." Lorelai tells them.

"Why? Is everything okay?" Rory asks.

"They just brough Grandpa back up. He's in room 202."

"Well, come on."

"You both go ahead. I just have to make a call. I'll meet you there."

"Well, hurry up." Rory says as she and Lauren walk away.

"So, who are you gonna go find now?" Luke asks her.

"Stop."

"How about Jimmy Hoffa? That'll keep you busy."

"I said stop."

"You can't avoid going in that room forever."

"I'm avoiding anything. I'm gonna find coffee."

"The machine is jammed."

"There are other machines."

"Admit you're afraid."

Lorelai starts laughing. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"The truth hurts."

"No, you know what hurts?" Lorelai asks. "Having a screwdriver jammed in the side of your head." She points out before walking away when a guy is wheeled by Luke.

"Oh, my god!" He says, freaked out.

Outside of Richard's room, Rory and Lauren walk out to find Luke sitting in a chair looking at the floor.

"Where's Mom?" Lauren asks him.

"Looking for coffee."

"What are you doing?" Rory asks him.

"Staring at my shoes."

"Okay, carry on." Lauren decides to stay behind as she sits down on the other chair next to Luke.

At the coffee machine, Rory walks up to her mom.

"No luck?"

Lorelai smiles at her daughter. "I think I'm wearing it down."

"You're pathetic."

"Where's your sister?"

"She stayed with Luke."

"Is the doctor back?"

"Not yet."

"So, you had a visitor tonight." Lorelai tells her.

"Yeah? Who?"

"Narcolepsy boy."

"Dean came over?" Rory asks, surprised.

"Oh, yeah. He pulled the old tapping on the window bit."

"Were you mean?"

"Excuse me, I am never mean."

"You were mean."

Lorelai smiles. "He told me nothing happened."

"Nothing did."

"I know."

"You do? Really?"

"Rory, there are only two things that I totally trust in this entire world: You and Lauren. You just have to understand the major panic factor that went on there."

"I do. I really do, and I'm so sorry. Nothing like that will happen again, I swear."

"Mm, don't swear."

"Why not?"

"Because you are your mother's daughter."

"What does that mean?"

"It means things can happen even when you don't really mean for them to happen." Lorelai explains.

"They will not happen." Rory promises.

Lorelai chuckles. "Okay."

"I hated going to that party tonight without you. I know Lauren was miserable for sure."

"I hated you two going to that party tonight without me. How were the apple tarts?"

"Oh, Grandma didn't make them this year."

"Really?"

"Yeah?"

"That's weird."

"I know."

Mm, are you lying?"

"Through my teeth."

"Good girl."

Emily walks out of the room just in time to meet Lorelai and Rory.

"There you are. Where you went?"

"Coffee hunt." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, I'm gonna go wash my face." Emily says, walking away, but grabs Rory to go with her.

Lorelai walks over to Lauren, who is asleep in the chair. She brushes her fingers through her daughter's hair, lovingly.

"So, what you gonna do?" Luke asks. Lorelai sighs and Luke smirks, nodding his head towards Richard's room.

"Okay, well, I'm just gonna..."

"We'll be here."

Lorelai walks into the room and looks at Richard who is laying on the bed with his eyes closed. He opens his eyes and he and Lorelai just stare at eachother. Lorelai wanted to say something, but was interrupted with her mother, daughter, and Richard's doctor walking in.

"Well, Richard it looks like we're going to be stuck with you for a while longer." The doctor tells him. "It was just a touch of angina, but you have to watch your diet."

Lorelai just smiles at her dad as he continues to look at her. Lorelai slowly slips out the room when Richard takes notice of his grand-daughter. Luke stands up. "I heard. Everythings okay."

"Yeah, yeah." Lorelai says, wiping a tear from her eye. "They're going to keep him overnight, but, uh, he's gonna be fine." She says, as she starts crying.

Luke grabs onto her arm. "Hey." He says, trying to soothe her. Lorelai leans into Luke and starts crying on his chest. "Okay, see, here's where the guy is suppose to give the girl his handkerchief, but I don't have one. And plus, I find the practice a little revolting, so.."

Lorelai pulls away. "I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." She smirks, wiping her eyes.

"Do you want me to do something?"

"Could you take Rory and Lauren home?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, sure, sure. What about you?"

"I'm gonna stick around here for awhile and make sure everything's settled, you know. You take them and I'll drive the jeep back."

"Okay."

"Mom?" Lauren says, waking up.

Lorelai turns around and puts on a smile for her daughter. "Hey, babe."

"Grandpa?"

"He is going to be fine." She tells Lauren, as Lauren gets up and walks over to her.

"Good."

Rory walks out, happy that everything is okay. "He is gonna be fine."

"Yeah, yeah." Lorelai says, hugging her. "So, Luke is going to take you both home. I'm gonna hang out here for awhile."

"I'll stay, too."

"No, go. Call Dean. Put your little sister to bed." Lorelai says, pulling Lauren to her. "I'll call you later."

"Tell him goodbye for me." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai reaches down and gives Lauren a kiss on the cheek. "I will."

"And tell Grandpa I'll come back tomorrow." Rory says.

"Okay."

Rory hands Lorelai the keys to jeep and kisses her on the cheek. "Bye."

"Bye."

Luke hurries and grabs Lauren, bridal style, making her laugh, and pulls Rory close to them. "Okay, walk fast and look straight ahead." He tells them.

Lorelai just shakes her head, smiling, as they walk away. She sits down just as Emily and the doctor walk out. Emily sits down next to her daughter. "He's almost asleep."

"Good."

"Where's Rory and Lauren?" Emily asks, looking around.

"I sent them home with Luke."

"What about you?"

"I thought I'd stick around incase anybody needed anything."

"Really?"

"I mean not you. You obviously don't need anything." Emily just rolls her eyes and smirks. "But somebody somewhere in this hospital might at some point need something, and I'm gonna be the person who gets it for them."

"Would you like to go down to the cafeteria for something to eat?" Emily asks.

"Yes, maybe somebody in the cafeteria will need something." Lorelai laughs.

"Oh, dear." Emily says.

"And won't they be lucky when they see me?" Lorelai asks, as they stand up.

At Luke's a few days later, Lorelai walks in while Luke is cleaning up.

"Hello." She greets him.

"Hey, how's your dad?" He asks.

"He's good. Though he says life is not life unless it includes a steak. How come you're not out with everybody?" She asks.

"I have some things to do."

"Right. Anyway, this is for you." She says, giving him a bag.

"What's it for?"

"Just, uh, a thank you, Christmas, whatever."

"Christmas isn't for two weeks." He reminds her.

"Do we really have to do this again?" She asks. Luke starts opening the present and pulls out a baseball hat. "I just thought, you know, God forbit, something happens to that one, you might need a spare. Here." Lorelai takes it from him and puts it on his head. "Does that look wrong." She says, taking it off and putting it on backwards. "There." She smiles, happily, as she looks at the hat. "Oh, hey, turn off the lights." She says, walking to window.

"For what? It's not even the real procession. It's just the rehearsal." Luke tells her.

Lorelai walks to the window and pulls up the shades. "So, it's pretty."

"Why do they need to rehease it? It's the same thing every year."

"Come on, Luke, please?" Lorelai begs. Luke turns off the light and walks over to Lorelai. Lorelai smiles as she watches the town rehearse their play. "It's hard to imagine living somewhere else, isn't it?"

"Thanks for the hat."

"You're welcome. Looks good on you."

"Good how?"

Lorelai smirks knowing that was going to happen. "Just watch the procession." She orders him.


	12. Good Girl

After the whole Christmas thing, everyone were finally on okay terms, if you want to put it that way. Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren were back to what they do and things were kinda sorta back on track for the most part.

"L." Rory says, as she, her mom, and sister walk out of the market.

"L-L-Laryngitis." Lorelai says. "M."

"Mumps." Lauren says. "N."

"Narcolepsy." Lorelai guesses. "O."

"Are we gonna have to go through this everytime we decide who has to clean up the refrigerator?" Rory asks.

"You want to go back to thumb wrestling?" Lorelai asks her.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Osteoporosis." She guess. "P."

Lauren and Lorelai both look up. "Puppies!" Lauren yells, as she runs to the middle of the town where she sees animals up for adoption. Lorelai follows her daughter quickly as Rory just stands there.

"That's not a disease." She tells them before following.

"Hi! Oh, hi! Hi!" Lorelai says, talking to the dogs.

"Oh, my gosh! Mom, look!" Lauren gasps, running to one of the dogs in the cage. Lorelai and Rory walk over to her. "Oh, Buttercup was found cold and wet.." Lauren reads.

"hovering under a hydrangea bush along Highway 26." Lorelai finishes. "It's a sad highway!"

"As compared to all the happy highways she could've been abandoned by?" Rory asks, sarcastically.

"Her lineage includes cocker spaniel, golden retriever, bouvier des flandres..."

"Gesundheit." Lauren tells her.

"Thank you. And rottweiler."

"Buttercup is a special dog. She is extremely skittish and tends to react badly toward blond-haired females, brunette males, children of either sex, other animals, red clothing, cabbage, or anyone in uniform." Rory reads.

Luke walks up to them. "Hey, we just found the doggie version of you." Lorelai tells him.

A guy comes up to them. "Can I help you?"

"Do not let these three anywhere near a dog. They can barely feed themselves." Luke tells him.

"Shut up, you. We would be excellent pet owners, thank you." Lorelai says, a little hurt.

"You cannot be serious." Rory says.

"We could get him a pretty bowl." Lauren tells them as she continues to pet the dog.

"It's a her." Rory tells her.

"And a new name."

"Lauren."

"She's right. This Buttercup thing really has to go." Lorelai agrees.

"Do I need to remind you two of Skippy?" Rory asks.

"Skippy?" Luke says, confused.

"I can't believe you would bring up Skippy."

"Skippy was our hamster." Rory explains.

"He doesn't care."

"What happened to Skippy?" Luke asks.

"Nothing happened to Skippy." Lorelai tells him.

"Everytime Lauren would put her hand in his cage, he'd bite her."

"And laugh." Lorelai adds

"Hamsters can't laugh." Luke tells her.

"Oh, this one laughed, trust me."

"So, finally Mom got fed up with him biting Lauren and she stopped cleaning it's cage. Instead, every day she'd stuff some kleenex in there."

"You didn't."

"It was the quilted kind." Lorelai tells him.

"So this keeps going on, and the cage is just a cage full of kleenex that moves a little, and the smell, really good."

"I can imagine."

"No, no, you can't." Lorelai laughs.

"So, then she takes the cage to the place where we bought him, waits for the sales guy to go behind the desk, and dumps it on the counter then bolts."

"You abandoned your hamster?" Luke asks her.

Lorelai shrugs. "Look, I know it was bad, but this was a vicious hamster. He kept biting my five year old. He was like a Damien hamster with little beady eyes, and a big forked tail and a cape with a hood and...bye bye, Buttercup." Lorelai says, sadly, putting her arm around Lauren and leading her away, as Lauren just looks on sadly at the dog.

"You did the right thing." Rory says, putting her arm around her mom, supportively.

"I want a pet!" Lauren whines.

"You have Rory." Lorelai tells her.

"She doesn't do tricks." Lauren says, as they walk further away from the animals.

At Max's, Lorelai is sitting on top of the counter eating right out of the pot.

"This is good." She says, going in for more.

Max just stands there watching her. "Okay, correct me if I'm wrong. Twenty minutes ago, we were sitting at the dinner table, were we not?" He asks.

"Yes, we were."

"There were candles and flowers and plates and knives and cloth napkins."

"I loved the little sombrero napkin holders." Lorelai tells him. "Very ole."

"And the whole time we were at said dinner table, you took maybe three bites of this amazing dinner I made for you."

"Pass the bread."

Max hands her the bread. "And yet, as soon as that dinner is over and I start cleaning up, suddenly, that's when you're starving."

"What can I say? Watching someone work makes me hungry. If I hadn't stopped watching This Old House, I'd be 500 pounds right now." Lorelai sees that Max is about to throw away some other food so she puts her pot up.

"Passing these to you?" He asks.

"In the dish, please." Max start dumping the leftovers in the pot for her. "So, where did you learn to make Osso Buco, anyway?"

"Um, from this very old Italian woman who used to live upstairs." Lorelai listens, contently, knowing fully that Max is lying. "Uh, she had lost her husband a couple of years before, and she looked at me like a son."

"Sweet."

"She was."

"So, an old girlfriend, huh?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeap. So, would you like some coffee?"

"Yes, please." She says, jumping off the counter and following Max. She teases him by walking passed him and over to his desk. "Hey, did you read Rory's paper yet?" She asks, noticing the stack of English papers.

"Not yet."

"It's really good."

"I'm sure it is."

"Oh, and look," she says, taking it from the bottom. "It's right on top."

"Isn't that a coincidence?"

"Wow. There are some really big words in here. I just hope you have a dictionary with you when you read it. You know, I could just save you the time, and, uh, put an A on it for you."

"Well, that really wouldn't be fair to the other students whose mothers aren't here tonight, would it?"

"Yes, you're right. Although, life isn't fair, and the sooner those kids learn that, the better."

"Well, I'll take that advice into account."

Lorelai laughs, turning around and looking at Max's bookshelf. "Wow. These are beautiful." She takes a book down. "Huh, I never read Proust. I always wanted to. Every now and then, I'm seized with an overwhelming urge to say something like: As Marcel Proust would say...but of course I have no idea what he would say." Lorelai chuckles. "So, I don't go there. I could do, as Michael Crichton would say..but it's not exactly the same, you know?"

"Well, take it."

"Oh, no! It looks so valuable."

"It's a book. It's meant to be read."

"You sure?"

Max nods his head. "Take it. Read it."

"Okay, I will." She says, sitting down at Max's desk and opening the book.

Max starts laughing. "Now now." He tells her.

"What?"

"I'd rather you didn't read it right now."

"But, uh, what about..." Max leans in and kisses her. "my required reading?" She says, standing up and continuing to kiss Max as he leads her to the bedroom and closes the door.

Later that night, Lorelai tries to sneak in and halfway up the stairs Rory wakes up.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asks, from the couch.

Lorelai turns around, smiling. "Hi."

"It's 1:00 in the morning, ya know."

"I know, but, uh, my watch stopped during a terrible car wreck, and I had to save kittens and small children and four baby chicks." Lorelai lies as she walks towards her daughter.

"Did you have a nice time?" Rory asks.

"Not bad."

"That's a very big smile for a not bad night."

"Hey, he loaned me a book. Swann's Way." Lorelai tells her as she sits down.

"Aren't we ambitious?"

"Yes, we are."

"You know what it mean when a man loans you a book, don't you?" Rory asks.

"He's already read it?"

"Yeap."

"How did everything go here?" Lorelai asks.

"Homework."

"How many times did Dean call?"

"Not that many."

"How many?"

"Three." Lorelai gives her a look. "Five. But Lauren was getting secret phone calls, too, tonight."

"Really?"

"Yes. She kept running upstairs and hurrying to get to the phone before I did."

"Oh, no. She's too young for this."

"She's your daughter." Rory jokes.

Lorelai rolls her eyes, playfully, as she stands up. "I'll talk to her tomorrow about it. I'm going to bed. Are you staying here?"

"Yeah, I'm comfortable."

"Okay." Rory lays back down in her same position. "Night Mom." Lorelai says, kissing Rory on her forehead.

"Yeah, you just go think about what you've done."

"I will." Lorelai says, smiling as she walks to the stairs.

"Hey."

Lorelai turns back around to face her daughter. "What?"

"You look happy."

"I am, kid."

"Just checking."

Lorelai smiles, happily at her daughter, one last time, before running upstairs to bed.

At the Grandparents, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, and Emily are all seated around eating.

"How's the squab?" Emily asks.

"It's good." Rory tells her.

"Lauren?"

"It's the best tiny, weird bird I've ever eaten." Lauren tells her.

"I'm glad."

Lorelai notices Emily is smiling, strangely. "Why are you smiling like that?" Lorelai asks.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're smiling."

"I'm happy."

"That's not your 'I'm happy' smile."

"Well, what smile is it, Lorelai?"

"That's your 'I've got something on Lorelai' smile." She tells her.

"Girls your mother must be very tired."

"She works a lot." Rory tells her.

"I grew up with that smile. I know that smile." Lorelai says, still staring at her mom.

"Tell me about school." Emily says to Rory.

"Well, my French final went pretty well."

"You can change the subject. I know the smile. I've used it a few times myself."

"Mom." Lauren says, begging her mom to stop.

"So, tell me about Parent's Day."

Lorelai freezes for a second and looks back at her mom. "What?"

"Parents Day next Wednesday. When all the parents are supposed to go to classes with their children all day long."

"The Chilton newsletter came out today." Lorelai says, finally getting it.

"Yeap." Rory tells her.

"Right."

"You didn't read yours?" Emily asks.

"Not yet. But you knew that."

"Well."

"Hence the smile."

"Lorelai, you're really being silly. There is no evil plan afoot here. I simply brought up a subject I thought we could all talk about."

"Mom, not everybody can wait outside their mailbox waiting for the Chilton newsletter to arrive and then instantly memorize the contents in three seconds."

"Far be it from me to question you priorities."

"Just because I didn't read the newsletter doesn't mean I don't care about my daughter."

"So are you going?"

"To what?"

"To Parents day."

"Can we talk about it next Friday when I've read the newsletter?" Lorelai asks her.

"We could, except for the fact that Parents Day is next Wednesday."

"Wednesday?"

"Yeap." Rory tells her.

"If you talked about it on Friday then you would've missed it."

"Wednesday, huh? I have Lauren's parent's day that day, too, except we don't sit in on all the classes."

"It's okay, Mom, you don't have to be there." Rory tells her mom.

"We could talk about how you missed it." Emily says.

"I won't miss it."

"Yeah, Mom, it's totally cool. Go to Rory's. Her's is more important." Lauren tells her.

"You know what? I'll go." Emily says, excitingly

"What?"

"Why not? You have work and you have to go to Lauren's school. And as you insinuated, I have no life. Therefore, I will go sit with Rory at Parents Day." Emily tells her.

Lorelai looks at Lauren and Rory. "Mom, go to Rory's. I'll have another one next year. We always do. It's not important!" Lauren tells her, quickly.

Lorelai closes her eyes, trying to think of a solution. "Lauren, you are just as important. But are you sure you are okay with me not going?"

Lauren nods her head, quickly. "Definitely." She says, too eagerly, making Lorelai and Rory wonder.

"Okay. It's settled. I'm not busy. I'm going. I will be there." Lorelai tells her mother.

"Fine." Emily says.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"So, did you read on page 2 about the mother-daughter talent show?" Emily asks.

Lorelai starts choking on her food, causing Lauren and Rory to look up at her, smirking. "You okay?" Rory asks, laughing.

Later that night, Lorelai is busy getting ready for her date with Max.

"Mom, I have to go. It's almost 8:00!" Lauren yells from downstairs.

"Wait. Have you seen my orange suede hairclip thingy?" Lorelai asks her.

"Top right-hand drawer."

"It's not there!"

Rory throws down her stuff because, she too, had to get going. She did not want to be around when her teacher came to pick up her mom. So, to get things moving, Rory goes upstairs, leaving Lauren waiting impatiently. "Did you check in your purse?"

"Yes."

"Under your scarves?"

"Yes."

Rory walks into the room. "In your sock drawer?"

Lorelai walks over to her drawer and opens it. "OH!" She gasps. "I love you."

"We're gone." Rory tells her, kissing her mother on the cheek and walking out

"Lauren, call me as soon as you get to Elizabeth's!" Lorelai yells.

Rory comes downstairs and finds Lauren rolling her eyes. "Okay." She yells.

"Wait wait wait!" Lorelai says, stopping them once again.

"Mom, come on. Mr. Medina's gonna be here any minute!" Rory yells.

"Okay, just tell me one more thing." Lorelai begs. "Where's the silver dangly bracelet?"

"I'm wearing it."

"Why are you wearing it?"

"Because it's mine."

"Oh, right. Hey, can I borrow your silver dangly bracelet?" Lorelai asks.

"I'll leave it on the table for you."

"Thank you."

Rory and Lauren begin walking to the door when the doorbell rings. Everyone in the house freezes. "What was that?" Lorelai asks, in a panic.

Rory and Lauren turns back around. "The doorbell rang!" Rory tells her.

"Why did the doorbell ring?"

"Because someone's at the door."

"It's 8:00. Who shows up at 8:00 for an 8:00 date?"

"Maybe a Chilton teacher." Lauren tells them.

"Everyone knows that 8:00 means 8:20, 8:15 tops!"

Max just stands outside listening. "Obviously he was raised in a barn." Rory says.

"You know, he's cute, but this punctuality thing knocks ten points off the dream guy quotient."

"Mom, what do I do? We're not even supposed to be here."

"Okay, so go." Lorelai tells her. Rory and Lauren go to walk away but Lorelai stops them. "Oh, w-w-w-ait, you have to get the door."

"What?" Rory asks, a bit annoyed.

"Yeah, because I'm not ready."

"I'm not supposed to get the door. We agreed. We don't get the door when you have a date." Rory reminds her.

"I know, but.."

"Mom, we're not supposed to be here." Lauren tells her again.

"That's the first rule of the Gilmore Dating Handbook." Rory says. "Daughters shall be no where near house when said man materializes. It's a good rule. It's been working."

"And we really need to go." Lauren says, agitated.

Lorelai huffs. "Okay, but he's standing out there and it's cold, and my slip is now completely stuck in my skirt zipper. They'll have to bury me like this."

"Mom."

"Just this once." Lorelai says, quickly going upstairs giving them no other choice but to answer the phone.

Rory huffs and turns around to look at Lauren. "You go answer it."

Lauren crosses her arms. "No. He's your teacher."

Rory rolls her eyes and storms to the door and opens it. "Hi."

Max looks at her awkwardly. "Rory."

"Come on in." She says, opening the door wider for Max to walk in.

"Thank you." He says, walking in. He sees Lauren standing near the stairs. "Lauren, how are you."

"Hey, I'm good." Lauren tells him while she still stands there looking very impatient with her arms crossed.

"Can we get you something?" Rory asks as she closes the door. "I mean, we don't really have anything, but if you wanted something and we had it, I'd be happy to get it for you."

Max chuckles. "I'm fine."

"We have water." Lauren offers.

"That's okay."

"It's not bad water, actually. I mean it's not a funny color or anything."

"I'm good. Really."

"We have bottled water." Rory tells him.

"No, thanks."

"One bottle, actually."

"It's quite all right. We really need to go to the store." Rory says more to Lauren who just nods her head.

"So..should we.."

Rory and Lauren exchange weird looks at eachother. "Sit?" Rory asks him. "Right. Yeah, let's sit. Come on, Lauren." They all walk back into the living room.

"So, uh, what are your plans for tonight?" Max asks them.

"I'm going over to my friend Lane's house." Rory tells him.

"And I'm going to my friend Elizabeth's." Lauren says.

"Sounds good."

"And you guys are.."

"Dinner, movie, the usual." Max tells them.

"Right." Rory says, nodding her head.

They all look upstairs, wondering what was taking Lorelai so long. They sat there silently just looking at eachother. "So, this is a little uncomfortable." Max says, finally breaking the silence.

"Yes, it is." Rory agrees.

"But the thing is, if things go well, they way I hope they're going, we might be doing this again."

"Sitting uncomfortably?" Lauren asks him.

Max laughs. "Seeing eachother outside of school, Rory."

"That's okay." She says, putting on a smile. "I am fine with this whole you and my mom thing."

"You are?" Lauren asks her which cause an elbow to go right in her side. "Ow."

"Good. I'm glad." Max says.

"Well, we better go." Rory says as she takes Lauren's arm and drags her away. Max follows them towards the foyer.

"It was good to talk to you two again." He tells them.

"You, too, Mr. Medina."

"Yeah." Lauren agrees.

"Why don't you both call me Max? Just while we're out of school."

"I don't think I can do that." Rory tells him with honesty.

"Why not?"

"It just sounds wrong. Disrespectful."

"Doesn't sound wrong to me. I'll be happy to call you Max." Lauren tells him making him laugh a little.

"You're my teacher, Mr. Medina." Rory reminds him. "And if I start thinking of you as a Max, even as a part-time Max, it just seems like it'll get too confusing."

"How about this, then? We'll come up with non-Chilton names for eachother. When we're not in school, I'll you Rebecca."

"Rebecca." Rory repeats.

"And you'll call me?"

"Norman?"

"Norman?"

"Well."

"I look like a Norman to you?"

"I'm sorry. Psycho was on earlier and it was just the first name that came to mind. I'll think of something else. How about Alfred?"

"You know what? Norman's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I love it. I might make a legal change." He jokes.

"Okay. Well, I'm glad we have that figured out. I can still call you Max, right, Norman?" Lauren asks him.

"Yes, you can call me Max." He says, laughing.

"Cool." Lauren starts pulling on Rory's arm. "We better go."

"I hope you both have a good time with your friends." He tells them.

"Thanks." Rory says, following Lauren. "Oh." She stops, and starts taking off her bracelet her mom wanted earlier. "Would you give this to my mom for me?" She asks as she hands it to him.

"Absolutely."

"Thanks. Oh, Norman? Have her home by ten." Rory jokes before finally walking out.

At Luke's, Rory and Lauren are sitting at the counter.

"Hey, why doesn't Mom just invite Max to come with us?" Lauren asks her sister.

Rory gives her a weird look before actually thinking about it. "You know that's actually not a bad idea."

Lauren shrugs. "Thanks. So, you're cool with him dating Mom then considering he's your teacher?"

"I guess. I mean they're dating. She's happy. There's not much I can do about it. Hey, there was a phone call for you yesterday but when I asked who was calling they just hung up on me."

Lauren looks away. "Oh, really?"

"Lauren, who was it?"

Lauren looks in her mug trying to avoid Rory's question. "Oh, I'm out of coffee."

Rory goes to speak, but Lorelai walks in. "Hey, I found them." She says, holding up her worn on skates and sitting down next to Lauren.

"Where?" Rory asks.

"They were in the drawer with the roasting pans."

"Cool!" Lauren says, excited

Luke walks up laughing. "When was the last time you put those on?"

"Oh, you are constantly trying to ruin my fun." Lorelai tells him, sadly.

"Do they even fit anymore?" He asks as he bends down trying to get a better look at them.

"Yes, they fit."

"They look rusted."

"Well, can I just have some coffee, please?" Lorelai asks getting annoyed with Luke.

Luke takes a deep breath. "Hand them over."

"Why?"

"I'm gonna clean them and tighten the blades." He tells her.

Lorelai's sad expression suddenly turns into a happy one. "Really?"

"Yes." He says, taking them from her.

"Thank you!" Luke walks away and Lorelai turns back to her girls. "So, I think I'm just gonna go for it and wear the fur-trimmed skating skirt, pride be damned."

"Hey, Mom, what if we invite Max to go skating with us?" Lauren asks her. Lorelai's face drops in confusion. "Rory said she's fine with it."

"Max?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, we thought maybe he'd wanna go." Rory tells her.

"When did you both start calling him Max?"

"Well, the other night he said that we should probably call him something other than Mr. Medina when we're outside of school, which makes sense." Rory explains.

"So, we're getting used to saying Max. Plus, he's not my teacher so he doesn't care when I call him Max." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai really couldn't believe what she was hearing right now. "But you both don't see him that much outside of school." Lorelai tells them.

"No, but we probably will, since you guys are obsessed with eachother."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't say obsessed." Lorelai laughs, nervously.

"No, it's okay." Rory assures her. "I mean of all the guys to have hanging around, he seems like a good choice. I like him."

"Me too."

"Good. Well, that's good."

"So, what do you think about the skating?" Lauren asks her.

"What?"

"Max. Do you think he'd want to go?"

"I don't think he skates." Lorelai tells them.

"Well, maybe we could all do something else together." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, good! Something else is good. I love something else." Lorelai says while taking a sip of her coffee.

Rory and Lauren nod their heads as they get back to what they were doing before Lorelai had walked in. Lorelai just couldn't help but sit there and stare at her daughters. Never once did they ever get comfortable with anyone she was dating and now they were. It was weird. It felt really weird.

The next day, Lorelai is in the kitchen in her ice skating outfit. Sookie is there while Lorelai soaks her feets in a tub of water.

"Tea is done." Sookie tells her. "How are the feet?"

"I don't know." She whines. "They've stopped talking to me."

"What on Earth were you thinking?" Sookie laughs, bringing over a cup of tea.

"That I could still skate." Lorelai tells her.

"It's not like riding a bike, you know."

"Now you tell me."

Sookie sits down at the table. "So, what are you up to tonight?"

"Well, I'm gonna do a little dancing, then run 10 KM, and then just jump up and down really hard for about an hour." She says, sarcastically.

"No Max?"

"Nuh-uh."

"Taking the night off?"

"I don't see him every night, Sookie."

"He seems like a great guy."

"He is." Lorelai tells her as she puts on her best fake smile.

"That didn't sound very convincing."

"No, he is. He is a great guy for someone."

"For someone?"

"Yes."

"Someone else?"

"Yes."

"Someone else who's not you, although you're the preson spending every waking hour with him?" Sookie questions her. "How long have you been dating?"

"Why?" Lorelai asks.

Sookie glares at her friend. "Two months you've been seeing him, right?"

"Point, Sookie."

"You're just right on schedule, that's all."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"This is about the time you start doing your little getaway dance. Two months, right on the nose. You're good."

"I do not do a dance."

"You're cha-cha-cha-ing right now."

"I'm being practical." Lorelai tells her. "Rory and Lauren are starting to get attached to Max, and that's not good."

"Oh, Rory and Lauren are getting attached to Max?" Sookie asks, not believing her.

"Yes. And since I've decided that Max is probably not the guy for me, I think it's better that we break it off before they get hurt." Lorelai explains.

"Practical." Sookie says, sarcastically.

"Yes."

"Uh, can I say something here?" Sookie asks.

"Of course you can." Lorelai tells her as she rolls her eyes.

"Cha-cha-cha."

"Stop that. This is not a pattern, okay? I'm not doing what I always do. This is not the same." She explains in frustration.

"Actually, you're right. Usually you don't get so upset and defensive during the cha-cha talk." Sookie says as she gets up and grabs more water to put in Lorelai's tub. "You must really like this guy."

"When did you become the relationship expert? You haven't been in a relationship in years." Lorelai looks up at Sookie, who has her back turn, and realizes what she just said. "Wow. Zero to jackass in 3.2 seconds."

"That's all right. Your feet hurt." Sookie tells her.

"No,it isn't. It is never ever okay for me to talk to you like that." Lorelai says, apologizing. "I'm so, so sorry. Please, honey."

Sookie sighs and turns around to face Lorelai. "I understand. Really. You know, it's not like I don't want a relationship."

"I know. I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's just..it's hard with my hours. I'm always at the Inn, or the market, or the hospital."

"Please, forgive me." Lorelai begs.

"I forgive you." The phone starts ringing. "I'll get that for you." Sookie says, going to get up, but they hear footsteps upstairs running downstairs.

"I got it!" Lauren yells. "I got it! I got it!" She runs over to the phone and looks at her mom and Sookie, who are just sitting there staring at her. Lauren picks up the phone. "I got it." She tells them before running back upstairs.

Lorelai shakes her head. "She's so weird."

At Chilton, Rory is walking down the hallway just as Max walks out of his classroom.

"Rory."

Rory turns around and smiles. "Hey, Mr. Medina."

"I enjoyed your paper on Dickinson."

"I had fun writing it."

"It showed."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Rory is standing there, awkwardly, as she waits for Max to say something. He looked a bit uneasy about talking to her though. "Uh, Rory."

"Yeah?"

"No, that's it. That's all I wanted to say." He tells her.

Rory looks at him a bit confused. "My name?"

"Yes."

"Okay." She says, turning away.

"Actually.." Rory turns back around. "I just wanted to see if Lore-" He stops mid sentence to look around at all the students to make sure no one is listening to them. "If your mom is coming to Parents Day."

"Oh, well.."

"Cause I'm just trying to get an accurate number of parents who are coming...you know, for the cookie count." Max sighs. "Forget it."

Rory starts smiling. "She's coming."

"I hadn't heard from her in a while about it..I thought she'd maybe changed her mind and was going to Laure's instead."

"She'll be here."

"Okay, good. Good." Max says, about to walk away.

"But you should put us down for six." Rory tells him before he could.

"Six what?" He asks, confused.

"Six cookies." She tells him. "Mom will want to bring some home for Lauren, too."

"Okay, good. I will."

"Bye." Rory says, before turning around and walking away.

In the kitchen, Lorelai opens a pizza box from the fridge. "Four pieces of pepperoni pizza."

Lauren who is standing right there, helping her mom clean of the fridge, pokes her head out. "From?"

"Tuesday."

"Last Tuesday?"

"Tuesday in the not-too-distant-past."

"Toss it." Lauren tells her. Lauren takes out another box of pizza. "Oh, wait."

Lorelai takes it from her. "This is the pizza from mystery Tuesday. That's one's completely fine." She says, looking back in the trash.

Rory looks up from her homework. "Don't."

"It's in the box."

"Oscar."

"Felix."

"Forget it."

"Fine." Lorelai gives up and puts the other box in the trash, too.

"So, how's Swann's Way coming?" Rory asks, looking at the book that Max lended Lorelai.

"Oh, finished." Lorelai tells her.

"You're kidding. It took me forever to read that. I had to renew it ten times."

"The first sentence. I finished the first sentence."

"Aha." Rory laughs.

"Yeah. It's just...I'm so swamped right now, you know. It's the totally wrong time to start reading the longest book known to man." Lorelai explains. "Hey, maybe you could give it back to Max for me."

"Bring it to you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Parents Day."

"I know. I just.. I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make it." Lorelai tells her.

"What?" Rory and Lauren both ask at the same time.

"What do you mean?" Rory asks.

"Well, I have that thing at the Inn and I thought I could get away, but now I can't. Plus, I really want to check up on things with Lauren."

Lauren looks up at her mom with a confused look. "Mom, I'm fine. Things are completely checked up with me already."

"And what thing at the Inn?" Rory questions.

"The thing. The Inn thing. You know."

"She doesn't have a thing, Rory. She's lying." Lauren says, going back to what she is doing.

"Look, I don't need you two questioning me. I have a thing at the Inn, and I'm going to parents' day at Lauren's school. So, if you could give this book back to Max tomorrow that would be great."

"Why don't you just give it back to him that next time you see him." Rory tells her.

"Because I'm not sure when that will be, and he should have his book." Lorelai says, growing very annoyed with this conversation.

"You see him all the time."

"Rory, could you just give it back to him, okay?"

"Are you breaking up with him?" Rory asks, as she looks up at her mom. Lauren stops what she is doing, too, to hear the answer.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, he hasn't heard from you, and now you're asking me to return the book."

"How do you know he hasn't heard from me?" Lorelai asks.

"He wanted to know if you were going to parents' day and then he mentioned that you guys hadn't talked lately." Rory explains.

Lorelai shakes her head and exhaling. "He shouldn't be asking you about me."

"Why are you breaking up with him?" Lauren asks, walking over to join them.

"Because it's not working out." Lorelai says, getting defensive.

"But you seem so happy." Rory tells her.

"It's not right, that's all."

"So that's why you're not going tomorrow?" Rory asks.

"No, I'm not going tomorrow because I'm going to Lauren's school."

"That's crap and you know it."

"Hey."

"There is no thing at the Inn, and you weren't even going to Lauren's school until just now. You're avoiding Mr. Medina, and you're trying to lie to me, and you promised you would go and..Hey, do whatever you want, I don't care. Just leave me out of it. And give him the book back yourself." Rory says, as she gets up and walks to her room and closing the door behind her.

"Fine. I will."

The phone starts ringing. "I got it!" Lauren yells as she jumps up and runs out the kitchen.

Lorelai just drops her head to the table. This was all becoming too much for her.

At Chilton, Lorelai is following Rory down the hall.

"Hey, not so fast." Lorelai tells her.

"The bell's gonna ring."

Lorelai grabs Rory's arm. "Before you take one more step, tell me you still like me."

Rory glares at her. "You bug me."

"I'll take that as a yes. And I want you to know I will deal with my issues with Max myself."

"Fine."

"Really."

"I believe you." Rory says as she starts walking again.

Lorelai sighs and starts following her again. "So, where are we going?"

"To my locker to drop off some of this stuff."

"Great. Let's do it." Lorelai says, sarcastically following Rory to her locker. Rory drops her books into her locker and closes it. "So, what's first? Wait, don't tell me."

"English Lit. with Mr. Max Medina."

"Okay, see, I told you not to tell me."

"Sorry."

"Mr. Medina's class, huh?

"The fancy book owner himself." Rory jokes.

"How does first annual mother-daughter ditch day sound?"

"Not happening."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's go." They walk into the classroom.

The class goes by with Lorelai standing in the back watching Max teach. She was pretty impressed and was actually starting to feel bad for what she was about to do. The bell rings, and all the students start to gather their stuff.

"Hey, you go on ahead. I'm gonna talk to Max for a second." Lorelai tells Rory.

"Please be nice."

"I will. I will." Rory walks out and Lorelai turns to Max who is smiling at her. "Hi."

"Hi." He says. "It's nice to see you."

"Yeah. I've been really busy."

"Oh, sure. I..assumed"

Lorelai picks up the book. "I want to give this back to you."

"Keep it."

"I really liked it." She says, walking over to him. "I liked the first twenty pages anyway, and then I got busy and I can see you really need it, so..."

"What's going on, Lorelai?"

"Nothing, I just don't think a book whose first sentence is twenty pages long is for me." She tells him.

Max walks to his door and shuts it. "I left four messages."

"I know. I've been meaning to call, but Lauren's been hogging the phone."

"Uh-huh."

"Sorry."

"Sorry?" He asks, confused.

"Uh, that I didn't call."

"Okay."

"So..here." She says, trying to hand Max the book.

Max starts laughing. "Why do you keep on trying to give me the book?"

"Because it's yours."

"Is there something going on here that I don't know about?"

"Yeah, I hate Proust." She lies.

"Lorelai?"

"Look, um, Rory's out there waiting for me, so..."

Max puts his hand up to stop her. "Wait a minute. Oh, my god. I cannot believe what an idiot I am."

"What?"

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

Lorelai sighs. "I don't know."

"Not only are you breaking up with me, you're doing it really badly."

"Am I being graded?"

"No, I'm a little disappointed." Max says honestly. "I would have expected a better dumping from you."

Lorelai shakes her head. "Nobody's dumping anybody."

"Really? Then what is this?"

"I just need space."

"Well, I don't. In fact, I want as little space as possible. 100 clowns crammed into a volkswagen. That's the kind of non-space I'm talking about!"

"It's not working." Lorelai says, trying to come up with more words.

"It was working pretty good the other night."

"Look, it is what I've been trying to tell you all along. This is a family, Rory, Lauren, and I. You walked into a family, but you weren't listening, and now they are getting attached, and I'm afraid they are going to get hurt." Lorelai explains.

"So you solution to all of this is not to return my calls?"

"It just took me a while to figure things out, and it all came clear when I realized how much we could hurt Rory and Lauren."

"Don't you mean how much we could hurt Lorelai?"

"Hey, I can take care of myself."

"I don't understand this. I thought we went through this. We-we decided that your girls could handle it."

"Well, maybe they can and maybe she can't, but I'm not ready to find out."

Max shrugs. "I won't let you off that easily."

"Well, there's nothing you can do about it."

"There has to be."

"There isn't."

"There is."

"No, there isn't."

"Yes, there is."

"What are we, in high school?!" Lorelai asks, annoyed, but Max just gives her a look. "Well, I know we are in high school."

"This is so not you." Max tells her.

"Well, you don't know everything about me."

"I guess not. Because I wouldn't thought that blaming this on your kids and giving me these lame apologies was weak, pathetic, and beneath you."

"Just take your damn book." Lorelai says, again trying to hand Max his book.

"You missed me."

"Stop it."

"I know you did. You're missing me right now, aren't you?" Lorelai groans and turns away. "Answer me." He says, following her.

Lorelai turns around quickly. "Look, classs is over."

"We're back in session."

"Well, I didn't raise my hand, so don't call on me!" She yells. "I came here to give you this book back. Please take it."

"I swear to God, if you try to give me that book one more time..."

They stand there staring at eachother. Lorelai was shrugging to keep everything together as she stood there with the book against Max's chest, but Max was forgetting everything and pulls Lorelai to him and begins to kiss her. But what they didn't know was that Paris is walking by and sees the two in action. She takes another look before finally walking away. When Paris reaches the cafeteria, though, all breaks loose as she starts whispering to everyone what she just seen happen. Rory looks around when she starts hearing everyone's voices getting louder and louder. Tristin walks over to her and smirks before blowing her a kiss and walking away. Rory glares at him just as Paris walks up to her.

"What's going on?" Rory asks her.

"Oh, everyone's just talking about the mom that Mr. Medina was seen kissing just now." Paris tells her, proudly.

"What?"

"And the weird thing is she looks a lot like your mom."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your mom, Mr. Medina, mouths open. I saw them. How's the coleslaw? Good?" She asks, as she begins to walk away.

Rory looks around, embarrassed by what her mom just did. Lorelai walks in and goes over to her daughter who looked like she was going to pass out at any moment. "Hey, did you save me some jell-o?" Rory slams her book shut and grabs her booksat, glaring at her mom, as she walks away. "What?" Lorelai asks, confused. "Rory." Lorelai starts running after Rory, who is climbing the stairs, quickly. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Were you kissing him?" Rory asks, turning around to face her mom. She was so angry at her.

"What?"

"Mr. Medina, just now. Were you kissing him!?"

"Yes."

Rory closes her eyes. She could not believe this was happening to her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't know." Lorelai says in all honesty.

"You said you were breaking up with him."

"I was."

"I know I told you to be nice, but this was a little extreme, don't you think?"

"It-it wasn't suppose to happen."

"Paris saw you. It's all over the school!"

Lorelai looks at her daughter. She could see so much hurt in her eyes it was killing her. She had no idea anyone would have seen them. "Oh, god. Oh, Rory, I'm so sorry, I really am. See, this is exactly why I didn't wanna date him."

"You didn't want to date him so you wouldn't come to my school and kiss him and humiliate me?" Rory asks her.

"Yes, that's exactly it."

"Why would you do this?"

"Because I'm human. Because I screwed up. I'm sorry."

"If you like him so much, then why are you breaking up with him?"

"Look, I broke the rules when I brough him into our lives and I realize now that that was a very bad idea."

"But why?"

"Why? Because we are standing in this stairwell yelling at eachother, that's why. Because it's affecting you. It's seeping into your life and that is the whole reason I made these rulse in the first place. Is to protect you and your sister." Lorelai explains.

"Maybe it was good that you hid your personal life from me when I was a kid, but I'm not a kid anymore."

"No, you're right. You're a 40 year-old divorcee. My mistake."

Rory turns around, storming away. "Oh! I can't believe you're blaming this on me!"

Lorelai runs after her. "I'm not blaming you!"

"You made up these stupid rules years ago about the way the Gilmore women would run their lives." Rory says, facing her mom again. "And now you're sticking to them even though they're crazy."

"Oh, hey, my crazy, stupid rules are the reason we are doing so good in our lives! They're the reason you and your sister grew up the way you both did. The reason you're even in this school, and the reason you're going to go to Harvard. So, don't you dismiss my rules!"

"Fine. Great. Well, maybe it's time for the rules to change."

"Yes, well, that is for me to figure out, not you!"

"Great. Fine. Could you figure it out before French class cause I'd rather you didn't start making out with Mrs. Collins."

"Hey, no promises until I see what she looks like." Lorelai says, as her phone starts to ring. She groans, picking it up, and answering it. "Hello!? What? I'll be right there!"

At Lauren's school, Lorelai to the office, looking so pissed off she didn't know what do with herself. She finds Lauren sitting outside the principal's office.

"Lauren Lorelai Gilmore, we meet again." Lorelai says, sarcastically as she hovers over her younger daughter. Lauren just puts her head down as the Principal opens her door.

"Miss. Gilmore, come on in." Lorelai shakes her head at her daughter and follows the principal into her office. Lorelai sits down as the principal goes to sit on the other side. "Miss. Gilmore, we found Lauren and her little friend Alex at the football field. It looked like they weren't planning on getting back to class. And..."

"And what? And what?" Lorelai asks, nervously.

"Coach said he found Alex's hand in Lauren's...shirt."

Lorelai eyes buldge out. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Now we didn't ask what it was all about. They are kids and maybe they don't know any better, but we will have to suspend them for three days."

Lorelai couldn't believe this. Her daughter was only eleven!

Outside the office, Lorelai walks out and motions for Lauren to follow her. Lauren was actually pretty scared since Lorelai didn't speak to her all the way home.

"Go to your room. I'll be up in a minute." Lorelai tells her.

Lauren runs passed her mom and upstairs. Rory walks out of her room when she hears the door slam. "What happened?" She asks Lorelai.

Lorelai shakes her head. "Well, I know who your sister has been talking to."

"Who?"

"A boy. Named Alex. A boy named Alex who if I ever see will get kicked right in the ass by me."

"Oh, boy."

Lorelai takes a deep breath and begins walking upstairs. She doesn't even bother knocking on Lauren's door. She just walks right in to find Lauren sitting on her bed, nervously awaiting for her mom. Lorelai takes a deep breath and sits right in front of her daughter who wouldn't even make eye contact with her.

"Look at me." Lorelai orders. Lauren looks up as green eyes meet blue eyes. "You know you're eleven, right?" Lauren nods her head. "Then why did you do it?"

Lauren shrugs. "He said he wanted to know."

"So, you do everything a boy asks you to do? Lauren, I've taught you better than this. I mean it's been me, your sister, and you, kid, all your life, and I'm pretty sure all I did throughout your life was tell you how you should wait until your married or until you love someone to have sex."

Lauren's eyes widen. "I didn't have sex!"

"No, but you were close. Lauren, you are only eleven. No boy should even be getting close to you. Not ever."

"I know. But I like him."

"I know you do, but he obviously doesn't like you for you, babe. He's an eleven year-old boy..."

"Thirteen." Lauren corrects her.

"Thirt...Thirteen?" Lorelai stutters. "He's not even your age! Well, that explains it." Lorelai takes her daughter's hand. "Lauren, no one ever touches you there. Got it? That's for just you, and only you. Got it?" Lauren just nods her head, still embarrassed by everything. "Do I have to have the sex talk again?"

Lauren shakes her head. "No, Mom. I already know all about it. You told me a bazillion times."

"God, kid, sometimes I forget your are really just a kid. You and your sister act so much older than you are that I forget sometimes."

"I'm sorry."

"Okay, well, here's what we're going to do. No phone for two weeks unless it's me or Rory calling. And you will never talk to Alex ever again. Got it?"

Lauren nods her head. "Got it."

Lorelai pulls Lauren into her and Lauren just laughs as she rest her head on her mom's shoulder. "You are just like me, it's scary."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too." Lorelai says, truthfully. "No getting pregnant."

"I thought I couldn't do that until I'm married?" Lauren asks, looking up at her.

Lorelai starts laughing and pulls Lauren back to her. "There's my eleven year-old kid." She jokes.

At Lorelai's usual coffee shop in Hartford, she walks in and finds Max sitting at his usual table, drinking coffee.

"Hey, mister, wanna by a really nice copy of Proust?" Lorelai asks him.

Max turns around and smiles. "How you doing?"

Lorelai sits down next to him. "Well, you know. You?"

"Well, I'm you-knowing also."

"Yeah. So that Parents' day is fun."

Max sighs and starts laughing. "Oh, it was a big hit this year."

Lorelai smirks. "Look, the other day, we were going skating and Lauren and Rory said: why don't we invite Max to come along with us? And that was a little weird for me."

"Me, too. I don't skate."

"They've never really referred to anyone I've dated by their first name before. I've always kept them out of that part of my life, so it was like, the mustache guy, the earring guy, the peg leg guy."

"Oh, so you have a thing for pirates."

Lorelai chuckles. "They've never called anyone by their name before." She repeats. "They like you. They like us. And so my mind instantly went to, oh, my god, what if we break up? They'll be crushed. And then my next thought was, oh, my god, what if we break up? I'll be crushed. And then, as you know all hell broke loose."

"I understand."

"I freaked out. I'm so sorry. I never meant to treat you like that. I'm not very good at this. Ask Skippy."

"Skippy?"

"I'm so, so sorry." Lorelai says, again.

"I was called into Headmaster Charleston's office today." Max tells her.

"Let me guess. He put his arm around you and said: I don't understand why you crazy kids can't work this out."

"He said I was jeopardizing my career and my future at Chilton."

"Oh."

"At first I was incensed, outraged. How dare he? And then I realized that he was right. What happend the other day was completely unprofessional. I never in my life would have considered pulling off something like this. He should've fired me."

"But he didn't."

"Not yet. But the word probation was tossed around quite a bit, though."

"I'm sorry." Lorelai says, sincerely.

"I was the one who started the kiss."

"I'm the one who knocked it up to NC-17." She jokes.

"I honestly did not think this was going to be so complicated."

"I know."

"I mean, you told me it would be. I didn't listen. I didn't want to."

"It's not your fault. If I hadn't acted like a two year-old and tried to run away and pretend that you weren't what you are to me, then we wouldn't have fought, we wouldn't have kissed and I wouldn't have humiliated my daughter and the whole thing would have been fine."

Max sighs. "I do not know what to do here. I..I've never been in a relationship like this before. I'm not thinking straight."

"I know. Me either."

"That was a great kiss."

"Beyond great."

"Maybe we need to take a little time away from eachother." Max suggests.

Lorelai nods her head, a bit confused, but understanding. "Okay." She says.

"You know, just to figure out..how to do this so it's not so hard."

"Sure, that makes sense."

"I just don't have any other answers right now."

"No, you're right. You're absolutely right. I really, really like you Max Medina."

"I really, really like you Lorelai Gilmore."

"Well, as long as we have that straightened out." Lorelai says, chuckling nervously.

"Goodbye, Lorelai." Max says, standing up and walking out.

"Bye." She whispers.

Later that day, Rory and Lauren walk in.

"Mom! We're home!" Rory yells.

They drop their things. "Mom!" Lauren yells. Rory follows Lauren upstairs and they go into Lorelai's room to find her laying down and crying in bed. They look at eachother and walk over, climbing in next to their mom. Lauren climbs in the front and Rory climbs in the back and they both just hug their mom as she cries.


	13. 1 Date, 2 Date, 3rd Is A Big Mistake

_Okay, first I just want to thank everyone who is reading this story and reviewing it. I was skeptic at first to start writing it, but you guys are making me very happy that I did. And for anyone who is thinking that Lauren should have a bigger part, you're completely right. But as of right now, I'm just trying to find her part. She is a Gilmore Girl whether any of you believe she is or not. She's eleven and if you really sit there and think about it, she is just trying to find out where she fits in between her mom and Rory. They have a longer relationship, since she is the youngest and all, but she is trying to fit it. I do give her small parts, and yes, little comments here and there, but she will have bigger parts, and she will have a full story, one day. But as of right now, I'm just introducing her still, and eventually I will roll her into bigger parts in the story. But I thank all of you for reading and please continue to review because they keep me going! Enjoy! (: _

At the Gilmore Girls home, everyone is finishing getting ready and beginning to start their day. Rory walks out of her room and into the kitchen.

"Mom!" She calls out to Lorelai.

Lorelai walks out and takes the coffee pot from the machine and pours it into a mug, as Rory puts her mug in the coffee pots place. Lauren runs down and goes straight to the pop-tart box. She opens two up and puts them in the toaster to warm them. As she waits, Lauren walks over to where her mom and Rory are, and takes Lorelai's coffee from her to take a few sips. Lorelai then walks to the toaster, grabs two paper towels, and as soon as the pop tarts pop up, she grabs them and sets them on either paper towel for her girls. Lorelai walks back over and grabs the mug from Lauren as Lauren grabs the pop-tarts from Lorelai. Rory grabs hers and walks to her bedroom door to grab her bookbag. In the middle of the foyer, Lorelai puts down her stuff and starts braiding Lauren's hair quickly, as Rory ties Lorelai's scarf around her neck. Lorelai turns around and notices a clip just hanging on the side of Rory's hair, and takes it out, showing Rory. Rory just smiles as she and her sister follow their mom out of the house.

In the living room, Lane opens a bag full of cds and lays them all out on the coffee table.

"Wow. You went new-cd crazy." Rory says, looking through the cds.

"They just had an amazing selection today." Lane explains.

Rory starts picking a few up. "The best of Blondie, Kraftwork, Young Marble Giants, Yoko Ono. Really?"

"A very misunderstood artist. The Beatle would've broke up anyway."

"Have you shared this theory with anyone?" Rory asks her.

"I know it, Yoko knows it. Sean knows it. Julian's in denial, but what can you do?"

"Okay, I must listen to anyone named Claudine Longet." Rory says, opening the cd case and grabbing the cd putting in the stereo.

The music starts and Lane looks at her friend very seriously. "Rory."

"Yes, Lane?"

"I have a favor to ask you."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, you know Dean?"

"My boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"Yes, I do."

"Okay. Remember I was telling you about his friend, Todd?"

"Todd?" Rory starts thinking. "Yeah."

"Have you met him?"

"No."

"Well, he's cool."

"Good."

"Really cool."

"Good again."

"Really, really, cool." Lane repeats.

"Good still holds." Rory assures her.

"So cool that it brings me to to the next question." Lane says just as Lorelai walks into the room.

"Hey, I'm studying in there." She tells them.

"I know." Rory says.

"I have, like, 6,000 pages of case studies to memorize and this whole big test on the wal-mart phenomenon coming up on Friday. And because I have a life and a job, and business school is not the only thing I have to concentrate on, I'm behind and I'll probably fail. And then that little 18-year-old annoying gnat who sits behind me will get another A and make that I'm smart, you're dumb face to met for the rest of the week, and I'll be very upset and will possibly cry."

"The music's too loud." Rory says.

"Yes." Lorelai tells her.

"Got it."

"Thank you." She says, walking back to the kitchen.

"So, anyhow, I was wondering if you could talk to Dean about maybe talking to Todd about me." Lane tells Rory.

"I guess."

"And then maybe you could ask Dean to ask him out. For me."

"Good, cause I don't think Dean would wanna go out with Todd. It might screw up their friendship." Rory jokes.

"And then I was thinking that this date could maybe happen this weekend. Sunday, preferably."

"Well."

"After Church. But don't mention Church."

"Okay, hold on a second." Rory says raising her hand to get Lane to calm down for a second.

"Unless he's into Church."

Lorelai walks back into living room. "Hey, uh, now it's too quiet." She tells them.

"I'll turn it up." Rory tells her.

Lorelai smiles at her, gratefully. "Thank you." Lorelai turns to go back to the kitchen, but turns back around to face the girls. "Who the hell is that anyway?"

"Claudine Longet." Rory tells her.

"The chick who shot the skier?"

Rory looks at her with a confused look. "Um, sure, why not?"

"Wow. Renaissance woman." Lorelai says, going back into the kitchen.

"You want me to set you up with Todd?" Rory asks Lane.

"Yes. And I was thinking that you and Dean could come out with us so it's not that big of a deal."

"Oh."

"You don't wanna do it." Lane says, noticing the apprehensivness Rory was showing.

"No, I-"

"That's okay, I understand. No big deal."

"I just really don't know this Todd guy." Rory explains.

"I do."

"You've met him twice."

"But the third time's a charm."

"How do you know this guy's right for you?"

"I know. I'm telling you we're talking soul mate here."

"The last time you met your soulmate, you ran your fingers through his hair and ended up hiding at my house for the evening."

"Well, I still have my key."

"Lane."

"Look, I made a mistake with Rich Bloomenfeld. Everyone's allowed one mistake. But Todd, Todd is different."

"He is?"

"First of all, his name is Todd. Different name, different guy."

Lorelai walks back in. "Okay, so.." she turns off the radio. "How important is this whole business school thing anyway?" She asks. "I mean so what if I never run my own Inn? I like my job, I like my house, I like my life. And I certainly don't wanna be one of those people who's never satisfied with what they have, you know? I mean, some people don't have legs or arms. I have legs and arms. What more could I possibly want than legs and arms? I mean, I could take all the classes in the world, that's not gonna give me what I already have."

"Legs and arms?" Rory questions.

"Yes. Am I sounding completely crazy?" Lorelai asks them.

"Yes, you are."

Lorelai huffs. "Wal-mart is boring."

"Study."

"Ughh!" Lorelai yells before going back into the kitchen.

"So?" Lane says, getting back on subject.

"So?"

"Rory."

"Okay." Rory smiles.

"Really?"

"Yes, Yoko." Lane jumps up, excitingly and hugs Rory.

Lorelai walks back in and makes her way in the middle of them and sits down. "So.." She says, smiling widely at the two. "What you doing?"

At Lauren's school the next day, she and her friend Elizabeth are sitting outside, eating lunch. Lauren looks over and sees Alex on the other side of the courtyard talking to his friends.

"So, have you spoke to him yet?" Elizabeth asks Lauren.

Lauren shakes her head. "No."

"Why not? It's not like your mom is here to watch your every move."

Lauren glares at her best friend. "Elizabeth, my mom would find out. She finds out everything. And if I did talk to Alex and she did find out, things wouldn't be pretty."

"Your mom would hit you?" Elizabeth asks.

Lauren starts laughing. "Are you serious? My mom has never hit me or Rory. She's way too cool for that. But I just don't want to be on her bad side. Plus, she was right. Alex is way too old for me."

"All the more reason to..."

Lauren puts her hand up stopping her friend from talking. "Don't even finish that sentence, Elizabeth. I'm not doing it."

Elizabeth looks passed Lauren and starts smiling. "You don't have to."

Lauren quickly looks at where Elizabeth is looking and sees Alex walking over to her. "Hey, Lauren."

"Hey, Alex." Lauren says, shyly.

"I heard you got into some big trouble."

Lauren looks at him with a confused look. "No, I didn't. Who told you that?" Lauren looks at Elizabeth.

"Hey, I didn't say anything about big trouble."

"I'm sorry. She said just said trouble. But I've seen your mom around. She's hot, but she's scary, too, so I just assumed.."

"You assumed wrong." Lauren tells him. "And please don't ever say my mom is hot again."

Alex sits down next to her, causing Lauren to feel a little uneasy, so she scoots closer to where Elizabeth is. "So, what do you say about this weekend?"

"I don't say anything about this weekend. Why?"

"Wanna come over? My brother's in town and my parents are leaving. So he said it was cool if you came."

Lauren shakes her head. "Sorry. I can't go anywhere this weekend."

"Why are you grounded?"

"No, I just can't, okay?"

Alex stands up. "I'll let you think about it, okay? I'll get back to you tomorrow." He says, before walking away.

Lauren shakes her head and Elizabeth just sits there smiling at her. "So, are you going to go?"

"Are you stupid or something?" Lauren asks. "I can't go."

"No, you're being stupid right now. He likes you. An older boy likes you."

"We're eleven, Liz, not sixteen. That's how old my sister is, and she has a boyfriend. A nice one. Alex is just trying to be like his older brother."

"Who is also cute by the way."

"I'm over this." Lauren says, packing up her things and walking away. She catches Alex's eye and sees him winking at her. "What are we in high school?" Lauren says to herself.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks into the kitchen where Sookie is stirring something.

"Coffee?" Lorelai mumbles, walking over to the coffee machine.

"Yes." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai looks over and notices what Sookie is stirring. "Oh, Meringue." She says, intrigued.

"Yeah, I thought I'd do a variation on a baked Alaska for dessert tonight."

Lorelai walks over to her. "What kind of variation?"

"See, I hadn't thought of that yet."

"You could do them in the shape of Alaska." Lorelai tells her.

"Interesting."

"Or you could do little baked Alaskas and Hawaiis."

"Because they joined the union last."

"Exactly!"

Jackson walks in with a crate of carrots in his hands. He stops suddenly when he sees Sookie. "Oh."

Sookie stops stirring and stares, nervously, at him. "Jackson."

"Sookie, hello."

"Hello."

"I brought you um..."

"Yeah, great. Just put them down there." Sookie tells him.

Lorelai watches them talk to eachother. She was not use to this. They were usually arguing or fighting about something, but they stand here before her stuttering and talking nervously. "Right. Oh, yes. How's that?" Jackson asks, setting the carrots down.

"That's great. It's just perfect. I really like them there."

"Yeah, they...they look good there, don't they?"

"Yes, they do." Sookie agrees.

"Okay, well, I should..."

"Squash!" Sookie yells out.

Jackson turns back around. "What?"

"I need some."

"Squash?"

"Pattypan."

"Okay, tomorrow."

"Same time?"

"If that's good for you."

"It is. It's perfect."

"Okay. Then I'll see you tomorrow with the pattypan."

"Great."

"Yes." Jackson says, before walking out quickly.

Lorelai nods her head. "Okay, so? Who walked in on who naked?" She asks.

"Oh, God, this is horrible." Sookie says, exhausted by what just happened. "He come in and...horrible."

"What's going on between you two?"

"I asked him if he'd like to have dinner sometime." Sookie tells her.

"I know, weeks ago."

"He said yes."

"Which is good."

"But since there was no definite plan or date attached, now the invitation is just out there floating in the universe."

"Oh, make a definite plan." Lorelai tells her.

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Because what if he says no?"

"He already said yes."

"Yes to the amorphous, theorestical let's maybe sometime go out and do something not too specific proposition. But dinner and a movie is concrete, it's real. He might say no."

"I doubt he will."

"Why hasn't he asked me?" Sookie asks, curiously.

Lorelai shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe he thinks you changed your mind since you asked."

"Why would he think that?"

"Because you haven't mentioned it again."

"But I mentioned it once. It's his turn."

"Alright. Let's say it is his turn. You can spend a lot of time sitting around, and waiting for him to realize that it's his turn. Or you could just run with the wolves and make it your turn again."

"I don't want it to be my turn again."

"You just wanna let this opportunity pass?"

"I wanna be the girl."

"You are the girl." Lorelai tells her. "That's why we're having this confusing conversation."

"You think I should ask him out?" Sookie asks.

"On Sunday."

"Why Sunday?"

"Cause that's your day off."

"Okay."

"Now."

"What?"

"I think you should do it now before you lose your nerve." Lorelai tells her.

"He isn't back to his office yet."

"Does he have a cell phone?"

"Yes."

"You know, people buy cell phone for exactly this reason. So you can get a hold of them any time you want."

"I thought people bought cell phones incase their cars broke down at night, and they need to call someone for help and there's psycho killers..."

"Mm. Call him." Lorelai interrupts her.

"Call him?" Sookie asks, nervously.

"Call him, Sookie. Call him." Sookie puts on a smile and walks confidently over to the phone and starts dialing Jackson's number. "She knows his number by heart." Lorelai says, watching her.

"He's my produce guy." Sookie reminds her.

"Very convenient excuse."

"Uh, Jackson. It's Sookie." She laughs, nervously, as she plays with the wooden spoon in her hand. "I was wondering if you could call me back when you get a chance. Sooner rather than later. It's not an emergency, so don't freak out or anything. The carrots still look good. Seems like it's a shame to eat them, sort of like you should put them in a vase..."

Lorelai taps Sookie to stop rambling. "Seriously. Hang up. Hang up." She whispers.

"Call me. Bye!" Sookie says, hanging up the phone. "I got his voicemail."

"Okay, good. It gives you time to prepare what you're gonna say to him." Lorelai tells her. Maybe have a few suggestions ready of places to go."

"Date prep time." Sookie says, picking up some paper.

"Yes."

"Okay, good. I'm good at that. And I'm good at prep."

Lorelai sees that Sookie is trying to write with her wooden spoon. "Sookie. Spoon." She says, taking it out of her hand.

"Right." Sookie chuckles and picks up a pen.

At Stars Hollow High, Rory is sitting at a bench in her school uniform, reading, while she waits for Dean. Dean walks out of the school and notices her. He walks over to her and taps her on the shoulder, making her look the other way, before he sits down next to her. She looks over and smiles, lovingly at him.

"Is there anything in there about me?" Dean asks.

"I don't know. Your name wouldn't be lithium, would it?" Rory asks.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"We had a half day today. Teacher conferences. So, I thought I'd come by and surprise you."

"Well, you know how much I hate surprises."

Rory nods her head, trying to look sympathetic. "Yes, I'm very sorry."

Dean leans in and kisses Rory gently on her lips. "That's for surprising me."

"I have learned my lesson." She jokes. Dean goes in and kisses her again before Rory pulls away. "I have to talk to you about something."

"Okay, I have to talk to you about something, too." He says, kissing her again.

Rory pulls him away. "Okay, stop."

"Sorry."

Dean trys to go at it again, but Rory put her hand up to stop him. "No, stay." She orders.

"Why?"

"Because I really need to talk to you about something. It's about Todd."

"What about him?"

"What do you think of him?"

"He's my friend."

"I know."

"So, that would signify a positive impression." Dean tells her.

"Right. Okay, good."

"Yes. Can I kiss you now?" Dean begs.

"I'm not done yet." Rory says, shaking her head.

"Fine. Go ahead."

"Well, you know Lane."

Dean gives her a strange look. "Yeah, I do."

"She likes Todd."

"Okay."

"And I think that they would really hit it off."

"You don't even know Todd."

"No, but you do. And you likfe him, you said so."

"I did."

"Okay, then. There you go."

"I would really like to kiss you now." Dean says, impatiently.

"Yes, so would I."

"Good. We agree." Dean says, leaning back in, but Rory continues to talk.

"I think we should set them up."

"Todd and Lane?"

"Yeah. We could all go out together. Like, to a movie or something. On Sunday."

"Rory, I..."

"It would be really casual. No big deal."

"I just..."

"What?"

"I'm just not sure that I see them together." Dean tells her in all honesty.

"You don't think Todd will like Lane?" Rory asks.

"I'm not sure."

"Lane is great."

"Yeah, I know."

"She's my best friend."

"I know that."

"Todd should be so lucky to get a girl like her. I mean I can't believe that you don't think she's good or pretty enough."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't say anything about her not being pretty neough. Let me finish. I just don't know if he'll like her." Dean tells her. "Cause I don't know what kind of girl he does like. But if you wanna do this then I'll talk to him."

"You will?"

"Yeah."

"And you'll mention Sunday?"

"I'll mention Sunday." He laughs.

"Thank you." She says, smiling at him.

"You're welcome. So, was that it?"

"Yeah, that was it."

"Can we..."

"Kissing. Right, let's go." Rory says, pulling Dean to her and they continue where they left off.

Lauren walks passed the school and sees her sister and Dean making out on the bench. She runs over to them, not caring if she interrupted or not. "Rory." She calls out.

Rory quickly pulls Dean away and looks at her sister who is running towards her. "Hey, Lauren."

"What are you doing here so early?" Lauren asks, confused.

"I had a half day."

"Hey, Lauren, how was school?" Dean asks.

Lauren shrugs her shoulders, not really wanting to talk about it. "Um, it was okay. Are you going home or staying here to make out with Dean?"

Rory and Dean start laughing. "I'll go home with you if you want me to."

Lauren just sighs. "It's okay. I can go. I was just wondering why you were here so early, but now I know, so I'm going to go." Lauren says, starting to walk off.

As Rory watched her sister, she could tell something was definitely up. She looks back at Dean. "You want to go with her, huh?" Dean asks, already knowing the answer.

"She looks like she needs me." Rory tells him. "Call me later?"

Dean nods his head. "Of course." He says, kissing her one last time.

"Lauren, wait!" Rory yells, as she makes her way to Lauren who had stopped. "You look like you need your sister."

Lauren smiles at her sister as Rory puts her arm around her shoulders and they walk towards the house.

At the Inn, Lorelai is looking through her school books. She was getting really frustrated with this whole thing so she slams her books closed.

"I give up." She tells Michel.

"That's the spirit." He says.

"I can't remember any of this crap."

"Well, not everyone is cut out to be their own boss. Maybe you are more of a worker bee. A follower. A ticket ripper. Or the man at the concert with the orange glow stick directing where to park."

"You're baiting me, aren't you?"

"No. I seriously have no faith in your aptitude."

Lorelai just glares at Michel as Sookie runs out of the kitchen and over to them. "He called!" She yells, happily.

"And?" Lorelai asks, just as enthused.

"Well, I did what you said. I had it all worked out and asked him if he'd like to go to dinner at Chez Fleur on Sunday."

"Chez Fleur. Very nice."

"Thank you, and he said he'd love to."

"Oh, great."

"He said he would love to, but his cousin's in town and he is staying with him for the week."

"Oh, well, then just make it next week." Lorelai tells her.

"Yes, see, that would've been a good option, had I thought of it when I was on the phone. But instead I came up with another option."

"Which is?"

"That we double-date with his cousin Rune and you."

Lorelai's face falls. She was definitely not thrilled about this idea. "What?"

"Yes, okay, not as good as your option, I agree, but it seemed pretty good at the time, though I wasn't standing here watching you make that face."

"Sookie, no, I hate blind dates."

"I know, but this isn't a blind date. This is you keeping his cousin company, while I have a date with Jackson. Lorelai, please? I'll be your best friend." Sookie begs.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "You are my best friend."

"And you're mine."

"I know I am."

"So what are best friends for?"

"Okay." Lorelai grimaces. "I'll go."

"Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You will not regret this."

"Pick another phrase."

"You will not have to pay."

"Much better!" Sookie jumps up and goes back to the kitchen.

Lorelai sighs and looks over at Michel who is laughing. "Oh, shut up." She says, before sitting down and pouting.

At the house, Rory and Lauren are sitting at the kitchen table working on some homework before the weekend starts. Lauren was having trouble paying attention to her work, so she looks up at her big sister, curiously.

"Hey, Rory."

"Hmm?" Rory says, not looking up from her work.

"Is Dean the first boy you ever liked?" Lauren asks her.

Rory looks up and gives her sister a strange look. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious." Lauren tells her.

Rory takes a deep breath. "Um, no. I mean I wouldn't even say I really liked him. I think I was probably your age actually and Lane and I seen this cute boy."

"Did you talk to him?"

"Yeah, we talked. Well, he talked. I kinda just sat there listening. I didn't really know what to say."

"How did you stop liking him?"

"Um, he moved away and I never seen him again." Rory tells her. "Is this about Alex? Because Mom told you to never talk to him again."

"I can't help it if he talk to me." Lauren tells her.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Lauren, don't talk to him. What he did to you was wrong. I don't where he learned that from because he is entirely too young, no matter how old he is, but he should never know how to do that."

"I know, Rory. Mom already lectured me."

"And you are only eleven, so if I hear someone is doing that to you I will make Dean kick their little butts."

Lauren laughs at the thought of Dean, who was as tall as a tree, kicking a little boy's butt. "I'm glad you met Dean, Rory."

Rory smiles at her sister. "Me too."

It was Sunday and everyone is getting ready for their dates.

"Rory!" Lorelai yells from upstairs.

"What?"

"Diva Glam."

"I've got it." Lauren tells her.

"Why in the world do you have it?" Lorelai asks.

"Too much?" Sookie asks Lorelai.

"No, just enough to say, 'hey, Sailor." Lorelai jokes.

"My stomach doesn't feel great. I think I have the flu."

"I think you're nervous." Lorelai tells her.

Lauren walks in. "Here. You put it on me for Halloween. Remember?" She says, handing her the lipstick.

"Oh, yes. I forgot."

"I need the sparkly hair clips!" Rory yells from downstairs.

"I'll bring them down for you." Lauren tells her mom. "You look pretty." She says to Sookie.

"I do? Oh, thank you. I should cancel."

"Okay, let's do your lips first." Lorelai says, dabbing the lipstick on Sookie's lips. "So, Lauren, plans for tonight?"

"I'm going to Elizabeth's why you and Rory are out. Rory will call when she gets home and I will come home." Lauren explains.

"You and Elizabeth are staying at her house, right? Not going anywhere else?"

"Are we not allowed to get food. I mean you did decide not to feed me tonight." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Yes, food. Just no where else. It's Sunday and you have school tomorrow."

"Got it." Lorelai hands Lauren the hair clips and she runs out the room.

"What if I'm making an idiot out of myself?" Sookie asks.

"By going on a date?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"With my produce guy."

"You like him."

"But what if tonight is a disaster?" Sookie asks, paniking. "And then he won't sell to me anymore?"

Lorelai gasps. "Oh, my god, you're right."

"Yes, see?"

"And since all the produce in the entire world is in his possession, and all the produce that would be grown in the future will be in his possession, then we will never get any produce again. All our vegetarian clients will die." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"I'm scared."

"I know."

"I like him."

"He likes you."

"How do you know he's not being polite?"

"Sookie."

"No. I mean it. It's like I cornered him. He felt trapped. He had to say yes."

"He did not have to say yes."

"Oh, my god! Technically, I'm his employer."

"Sookie."

"I am. I buy his wares. His livelihood depends on me."

"Sookie!"

"Oh, I'm a sexual harasser."

"Well, then you need some false eyelashes." Lorelai tells her because she's crazy.

"This isn't funny. I am not desperate, lonely, and a criminal."

"Okay, stop talking." Lorelai orders her sternly. "You have exhausted all your talking rights by being crazy. Sit down and listen." Sookie sits back down. "Tonight is a good thing. Whether you find out that you're madly in love, or you're not meant for each other, it's still a good thing. And I'll be right there. And have I done a gorgeous job on your face or what?" Sookie looks at herself in the mirror and smiles. She knew Lorelai was right but she was still pretty nervous. "I'll be right back." Lorelai tells her as she walks away.

In Rory's room, Lauren is laying across the bed watching the two teenagers get ready.

"You're sure you don't mind?" Lane asks, taking a shirt out of Rory's closet.

"What's mine is yours." Rory tells her.

"I owe you forever."

"Good to know."

"Which one do you think Todd would like better?" Lane asks, holding up two different jackets.

"I don't know Todd." Rory reminds her.

"I think the rhinestones."

"I think so, too." Lauren tells her. "So, what did you tell your mom?"

"I told her that I was gonna spend the evening here with you guys." Lane tells her.

"What if she calls?" Rory asks.

"Well, I mentioned that we might go rent some videos or go out to eat, which could explain any absence during her call."

"Very thorough."

"With my mom, you can leave nothing to chance especially when there is non-Korean involved, who, as far as I know, has no medical aspirations."

Lorelai walks in. "Oh, I like the rhinestones." She says, looking at the jacket. "Come with me, Lauren, so I can give you some money for food since I'm starving you." Lauren just laugh and follows her mom out of the room.

"So, what did you tell Lorelai?" Lane whispers.

"I don't know yet."

"She wouldn't tell my mom, would she?"

"I don't know if she'd feel good about lying to another mother. It's like this weird code thing with her."

"So, we don't tell her?"

"I'm not liking that option, either."

"No. We'll tell her that we're meeting Dean for a movie, and then we go to the movie, and then somebody who just happens to be a friend of Dean's just happens to be there for the same movie. And so we figure that it would be completely rude for us to not ask said person to come sit with us."

"I say to hell with Governor. You run directly for President." Rory jokes.

"It's not that bad."

"Let's just not think about it, okay?"

"I really appreciate this."

"I know."

"How do I look?" Lane asks, as she and Rory look into the mirror.

"You look too good for him." Rory tells her.

"Just what I was going for."

Lane and Rory walk out to where Lorelai and Lauren are standing, waiting for Sookie to come downstairs. "Lauren, you ready?" Rory asks.

Lauren and Lorelai both turn around. "Yeah." Lauren tells her as she grabs her jacket.

"Okay, where are you two going after you drop Lauren off?"

"Movie." Rory tells her. "We're gonna meet Dean."

"Nothing dirty, violent, or French, please."

"Are you going to be home late?" Rory asks.

"Well, there's a bit of doubt as to whether or not we'll ever actually get out of the house tonight. Sookie, please!" Lorelai yells.

Sookie hurries downstairs. "Okay, I'm here. I'm down."

"Wow. Hey, where's your coat?" Lorelai asks.

"It's upstairs."

"Aren't you gonna need it?"

"Oh, well, it got caught around the thing and when I twisted around to get loose, the choking started. I'm free now." Sookie says, out of breath.

"Okay, I'll get your something to wear."

"Thank you."

Lorelai walks towards the closet by the front door. "Rory, make sure Lauren is home at a decent time, which I guess means you need to be home at a decent time."

"Will do. Bye." Rory tells them.

"Bye kittens." Sookie waves.

The girls walk out and Lorelai comes back in with a shawl and handing it to her just as the doorbell rings. "I'll get it." Lorelai says, clapping her hands and walking back towards the door. "Hi!" She says, opening the door for Jackson and his cousin.

"Lorelai, hi, sorry we're late." Jackson tells her.

"Oh, no problem. Just adds a little more primping time for the ladies." She jokes.

Sookie walks up slowly. "Hi, Jackson." She says, nervously.

Jackson looks at Sookie, wide eye, up and down. "Sookie." He says, surprised. "Hi."

"Hi." She says, again.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Okay!" Lorelai says, stopping the nonsense. "Uh, do you guys wanna come in for a minute?"

"Oh, sure." Jackson says, stepping through. "Oh, Lorelai, this is my cousin, Rune. Rune, this is Lorelai."

Rune looks up at Lorelai, not very pleased at what he is looking at. "Hi, it's very nice to meet you." Lorelai tells him as she puts her hand up for him to shake.

Rune ignores her and looks up at Jackson. "Can I talk to you a minute?" He asks.

"Excuse us." Jackson says, following his cousin out onto the porch. "What are you doing?"

"That's Lorelai?" Rune asks.

"Yes."

"Did you see how tall she is?" He asks.

"No, I haven't noticed, actually."

"How could you not notice? She's like a basketball player."

Lorelai and Sookie are standing there listening at the door. "Rune, she's a very nice lady." Jackson tells him.

"You know I cannot go out with anyone that tall. I mean, God, I can't believe you set me up with that. What? Was the bearded lady busy tonight or something?" Lorelai looks at Sookie.

"Just one night, a little dinner." Jackson says.

"When she came to the door it never crossed my mind that that was who I'd spend the evening with. I thought it was her East German maid or something." Sookie grabs onto Lorelai's arm, holding her just incase she tried something.

"She's not that tall."

"She's tall enough."

"Would you keep it down. She's gonna hear you!"

"With those big ears, I bet she can!" Lorelai looks at Sookie who just tells her with her eyes to please don't.

"Hey, Rune, you come into town completely unannounced. You eat all my food, you crash on my couch, and I don't say a thing. The least you coud do is go out for one night. Make some conversation. Be pleasant. Who knows? Maybe you'll even enjoy it."

"Why can't we got out, just the two of us?"

"Rune, please." Jackson begs.

Rune sighs. "Okay."

"Thank you." They walks back over to the front door where Lorelai and Sookie are waiting. "I think we should be going."

"Yes, that sounds good." Sookie says, looking at Lorelai as she walks out.

Jackson and Sookie walk away, leaving Rune there looking at Lorelai, but he follows them, leaving Lorelai staring at him, not believing what just happened. She walks out and slams the door behind her and follows them out.

At Elizabeth's, Lauren is looking at herself in the mirror when Elizabeth walks back into her room.

"So, what time do you think Rory is going to call you?" Elizabeth asks her.

Lauren shrugs. "I'm not sure. She said probably no later than 11:00. I don't think this is a good idea, Elizabeth." Lauren says, turning towards her friend with a worried look.

Elizabeth walks over and puts her hands on her friend's shoulders. "Chill, Gilmore. This is a great idea. Just go over there and tell Alex that you can no later see him anymore, and that he needs to stop talking to you."

"But I can just tell him that over the phone or at school."

"True. But this is the last time he will see you out of school and looking so cute. Wow. I wish I had your genes." Elizabeth tells her as she looks her over. "Come on. Let's go before it gets too late. Alex is waiting for you." Elizabeth grabs Lauren's hand and drags her out.

At the movies, Rory and Dean are standing in line with Lane and Todd standing in back of them. Rory keeps looking back to make sure everything is going good.

"What are you doing?" Dean asks her.

Rory turns her head back. "Nothing." She says, quickly.

"They're fine." Dean assures her.

"I am not looking at them." Rory lies. "I'm looking at the world around me."

"The world is fine, too." Dean tells her.

"I just wanna make sure they're having fun."

"They're having fun."

"How do you know?"

"They aren't in prison or in some sort of medieval torture chamber." Dean tells her.

"When you measure it that way."

Dean shakes his head and kisses Rory on her forehead. "And the amazing thing is all these girls are screaming and none of them are getting the joke." Lane explains to Todd. "He's playing the character of a rock star. I mean, Beck is a genius. And all these stupid girls are screaming at him just because they're buying into the rock star image. I love Beck. I understand Beck." Todd is looking around, dumbfounded. Lane looks at him. "And the Foo Fighters. Gods. I mean, have you heard the acoustic version of Everlong? I can't even talk about it, you know." Todd just looks at her not knowing what to say. "Hey, you know who I've really gotten into latey? The Velvet Underground. Oh, and Nico. She is amazing. Depressing, German, scary chick. I have the c.d. if you wanna borrow it sometime." Lane tells him. "Well, kind of music do you like?"

Todd just shrugs his shoulders and laughs. "I don't know. Whatever."

"Eugazi?"

"What?"

"The band on your shirt." Lane tells him.

Todd looks down at the picture on his shirt. "Oh, cool picture." He says.

"You don't know what's on your shirt?" Lane asks him.

"Oh, it's my sister's."

"Oh." Lane says, awkwardly before turning back towards the line. "What about books? Do you like books?" Todd shrugs. "Magazines? What about school? What are you majoring in?"

"I was thinking about gym. If I major in gym, I only have to take four classes my senior year."

"Oh, cool."

"Gym?" Rory whispers to Dean.

"We work on our bikes together. He's got the good tools." Dean explains.

At Alex's, Lauren is sitting awkwardly Alex's bed in his room.

"I'm glad you decided to come." Alex tells her.

Lauren gives him a small smile. "Yeah, well, when you have Elizabeth as a friend you really don't have a choice."

Alex laughs. "Yeah, she's pretty crazy." He says, sitting down next to her. "Hey, I wanted to apologize for the other day, outside on the football field. I didn't mean to get you in trouble. My brother just tells me about it and I wanted to know."

Lauren sighs. "Yeah, but why me? I'm sure you can talk to any other girl in your grade, but you talk to me?"

"Yeah. I like you. You're different."

"What do you mean by different?" Lauren asks.

"I don't know. I mean, you don't act your age. You act more mature than most girls in my grade do." He explains.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Lauren says.

"Are you thirsty? I can go grab you something to drink."

"Sure."

"Alright. Be right back." Alex says, walking out of his room.

At the restaurant, Sookie is rambling on about something while the rest of them sit their quietly.

"It was so funny. Oh, god! You remember?" Sookie asks Lorelai.

"I remember." Lorelai tells her.

"What was Rory, eight?"

"I believe she was." Lorelai says, looking around the table. Rune is just staring at her.

"Oh, god, that mud pie fiasco haunted me for a year. I mean, hers looked just like mine. Of course, I used homemade chocolate cookies, bittersweet ganache, and she used, well, mud." Sookie laughs. "You know, but they did look damn similar."

"Uh, so, Sookie has been experimenting with different forms of baking for as long as I've known her." Lorelai tells Jackson.

"Oh, well, that's very interesting." Jackson says.

"Yeah." Sookie says, quietly. "Hey, Lorelai, remember when I decided to teach you how to make strawberry tarts, and the entire kitchen was stained red and I had to repaint that one wall red just to make it look normal? You remember?" Sookie rambles. Lorelai takes a look at Jackson who just sighs.

"Sookie, let's go, um, powder our noses." Lorelai says, grabbing her friend.

"You'd need a lot of powder." Rune mumbles.

Lorelai rolls her eyes and leaves the table. She and Sookie walk towards the bathroom and Lorelai pulls her aside. "No matter how many beers you buy me tonight, I'm not the one going home with you." Lorelai reminds her. "So I would concentrate on the one who might."

"What?"

"You haven't said a word to Jackson all night."

"I haven't, have I?" Sookie asks. She was starting to feel bad about how she was acting.

"No."

"I know, I'm just so nervous."

"You're nervous!? You don't have some guy staring at you like he's Cher, and you're that kid from Mask."

"I can't think of anything to say."

"To Jackson?"

"Yes, to Jackson."

"Yes, because to me, tonight, there's been no off button." Lorelai tells her.

"Ugh. This place is too fancy, my hair is too tight, and this dress is all wrong." Sookie complains. "And he looks really good, doesn't he?"

Lorelai smiles. "Yeah, he does."

"I'm being crazy. I know I'm being crazy."

"No, you're putting too much pressure on this whole evening. Look, in five second I could take your hair down, we could go someplace more casual, and personally, I think you're wrong about the dress." Lorelai says, looking her friend up and down.

"Really?" Sookie asks, unsure.

"Yes. Come on, let's go to Luke's. You know, have burgers, talk, relax. No pressure, no stress. Unless I wind up stepping on Rune, which might be fun."

"That would be great."

"Okay." Lorelai says, satisfied.

At Alex's, Lauren is in Alex's room by herself waiting for him to return with a drink. She looks around the room and notices how kiddish it looks. She starts to laugh because Elizabeth only talked about Alex like he was sixteen or something, but this room made him still look six. Alex's brother, Jake, peeks in through the door and smiles when he sees Lauren.

"You must be Lauren Gilmore." Jake says, making Lauren jump. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I just seen you alone here." Jake walks in and sits down next to Lauren.

"It's okay." She says, quietly, looking at Jake in the corner of her eye. This was awkward.

"I heard a lot about you. My brother kept calling me to get tips on how to get closer to you."

"Well, he tried." Lauren says, sarcastically.

"How old are you?"

"Eleven." Lauren tells him.

"No way! You look fifteen."

Lauren looks down at herself. No she didn't. "Okay." She says.

"You like my brother?"

Lauren shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know anymore."

"Well, let me show you how to get closer to him. He will freak if you do this. He won't even expect it." Jake says, leaning closer to Lauren. Lauren just stares at him. She was trying to move, but something wasn't letting her. Jake puts his hand right on her thigh and starts rubbing on her leg up and down. Lauren quickly gets up and slaps Jake's hand away. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm eleven, you idiot!" Lauren yells. Lauren runs out of the room and passed Alex.

"Lauren!?" Alex yells, confused. He sees his brother walking out of his room. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing. Your girl is a freak."

Lauren runs as fast as she can through the town. She kept going and going, scared that Jake or Alex were running behind her.

At Luke's, Lorelai, Sookie, Jackson, and Rune walk in. Lorelai points to a table in the corner and walks over to the counter where Luke is.

"Hey, four menus and an anvil please?" She says to Luke.

"What's the anvil for?"

"For Rune."

"What's a Rune?" Luke asks her.

"Please, not that question again."

"Okay." Luke smiles, throwing the towel down and getting Lorelai some coffee.

Lorelai looks over and sees everyone just sitting there awkwardly, not saying a word. "Mind if I hang out here a sec?" Lorelai asks Luke as he pours her some coffee.

"Why? What's going on over there?"

"Sookie and Jackson are on their first date."

"Seems to be going well."

"I think I'd wear blue to the wedding." Lorelai says, sadly.

"Who's the other guy?"

"That's Jackson's cousin. He's my date."

"Lucky girl." Luke says, sarcastically.

"Yes, I think so." Lorelai laughs. "He is, believe it or not even less thrilled with the match-up than I am."

"You're kidding. Why?"

"I'm too tall."

Luke starts laughing. "Get out."

"I'm serious."

"Doesn't he understand how great that is?" Luke asks. "You can get all the stuff from the top shelf."

"Exactly. That is exactly what I bring to a relationship. Explain that to him, will you?"

"Okay, I'm really bored." Rune says, standing up.

"Sit down. We're about ready to order." Jackson tells him.

"I don't wanna order. I don't wannt eat here. I wanna go." Rune tells him.

"Rune." Jackson says, getting annoyed.

"Jackson, look, I came out with you tonight under the impression that I'd have fun. First, I get stuck with her. Then I get dragged to a French restaurant, then I get dragged out of a French restaurant. God knows where I am now."

"Oh, you're at Luke's." Lorelai interrupts him.

"I've been very patient, Jackson." Rune tells him. "Sunday night's almost over. I wanna go bowling."

"Well, I.." Jackson says, looking over at Sookie, who is just sitting there.

"And I'd like you to go bowling with me." Rune tells him.

"Oh, well,. I guess we shoud.." Jackson goes to stand up.

"Don't go!" Sookie says, stopping him. Jackson sits back down.

"Really?" He asks.

"Yes. Stay here. We haven't really even started our date yet."

"No, we haven't." Jackson tells her. "Sorry, Rune. You're on your own tonight."

"Fine! I'll just see you at home then." Rune says, storming out. Just he storms out, Lane's mom, Mrs. Kim, walks by and sees Lorelai alone in the diner.

"Where are the girls!?" She runs in asking Lorelai.

Lorelai turns quickly. "What?"

"Lane said she's with you and your girls."

Lorelai looks confused. "Slow down."

"I call, no answer. I think they're at video store. I call again, no answer. I call third time, no answer!"

"You had a lot of time on your hands." Lorelai jokes.

"I have to know where the girls are."

"They said they're going to a movie." Lorelai tells her.

"With who?"

"They were gonna meet Dean."

"A boy? You let them go with a boy?" Mrs. Kim asks in digust.

"Mrs. Kim, Dean is Rory's boyfriend."

"Just because you let your daughters run around with boys, doesn't mean I let mine."

"I thought you knew."

"I didn't know! They could be anywhere, they could be doing anything. Smoking or drinking, or buying drugs!"

"They're at the movies. There's no drugs there. They don't even have the real red vines." Lorelai tells her.

"I need to find them." She says, rushing out of the diner.

Lorelai starts grabbing her things. "I'm coming with."

At the movies, they are walking out.

"Good flick. Good flick." Todd says.

"Yeah, not bad." Dean tells him.

"Lane, what did you think?" Rory asks.

"Uh, I think it's really late and I should be getting home." Lane tells her.

"Really?" Todd asks, disappointed.

Lane smiles. "Yeah, but it's been fun." She lies.

"No, come on. Let's go get some ice cream or something. Eat it really fast, get that freezy brain thing going. It's cool."

"So tempting, and yet..."

"Lane Kim!" Mrs. Kim yells. Lane freezes as her name is being called.

They all turn around to find Mrs. Kim running towards them with Lorelai slowly trailing behind. "My mom." Lane says, in shock.

"My mom." Rory says.

"Two moms. That's gotta be bad." Todd says.

"Mom, I was just about to.." Lane is interrupted with her mom yelling at her in Korean.

"Mom, I can.."

"So not the time, Rory." Lorelai tells her.

"You lied to me." Mrs. Kim says.

"I'm sorry."

"Get home, right now!" Lane walks quickly, passing her mom towards their house.

"Whoa. Rough family." Todd says, watching them.

"What's going on?" Dean asks Rory.

"Oh, bits of information were left out of the mom packets tonight." Lorelai explains to him.

"I'm sorry." Rory tells her.

"Okay, mother and daughter number two are leaving now. Say bye, Rory."

"Bye." She says to Dean.

"I'll, uh, I'll call you later."

"Bad."

"I'll call you tomorrow." Dean says, changing his mind.

"Yeah. Bye, Dean." Lorelai says, grabbing her daughter and walking away.

"That's Rory's Mom?" Todd asks Dean. "She's a babe, man!"

"And what were you thinking?" Lorelai asks her daughter.

"I know."

"You lied to me. Me! What's that nonsense all about?"

"I shouldn't have done that. I know I shouldn't have done that."

"Dame right you shouldn't have."

"But Lane really wanted to go out with Todd." Rory explains. "And she couldn't tell her mother. So I didn't tell you. So you wouldn't have to lie for us."

Lorelai closes her eyes and stops walking before looking back at her daughter. "You lied to me so I wouldn't have to lie to Mirs. Kim?" She asks her.

"Yeah."

"Oh, my god. You really are my daughter."

"I'm so sorry."

"I have to know where you are, at all times, especially when you have my shoes on."

"I know."

"This whole trust thing only works if it goes both ways, kid."

"I hated doing it."

"Good." Lorelai says, as they begin walking again.

"Would you have?" Rory asks her.

"What?"

"Lied for us?"

"To Mrs. Kim?"

"Yeah."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because that lady's scary."

"Mom."

"I can't lie to another mother. That's breaking the code."

"So then what were we supposed to do tonight?"

"Look, I know Mrs. Kim and Robert Duvall in The Great Santini share a striking resemblance. But she is Lane's mom. She has the right to tell Lane she can't do something. You have to respect that, and I really have to respect that." Lorelai explains.

"So we were in a no-win situation tonight?" Rory asks.

"Yeap."

"Great."

"Sorry. Hey, you know the one good thing we all learned from this?"

"What?"

"That I'm a babe." Lorelai says, laughing. Rory just rolls her eyes, playfully, at her mom.

Back at the house, Lorelai and Rory walk in.

"Call Lauren and tell her to get home. It's late." Lorelai tells Rory.

"Okay." Rory says, picking up the phone and dialing Elizabeth's number. "Hey, Elizabeth, can you let Lauren know it's okay to come home now. What? Uh, okay, thanks." She says, hanging up. Rory looks at her mom confused.

"What? She on her way?" Lorelai asks.

"Um, no. Elizabeth said she left a long time ago."

"What?" Lorelai says, surprised.

"Yeah." Rory says.

Lorelai looks around and notices Lauren's jacket laying across the stairs. She picks it up and she and Rory go upstairs up to Lauren's room. When Lorelai opens the door, she sees Lauren's room completely empty and her bed still made. Lorelai gives Rory a confused look and Rory just shrugs. Lorelai closes Lauren's door and decides to check her room. When she opens the door they find Lauren sleeping in Lorelai's bed. Lorelai walks closer to her daughter and moves her hair out of her face. Lorelai looks up at Rory when she notices the tear stains across her daughter's cheek. "What the hell happened at Elizabeth's? Lorelai whispers.

Rory shrugs. "I guess we all had a crappy night tonight." Rory whispers.

Lorelai just looks back down at Lauren, sadly, and gently wipes her daughter's face with her fingers.

What a night.


	14. Look After You

"Hello?" Dean calls out as he walks through the Gilmore house on a Thursday night.

"You come baring pizza?" Lorelai asks him from the living room.

"I'm not an idiot." Dean laughs as he walks into the living room, of course carrying two pizzas and a brown bag.

"Then get in here."

"Hey." Rory and Lauren both say at the same time from the couch. They were all three already sitting on the couch, in front of the t.v., eating junk food.

"Hey."

"Sit. You're missing it." Lorelai tells him.

Dean puts down the food and sits on the floor in front of Rory. "What are we watching?"

"The Donna Reed Show." Lauren tells him.

"What's in there?" Rory asks pointing to the brown bag.

"Uh, a salad." Dean tells her.

All three of them look at Dean with a weird look. "Salad?" Rory asks.

"Yeah, it's a quaint dish sometimes used to precede large quantities of pizza." Dean explains. He looks over and they are all three still looking at him with crazy eyes. "It's for me."

"Clearly."

Lorelai opens the pizza and they all dig in. "So, who's Donna Reed?" Dean asks them.

"What?!"

"You don't know who Donna Reed is?" Lauren asks him.

"The quintessential '50s Mom with the perfect '50s family?" Lorelai explains.

"Never without a smile and high heels?" Lauren adds in.

"Hair that if you hit with a hammer would crack?"

"So, it's a show?" Dean asks them.

"It's a lifestyle." Rory tells him.

"It's a religion." Lorelai tells him.

"My favorite episode is when their son, Jeff, comes home from school, and nothing happens."

Lorelai nods her head agreeing. "Ooh, that's a good one. One of my favorites is when Mary, the daughter, gets a part-time job, and nothing happens."

"Another classic."

"So, what's this one about?" Dean asks.

"Uh, this one is actually quite filled with intrigue." Lorelai tells him. "The husband, Alex, comes home late for dinner and he didn't call."

"Might as well kick the dog, too." Rory says.

"Oh, Oh, look, she's making doughnuts." Lorelai says, as they all turn back to the t.v.

"Mother-daughter window washing."

"We should try that." Lauren jokes.

"Yeah, right after mother-daughter shock treatments." Lorelai tells her.

"You're not even listening to the dislogue." Dean tells them.

"Ours is better." Rory tells him.

"I don't know, it all seems kind of nice to me."

The girls glare Dean. "What does?" Rory asks.

"Oh, you know, families hanging together, I mean, a wife cooking dinner for her husband. And look, she seems really happy."

"She's medicated." Lorelai tells him.

"And acting from a script." Lauren adds in.

"Written by a man."

"Well said, sister surrragette." Rory praises.

"What if she likes making doughnut and dinner for her family and keeping things nice for them and.." Dean looks up at the girls just staring at him. "Okay, I feel very unpopular right now."

It was morning, and Lorelai is laying in bed staring at Lauren, who is laying next to her sleeping. Lauren had been sleeping in Lorelai's bed for the past week now and it was starting to weird Lorelai out. Not that she minded her daughter sleeping with her, it was just weird because she hadn't actually done that since she was three. Lorelai had also noticed how quiet Lauren had been lately. She'd usually have a sarcastic comment here or there, but no, now she'd just sit there and listen to her mom and Rory speak. Lorelai had about enough and wanted to finally talk to Lauren about what was happening. Lauren finally opens her eyes and sees her mom staring at her.

"What are you doing, freak?" Lauren asks.

"Oh, you know, just laying here." Lorelai tells her. "Care to tell me why you're laying here?"

"I like it better in here." Lauren tells her, uncomfortably.

"Yeah, me too, but you have been in here for like a week. It's very unusual." Lorelai tells her.

"Do you not want me here?" Lauren asks. She was getting defensive and this was starting to worry Lorelai even more.

"No, no, sweets. It's not that. It's just odd. Is there something wrong?"

Lauren sits up quickly. "I have to get ready ready for school."

Lorelai sits up with her. "It's Sunday."

"Well, then I have to just get dressed." Lauren gets out of bed and starts walking away, but Lorelai gets up and runs after her.

"Lauren, wait." Lorelai says, grabbing Lauren's arm and turning her back around to face her. "Something is going on. I can tell because I am your mother and I know you."

"I'm fine." Lauren tells her.

"You're not fine."

"Can I please just go to my room?" Lauren begs.

Lorelai sighs. "Yeah. Just get dressed because we're going to Luke's."

"Okay." Lauren turns away and goes to her room.

Lorelai knew something was definitely up. Lauren wouldn't even look her in the eyes. Usually when something was happening, her kids went to her. They never had a problem before, but if Lauren was having trouble then something was definitely up and it was scaring her.

At Luke's, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk in.

"Can brains hurt?" Rory asks.

"Yes, it's hypochondria hour." Lorelai jokes.

"No. I'm serious." Rory says, as they all three sit down. "Last night, when I was reading my biology chapters, I distinctly heard a ping in the vicinity of my brain."

"Your brain pinged?"

"Yeah. It just went like dink."

"Well, then, honey, your brain dinked. It didn't ping."

"Well, I don't think a dinking brain isn't any less worrisome than a pinging brain."

"You got my there."

"So, should I go to a tumor doctor?" Rory asks.

"No, you don't have a tumor. You're reading too much." Lorelai tells her. "You're probably just losing your eyesight."

"Thank you." Rory says, sarcastically.

Luke walks up to them. "Hi, can you take a little constructive criticism?" Lorelai asks him.

"No." Luke tells her.

"Okay, this place could use a makeover. Yeah, it needs sprucing up, like a coat of paint."

"I don't spruce."

"What do you mean you don't spruce?"

"What is means is he won't spruce. That's what it mean." Taylor chimes in from the counter.

Luke rolls his eyes. "Taylor, do not start."

"Me and the rest of the town beautification committee have been hounding him for years to freshen up the place. Maybe a couple of nice zinnia pots out front, some yellow awnings, a peppy little cardboard pig announcing the specials. But he's a mule." Taylor explains. Lorelai and Rory are trying to laugh, annoying Luke even more. "He won't talk, he won't reason, he won't spruce. You might as well forget it, Lorelai. I'm forgetting it, too."

"Finally a Taylor Doose position I can get behind."

"Faded paint is a bad reflection on the whole town."

"Whatever happened to giving up?" Luke asks him.

"When standards slip, families flee, and in comes the seedy crowd. You got trouble, my friends."

"Right here in River City." Lorelai jokes, making her girls laugh.

"This is not funny, Lorelai."

"Does anyone want anything?" Luke asks.

"Oh, yes, I do. I want to know why you won't paint this place."

"Painting is a pain. I'd have to close the place for a day, which I can't afford, or paint it in the middle of the night, which I don't want to do because I hate painting."

"Okay, how about this? I'll help you. I love to paint."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do."

"You love it?"

"I want to marry it."

"You have strange passions."

"She likes washing dishes, too. She's multifaceted abnormal." Rory tells him.

"Ah, come on. We'll drink a couple of beers, sing painting songs."

"Painting songs?"

"Yeah, painting songs. Like, uh, you know, the song that goes, uh:" Rory and Lauren look at their mother with a strange look. "Grab your brush and grab your rollers all you kids and all you bowlers we're going paintin today." She sings. "Say yes, or there's another verse."

"Well, I guess maybe if I had help."

"Really?" Taylor asks, surprised. He stands up and walks over to their table. "Oh, my god! That's wonderful! Hurrah."

"Taylor, it's not for you. It's for me." Luke tells him.

"I can't wait to tell the rest of the committee. They're not gonna believe this." He says walking out.

"I hate that he's pleased."

"Ah, you'll drop a gum wrapper in the street in front of this store later." Lorelai tells him.

"Yeah, good idea."

After school the next day, Lauren is walking through town by herself. She had a lot on her mind and since she couldn't really talk to her mom or sister about it, she decided to take a walk instead. She had been avoiding Alex at school. Dodging him during lunch and classes. Elizabeth was confused on why Lauren was acting that way. She hadn't been herself at all since the thing with Jake happened and it was worrying everyone. Lauren really did want to open up, but it wasn't like Jake kissed her or anything. He just touched her. While Lauren is walking, she had her head down, so she wasn't exactly looking at where she was going and bumped into someone. As soon as she looked up, though, Lauren immediately regretted taking the long way home. Jake was looking down at Lauren, smiling.

"Hey, long time, no see. I've been wondering where you ran off to." He tells her. Lauren tries to ignore him and goes around him, but Jake grabs her arm to stop her. "You should come over again. Alex was really upset with me when you left." Lauren shrugs Jake's hand off her and begins to run away, as fast as she could, towards her moms Inn. She was certainly not going to be at home alone after what just happened.

It was Friday night, and everyone, like always, is gathered in the dining area eating.

"Kickass wine." Lorelai tells them.

"How poetic." Emily says sarcastically.

"It's got a nice small, earthy, vibrant." Lorelai explains. "I can taste the Italian's feet."

"It's a Bordeaux. It's French." Richard tells her.

"So, when do you guys leave for Martha's vineyard?" Rory asks.

"Ah, we're not going to Martha's Vineyard this year." Richard says.

"Really? Why not?"

"Our usual rental wasn't available when we inquired...late." Richard says, glaring at Emily.

"We should have just bought a place years ago, like I wanted to." Emily says.

"It wouldn't have been prudent."

"Now we have no place to go next week."

"You could always go somewhere else, couldn't you?" Rory asks them.

"We always go to the Vineyard at this time of year." Richard explains.

"You could break the chain, Dad. Go to Paris."

"Yes, Paris." Rory agrees.

"Impressioniam, poodles."

"Creme brulee."

"Oh, that's great."

"Impossible." Richard tells them.

"Pourquoi? French." Lorelai tells her girls.

"We only go to Europe in the Fall." Emily explains.

"You know, Mom, I heard a rumor Europe's still there in Spring."

"We know it's there in the Spring. But we never go in the Spring because we always go in the Fall."

"It's getting a little too Lewis Carroll for me." Lorelai says, shaking her head.

"What is so interesting about Europe in the Spring?" Richard asks.

"Spring vegetables."

"You want us to go to Europe to eat a vegetable?" Emily asks her.

Lorelai laughs. "No, Mom. I don't know. There's all kinds of stuff. There's festivals and, your know, Europe."

"In the Fall."

"It costs a fortune to travel first-class in Europe." Richard tells her. "We only do it every two years."

"In the Fall."

"You don't have to fly first class." Emily and Richard stop eating and look at their daughter like she has completely lost her mind. Lorelai looks up and notices the stares. "Cause there's always coach." They still continue to glare at her. "Or business class is slighly less. There's deals on the internet." Emily and Richard turn and look at eachother. "Pass the potatoes." Lorelai tells Rory before looking back down at her plate, regretting even saying anything.

It was Monday morning, and in the kitchen, Rory is going through her notecards while Lorelai is tries to sew a button on Rory's sweater.

"Catherine the Great, 1729 to '96." Rory says, reading. "Empress of Russia, 1762 to '96." Rory begins moving around, looking for another card.

"Okay, hold still, please." Lorelai asks her.

"Originally named Sophie Friederike Auguste Von Anhalt-Zerbst."

"But everybody call her kitten." Lorelai jokes, as Rory bends down to grab something else off the table.

"Married to Grand Duke Peter of Holstein in 1754." She reads, once again trying to reach something off the table, making it difficult for Lorelai to sew.

"Okay, Rory, seriously."

"The marriage was an unhappy one." Rory says, ignoring her mother.

"Well, there were way too many names." Lorelai tells her.

Lauren comes into the kitchen. "Mom, I think I'm sick." Lauren says, trying to talk in her most pathetic voice possible.

"You are not sick." Lorelai tells her youngest.

Lauren walks to the coffee pot and pours herself some coffee. "How do you know I'm not sick?"

"Because I know everything." Lorelai tells her. Lauren rolls her eyes at her mom's comment. When Lorelai tried to sound like a mom it was pretty ridiculous. Rory bends down again making Lorelai prick her finger. "Ow!" Rory looks at her mom. "Lady with notecards, look at lady with needle and just try to focus for one second, so I can sew the button on your sweater and not on my thumb."

"I'm sorry." Lorelai just shrugs her shoulders and continues to sew. There is a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Rory says, walking towards their kitchen door, causing Lorelai to once again prick herself. "Oh."

"You're four years old." Lorelai says, standing up as Rory opens the door for Babette. "Hi, Babette. You want some coffee?" Lorelai asks, as she walks over to the pot and grabs a mug.

"Oh, no, thanks. I just came over to ask a great big favor."

"Ask away."

"Well see, Morey just got a call to play a gig at the village vanguard tonight, so we gotta go to New York."

"Oh, wow! Cream?" Lorelai asks, handing Babette some coffee.

"And sugar. Thanks. Anyway, yesterday Morey and I finally broke down and we got ourselves a new baby."

"Oh, honey, you got a kitten. Good for you." Lorelai tells her, happily.

"What's its name?" Lauren asks.

"Apricot. Oh, he's just the cutest thing. But he's so teeny. There's not way he can go with us, and I would hate for him to stay alone in the house. So, I was thinking maybe Rory could come over and housesit for the evening."

"I'd love to."

"Oh, great. We got a kitchen full of food, and Morey just got cable, so you can watch those four girls talking dirty if you want to."

"Sounds good." Rory tells her.

"You're an angel. You have a key, right?"

"Yeah, we got it covered." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, great, I'll leave you the number of where we're staying. Have a good time, we'll be back tomorrow morning. And Lauren you got introduce yourself to Apricot so he can get to know you. I love you crazy girls."

"Bye!" Lorelai says, as Babette leaves. "Wow. I can't believe how fast you jumped at the chance to spend the night away from me."

"You're crazy." Rory laughs. "I'm doing her a favor."

"Uh-huh. Sure you are."

"Mom."

"No, no. That's okay. Don't you worry about me. I'll be just fine. I have Lauren here. We'll just have a girls night, just the two of us, without Rory.

Rory rolls her eyes, playfully, as she begins to pack her stuff for school. "Alright well, I'm late for the bus."

"You know, this is only, like, the second night we've ever spent apart. Doesn't that make you sad?"

"Yeah, but I'll get over it." Rory tells her, smiling. "And you know, Mom, when I got off to college, I'm gonna be gone every night. And then it will just be you and Lauren on your own for good. What will you do then?"

"Well, we will just go with you. I'll enroll Lauren into college early. We'll sleep on the floor in your dorm next to your bed."

"Well, at least you've got a plan."

On the way to Lauren's school, Lorelai decided to drive Lauren there instead of Lauren walking, like usual.

"So, why didn't you want to go to school?" Lorelai asks her.

Lauren just shrugs her shoulders. "I'm just not feeling it today."

Lorelai gives her daughter a strange look. "But, you never have a problem with going to school. Are the kids bothering you again?" Lauren shakes her head. "Are you not liking on of your classes? Is it a teacher?"

"Mom, no. My classes her fine. I'm passing everything. I just didn't want to go today. Is that such a bad thing?"

"Well, no."

"You know most kids my age hate school."

"I know that."

"A lot of them skip school, or try to come up with excuses not to go."

"I know that, too."

"So, be happy that I am one of those kids that enjoy going to school. I just wasn't feeling it today. Is that so wrong to do?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai stops in front of Lauren's school and turns towards her daughter. "Lauren, you've been acting like a crazy person for the past two weeks now. If something is happening, I want you to tell me."

Lauren sighs before looking back at her mom. "Nothing is happening. I'm fine." Lauren lies. But some of it was true. Nothing was happening. It only happened once. What were the chance of it ever happening again? She never planned on going back to Alex's. "I have to go to school." She says, grabbing her booksack and reaching over, kissing her mom on the cheek, before opening the door and running into the school. Lorelai watches from the jeep and notices that Lauren passed her best friend right up. Maybe she was in a fight with Elizabeth. Lorelai guesses, but she could never be certain when it came to Lauren. Rory, sure, she was easy, but Lauren being just as stubborn as she was, it became hard to get things out of her, especially when she didn't want them out.

At the bus stop, Dean is waiting for Rory when the bus pulls up. When the doors open, he looks down at what Rory is carrying when she walks out.

"Carry your bird, miss?" He asks, taking the cage from her.

"Hi." Rory says, smiling "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I just wanted to say hello." Dean says, bending down and kissing Rory, gently, on the mouth.

"Hello." She says, when the break apart.

"Hello. So, who's your friend?"

"Homework." Rory tells him, as they begin to walk.

"Really?"

"We will be cohabitating for the next month, so I can examine its every move. Jealous?"

"I'll get over it." Dean laughs.

"So, hey, I'm housesitting tonight for Babette, and I was thinking maybe if the right offer came along, I might be up to some company."

"I'm offering."

"I'm accepting."

"Good."

"You want to get some coffee?" Rory asks.

"I can't. I have to get to work."

"I thought you go to work at five."

"No, four on Thursdays. For some reason, Thursday's always really busy. Lots of oppressed housewives shopping for their husbands' dinner."

Rory stops walking and looks at Dean with a mean look. "Wow." She says, not believing he really just said that. "That was a little pointed."

"What are you talking about?"

"That crack about housewives shopping for their husbands' dinner."

"Come on, it was a joke."

"Yeah, well, it was a pretty weird joke to hear coming out of your mouth." Rory tells him.

"You are so sensitive about the whole Donna Reed thing."

"I'm not sensitive about it. I just find it ridiculous." Rory tells him as she continues to walk.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Rory asks, confused. She could not believe her boyfriend was actually into this kind of stuff. Sensitive? She was being sensitive?

"So she cooked a lot." Dean says, annoyingly.

"A lot?" Rory questions. "She made homemade doughnuts, chocolate cake, a lamp chop-mashed potato dinner and enough stew to feed Cambodia all in one episode."

"So, what?"

"You really like that concept, don't you?"

"No, I...well, yeah, sort of." Dean says in all honesty. "I mean, it's a little over the top, but the general idea of a wife cooking dinner for her husband and family, that's nice. Why is that not nice?"

"It's not just that. It's the having to have the dinner on the table as soon as the husband gets home, and having to look perfect to do housework and the whole concept that her one point in life is to serve somebody else." She explains.

"Fine, yes, but maybe there are two points of view here." Dean tells her.

"I don't think so."

"Well, you just feel that way because your mother feels that way."

"Oh what, so I have no opinions of my own?"

Dean takes a deep breath. "I didn't mean that." He says,quietly.

"Well, if I have no opinions of my own, then I guess I'd be just the kind of girl you like."

"Rory, my mom used to make dinner for my dad every day before she started working. And now she even does it on the weekends. So what does that say about her?"

"It says that she has a choice and Donna Reed didn't."

"You do realize that Donna Reed wasn't real, don't you?" Dean asks.

"Yes, I know she wasn't real, but she represented millions of women that were real and did have to dress like that and act like that and.."

"Please tell me how we began arguing about The Donna Reed Show." Dean says, interrupting her.

"I don't know." Rory says in frustration.

"Okay, look, I gotta go to work, so...bye." Dean says, turning away from her.

"Dean?" Dean turns back around. "Bird."

Dean hands her the bird cage and they both go their separate ways.

Back at the house, Lorelai is in the kitchen when Rory walks in the front door.

"Hey." She says to them as she drops her stuff on the floor.

"Hey, good. I'm just about to leave. I need to stay here with Lauren until I get back." Lorelai tells her.

"Where are you going?"

"To Luke's. We're picking out paint colors tonight, so it's gonna be hours of yes, no, yes, no, yes, no until my world-famous perserverance wears him down, and he winds up in a ball on the floor crying like a girl."

"Okay, well, I'm house-sitting remember?"

"Yeah, but I'll be back. And if I'm not just bring Lauren with you to play with the cat a little."

Rory walks in with her bird. "Okay." She says, putting the cage on the table in front of Lorelai.

"What is that?" She asks, looking at the bird.

"It's for school." Rory tells her.

"Oh, he's so cute. What's his name?"

"Case study number 12."

"Is that hyphenated?" She asks, grimacing at Rory. "Honey, he's adorable. He should have a name."

"I'm not bonding with my midterm, thank you."

"Alright, I'll name him. Hi, your name is Stanley. Hi, Stanley." Lorelai says, talking to the bird.

"It's a girl." Rory tells her, walking into her room.

"Oh, sorry about the Stanley thing. Your name is Stella. Stella's nice, and she was married to Stanley."

"Call it whatever you want."

"You're grumpy. What happened?"

"Nothing, just a long day. I'm gonna leave the chick here tonight so that kitten doesn't get any fancy ideas. She's already been fed. If she gets too loud, put her in my room." Rory says, walking back into the kitchen.

"Okay. And if you can just have a little moment with your sister. She's been kinda down and I can't seem to get through to her. So, if you can kinda just dig a hole in her brain before I get home, and maybe she'll decide to tell me when I get back."

Rory nods her head. "Sure thing. I'ma head next door. Just send her over when you're ready." Rory says, turning away.

"Hey." Lorelai stops her and pulls her closer to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just a bad afternoon. I'll fix it."

"Okay. Call me if you need me."

"I will." Rory says before walking away.

Lorelai turns back to the cage and starts talking to the bird, now named Stella.

At Luke's, Lorelai and Luke are looking through paint samples.

"Now, this is another way to go." Lorelai says, picking up a few colors. "Sort of a French bistro kind of look."

Luke is standing, taking orders, as Lorelai walks over to him and starts pressing paint samples against the wall behind him. "This isn't a French bistro." Luke reminds her.

"Really? Huh. It's amazing what things you learn when you bother to listen." Lorelai jokes to the customers.

"Which you usually don't." He reminds her.

"Yes, but then I don't have a lot of useless information intruding in my brain. Now, if you wanted to do more warm, golden Tuscan countryside..."

"Then I'd go to Italy. Here, I'll wrap this." Luke tells his customers, as he picks up their food.

Lorelai walks over to the other side of the diner. "We could also go with a pastelly English-country-garden theme. Maybe we could add a little stenciling on the ceiling." Lorelai thinks as she looks up at he ceiling.

"No stenciling." Luke tells her.

"Excuse me. Do you even know what stenciling is?"

"Does Martha Stewart do it?"

"Yes." She says, somberly.

"No stenciling." Luke repeats.

Lorelai just rolls her eyes and continues to looking through the paint samples.

Over at Babette's, Lauren is on the floor playing with the cat while Rory fixes it's food.

"He is so cute, Rory. It's sad that the only way I can ever get close to any kind of pet is at our next door neighbors."

Rory walks over and puts the bowl in front of Apricot. "You know our animals would never stay alive if we had them." Rory reminds her.

Lauren follows Rory into the living room. "Maybe with you and Mom, but I'm good with animals, obviously. If I had my own, I bet I could take really good care of it and it would not die."

Rory starts laughing. "Yeah, okay. Try to get that passed Mom."

"I might just do that." Lauren jokes.

"So, how's school been going?" Rory asks. Lauren just stares at her. "What?"

"I know the only reason Mom wanted me over here is for you to ask me questions."

"She's worried about you, you know, and so am I. You haven't been yourself."

"Yes, I have."

"Lauren, come on, you've been so moody lately. Ever since that night you went to Elizabeth's. What happend? Did you and Elizabeth get in a fight or something?"

Lauren starts playing with her bracelets on her wrist. "No. We didn't get in a fight."

"Are you sick? Have you been feeling okay?"

Lauren's eyes started to tear up and she was trying hard to hide it from Rory. Rory notices though and quickly becomes more concern than she already is. She scoots closer to Lauren and tries to get Lauren to look at her. "What happened, Lauren? You are really scaring me now."

Lauren quickly wipes her eyes and stands up to find the cat. "So is Dean coming over?" She asks, changing the subject.

Rory watches her sister sit on the floor with her back turns towards as she starts petting Apricot. "Yeah. He'll be over later. Would you like to help me cook?" She asks.

"Sure."

At the diner, Lorelai and Luke are having a beer and still talking about paint.

"Okay, I 've got all the choice set up, and while any one of them would work, I think this combo is currently my favorite." Lorelai walks over to the wall of two different colors. Orange and green. "Imagine, this will be for the walls." She points to the green. "And this will be for the trim." She points to the orange. "The edging around the doors and the windows."

"I know what the trim is." Luke tells her.

"Okay. The colors are actually quite similar to what you have here now, but they're just a little richer, a little warmer. What do you think?"

"Well.."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." Lorelai runs to the door and turns off the lights. "Huh?" She smiles, walking back over to him. "A little ambience?"

"This is a diner. We don't do ambience." Luke says, looking at the samples.

"One argument at a time." Lorelai says. "So, what do you think?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. Do you like it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"You know, listen, since you have to take everything off the walls anyway, now I feel is a really good time to decide what stuff you're gonna keep and what stuff you'll get rid of."

"Everything stays."

"Okay. There is a plastic dancing pork chop that says..."

"Everything stays." Luke repeats, sternly.

"...I lost my head over a good chop. You should, too." Lorelai continues.

"Everything stays."

"Okay, everything stays."

"You know, this place hasn't been painted since my dad was alive." Luke tells her.

"No, I didn't know." She says, watching Luke look around the place.

"He painted it before he opened it. And once more when the roof caved in one Winter. I think that's probably it."

"The paint lasted a long time. He got his money's worth."

"Yeah. He really loved this place, you know?" Luke sighs. "The store was his life. Mine, too, I guess. I spent every minute I wasn't in school in here. I spent a lot of minutes I was supposed to be in school in here, too."

"How come you opened a diner? Why didn't you keep it a hardware store?" Lorelai asks, curiously.

"I don't know. I didn't love the hardware business the way my dad did, and I knew how to cook, so I just thought a diner would be more...fun." He says, trying to find the right word to explain.

Lorelai laughs. "That's a hard word for you to say."

"Yeah." He laughs. "I just always wanted to work here. Just where Dad did." He says, sadly.

"God, that's nice." Lorelai tells him with a hint of jealousy lingering in her eyes. "To be so, I don't know, connected to your dad. That's...I would have loved that."

"Well, you've got that with Rory and Lauren." Luke reminds her.

"Yeah, I guess so." Lorelai says, smiling, as she thinks about her girls.

"You know, I still think there's a spot on the wall somewhere, where my dad took an order one day when he ran out of paper."

"Really? Where?"

"I don't know." Luke says, looking around. "Behind the counter maybe." Lorelai stands up and starts walking around the counter. "Next to the door. On the right side."

Lorelai looks down and sees the writing near the floor. "Here it is." She says, sitting down. Luke walks over and sits down next to her. "Three hammers, phillips-head screwdriver."

"Three boxes of nails in assorted sizes." Luke finishes.

"Wow."

"I've seen it from time to time." Luke says, chuckling. "Yeah, well, I..I guess it's time for a little spruce."

"Yeah, it is." Lorelai agrees. "But let's not spruce this particular spot."

Luke smiles at her. "That sounds good."

They sit there for awhile just staring and smiling at eachother. "I should go. Lauren and I have a girls night." She says, as she and Luke stand up.

"Yeah, okay."

"Ah, so? It's gonna be great."

"Oh, I'm sure it is."

"See you." Lorelai grabs her stuff.

"See you." He says, watching Lorelai walk out.

Back at the house, Lorelai walks in and goes into the kitchen to pick up the phone to call Rory. But when she looks into the bird's cage, she notices the bird is no longer there.

Lorelai drops her things and stares at the cage. "Stella!" She yells. "Oh, no." She says, paniking, while she looks around on the floor. "Okay, Stella. Do something. Show yourself." Lorelai walks into the living room. "Molt, or chirp, or something. Oh, this is so not funny. Not funny." She bends down to look under the couch. "Stella. This is unbelievable. All day long, just chirps like a maniac at the top of her lungs. And now, nothing. Silence." Lorelai gets back up. "Okay, that's okay. I can fix this. We can fix this." She says, walking to get the phone. "I'm going to make this better." She says, dialing a number. "Hello?"

"Yeah?" Luke says, on the other end.

"Luke, Stell got out, and I don't know...do I put seeds on the floor. Do I make cheeping sounds, or do I pull a Lucy Ricardo and walk like a chicken so she thinks I'm her mother?"

"Who the hell is this?"

"What do you mean, who is this? It's Lorelai. Who else would call you looking for her baby chick?"

"You're right. I'm the idiot. Go on."

"Um, could you come over here, please, and help me?" She asks, as she starts looking under the pillows.

"Uh, okay. I'll be right over." He tells her.

"Okay, hurry." She says, hanging up. A few minutes later, there's a knock at the side door and Lorelai opens it. "Thank God." She says, pulling Luke in. "Get in here."

Luke looks around the house. "This place is a disaster. What's going on?"

"Okay, the last sighting was here, by the Instyle magazine. But then she burrowed through the Glamour, and jumped over the Cosmo, and knocked over a new bottle of nail polish. So all I can tell you at this point, if there was any doubt that this chick was a girl, well, there isn't anymore." The bird starts chirping. "Okay, there she is!" Lorela runs over to the couch.

"Geez, what is that?"

"Stella, Stella." Lorelai starts calling.

"You really do have a chick loose in here." Luke says, amazed as he, too, bends down by the couch.

"Yeah, I told you there was a chick loose in here." Lorelai looks under. "There she goes by the kitchen!" Luke jumps up and starts chasing it. "Don't step on her!" Lorelai says, running behind.

"I did not. She cut right in front of me!"

"Okay, well, she's being graded, so don't squash her." Lorela yells, pushing Luke towards the kitchen.

Over at Babette's, Lauren is still there playing with the cat while Rory is setting everything up for Dean. She is dressed like Donna Reed which Lauren had a field day with and couldn't stop teasing her. The phone rings and Rory hurries and picks it up.

"Hello?"

"I wasn't sure if you still wanted me to come over." Dean says on the other end.

"Oh, I do, I do. I absolutely do. But my sister is here right now. We're waiting for my mom to get back." Rory explains.

"Are you sure you still want me to come?"

"Yeah, I'm totally and completely..." Dean starts laughing. "You're teasing me."

"Yeah, a little. But I did appreciate the enthusiasm."

"So how long until you get here?" Rory asks.

"Actually, uh, not long at all."

"Why? Where are you?"

"Right outside."

Rory stands up and looks over at her sister who is laying on the floor with the cat on her stomach. "Dean's here." She tells her while walking to the door. When she steps outside, Dean is walking up.

"Oh, what the..." He stutters, staring at his girlfriend.

"Honey, you're home!" She jokes. "Well, say something."

"Trick or treat?"

"What, you don't like it?" Rory asks, spinning around.

"No, I do. It's, uh...it's got a large circumference." He tells her.

"Thank you. Now come on in. It's cold outside." Rory says, walking back into the house. Dean slowly follows her in. He looks over at Lauren who is smiling at him.

"Oh, my god." He says, looking around the now lit living room.

"You like it?" Lauren asks him. "Rory did it just for you. And I'll be out of your hair as soon as my mother gets home."

"Here. Let me take your coat." Rory says, pulling off Dean's jacket.

"Has she lost it?" Dean asks, Lauren as he walks closer to them.

"Just a little." Lauren jokes.

"Interesting music." He tells them.

"I'm glad you like it." Rory says, following him.

"So, what's that?" Dean asks, pointing to the food on the table.

"Oh, just some appetizers before dinner."

"Before dinner?"

"Yes."

"Are we going out?"

"No."

"Ordering pizza?"

"Nope."

"So..."

"I made you dinner." Rory tells him.

Dean looks at Rory with a surprised look on his face, then he looks at Lauren to confirm. "It's true." Lauren tells him. "I even helped a little."

"Steak, green beans, mashed potatoes.." Rory starts naming.

"What? You made me dinner?"

"That's right."

"You made me dinner?" He repeats.

"And dessert." Lauren adds in.

"Okay, what is going on here?" Dean asks, confused.

"I'm sorry. I thought it was obvious. It's Donna Reed night." Rory says, excitingly.

Next door Luke and Lorelai are still looking for the bird, well, except, Lorelai is sitting on the couch, pouting.

"I think she went over there." Lorelai tells Luke who is looking behind the bookshelves.

"We looked over there."

"Well, she went under that chair and didn't come out."

"We moved the chair, we searched the floor. Nothing." Luke tells her. "Then she went from under the chair through a hole in the floor. There's no hole in the floor."

"Maybe there was a hole in the floor, and she crawled through it and fixed it."

"Then she is a super-intelligent chick." Luke says, looking behind the rest of the furniture. "With great physical and deductive skills."

"Yes."

"This is not a chick I wanna find."

"Hey, Luke, what did you mean earlier?" Lorelai asks, wondering.

"What are you talking about?"

Lorelai starts smiling. "When you got here, you made some comment about not really having a chick in the house."

"Huh." Luke says, trying to think of something.

"I mean, if I didn't have a chick here, why'd you think I was calling?"

"No, I thought you were calling about the chick." Luke lies.

"It didn't seem like it."

"Well, maybe it didn't seem like it, but it was."

"Was what?"

Luke sighs. "Was what I thought. Can we just keep looking?" Luke asks her.

"Okay. I just still think..."

"There she is!" Luke points out.

"Where?"

"There." Luke says, running and jumping over the chair, breaking some glass from the shelves.

"Careful." Lorelai says, grimacing as she watches Luke.

After finally catching the bird, Lorelai puts Stella back in her cage while Luke picks up the glass and other things he broke trying to catch her. "I'm gonna throw this stuff outside." He tells Lorelai, walking towards the door.

Just as Luke walks out, Dean also walks out holding a bag of trash. They go down the stairs and meet eachother. "Hey." Dean says, as he looks at Luke awkwardly.

"Hey." Luke also says.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

"You first."

"I'm looking for a chick." Luke tells him.

"Yeah, me, too." Dean says, sarcastically.

"You are not."

"Neither are you."

Lorelai walks out of the house. "Hey, Luke, is there.." Lorelai stops when she sees Dean, who looks terrified. "Dean."

"Uh, Lorelai, hi." He says, wide eyed.

"Fancy meeting you here." Lorelai smiles.

"Yeah, uh.."

Rory walks out of Babette's house. "Hey, the jell-o's doing this weird melty thing and I.." Rory stops when she sees Luke and Lorelai staring back at them. "Oh, Mom, Luke."

"Rory." Luke says.

"Hi."

Lorelai couldn't help but smile as she looks at what Rory is wearing. "Ah, what the hell are you two doing?" She asks them. "And where's Lauren?"

"Nothing, she, uh." Dean stutters, trying to find the right words to say. "Well, we ate dinner. You know, steak and beans..."

"Canned." Rory tells them.

"Canned." Lorelai repeats.

"Not fresh."

"And potatoes." Dean says.

Lauren walks out. "Hey, Rory, is.." She stops and starts laughing when she sees everyone. "I was so hoping this would happen." She says, mainly to herself. "Mom. Luke. What are you guys doing?"

Luke looks back at Lorelai, who starts stuttering, trying to come up with something so that Rory doesn't know about the chick. "Oh, um..I was in the house."

"And the lamp sort of...I'm gonna get going. I'm sorry about the.."

"Oh, forget it." Lorelai tells Luke.

"Yeah, I'd probably better go, too." Dean says. "Thanks for dinner." He says, telling Rory.

"You're welcome." Lorelai ushers Lauren over to the house and smirks at Rory. "What?"

"Well, okay, uh, you're sixteen, you have a whole house to yourself for the evening. I expect you're gonna have your boyfriend over. But what is with the apron?" She asks, laughing.

Rory rolls her eyes. "It's a long story."

"Did it involve a sharp blow to the head?" Lorelai jokes. Lauren joins her mom on the porch.

"I gotta go check on Apricot."

"Oh, my god. I just saw the pearls!"

"I'm going in now." Rory says, walking towards the door.

"Hey, you know what, I'm going inside, too, because I have to write down all the ways I'm gonna torture you about that outfit."

"No worried. I already have a list." Lauren tells her.

"Goodnight!" Rory goes inside and shuts the door behind her.

"Come on, Lauren. You can tell me all about this crazy night." Lorelai says ushering her daughter inside.

"I think I'm gonna go to bed." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai looks at her watch. "What? It's only ten. We're suppose to talk and do girly things."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna go to bed. In my room." Lauren tells her, as she makes her way upstairs.

"Ugh!" Lorelai groans. One night. Just one night she had a chance to talk to her daughter. Just her. Lorelai hears the bird chirp. "Stupid bird."

In Lauren's room, Lauren gets in her bed and turns her lamp off. This was the first time in two weeks that she was going to try to stay in her room, by herself, and sleep. Lauren closes her eyes, but images suddenly popped in her head of Jake's face. She jumps out of bed and runs out of her room to Lorelai's. When she makes it there, she walks in and sees Lorelai sitting up in bed, with her glasses on, reading a book. Lauren just stands there, looking at her mom. Lorelain finally notices Lauren standing there and gives her a slight smile. She knew that look and it scared her so much, especially since she didn't know why her daughter had this look. Lorelai doesn't say anything. She just pull the covers, on the side of her, over and pats the bed. Lauren runs and jumps onto the bed, covering herself up, and lays down next to Lorelai. Lorelai puts her book up, takes her glasses off, and turns her lamp off. She puts her arm out for Lauren to scoot in closer to her. Lauren rests her head on her mom's chest and closes her eyes. "You're going to have to tell me sooner or later, kid." Lorelai whispers to her.

A couple days later, Lorelai and Luke are finishing unloading the paint for the Diner out of Luke's truck.

"So, you're sure we need this many cans?" Luke asks.

"Oh, yeah, you need enough for two coats, touchups, and little spots." Lorelai explains.

"Well, we got the paint, and the brushes, and the tarps, and all the other stuff the paint guy said we'd need. So I guess we're ready."

"Yes, we are."

"The only thing left to do is figure out when."

"How about Friday?" Lorelai asks him.

"Friday?"

"Yeah, you don't want this sitting around. I don't know if paint goes bad. But judging by the smell when it's fresh, rotten paint would be gross."

"Don't you have dinner with your folks on Friday?" Luke asks.

"Yeah, but I can get out early for a special occasion."

"Friday it is."

"Good." Lorelai says, smiling and walking away.

Rory and Lauren run over to her. "Hey." Rory says.

"Oh, hey!" She says, putting her arms around both her girls.

"Geez, you think you got enough paint?" Lauren asks.

"I know, I tried to tell him. So dinner. Thoughts?"

"Let's have some." Rory tells her.

"How about Chinese?"

"Sounds good."

"Lauren?"

"Sounds good to me, too."

"Okay, I need to stop at the market and get fruit." Lorelai tells them.

"Why?" Lauren asks, confused.

"I think I'm getting scurvy."

"Really?" Rory asks.

"Yeah. Well, that or a cold. But either way, I need some fruit. We all do. It's good for us." Lorelai says, as they stop in front of the market and start looking at the fruit in front of the store.

A motorcycle rides by and they all look back as Taylor comes out of his market. "Damn motorcycles. They're a scourge." He complains.

"Yeah." Rory agrees.

"Yeah." Lauren repeats.

"They're loud. They're dangerous. We should ban them from town."

"Hmm, maybe we should set up barricades." Lorelai suggests. "And ban all unwelcome strangers from crossing the border."

"Well, no, we couldn't do that." Taylor tells her. "That would be illegal."

"Darn laws."

"I gotta get away from that noise." Taylor says, walking back into his store as the motorcycle gets closer.

Lorelai and the girls watch the motocycle. "Kill me and bury me with that bike." Lorelai tells them.

"What is it, a Harley?" Rory asks.

"That is a 2000 Indian 80 horsepower, 5-speed, close-ratio Andrews transmission. And I wanna get one."

"No." Lauren says, quickly.

"Why not?"

"You'd die."

"Oh, that."

The guy on the motorcycle pulls up to them, just as the girls turn away to go into the market. "Hi." He says to them.

"Hi." Lorelai says, looking back.

"Nice shirt." He says, getting off the bike. "Take it off."

He takes the helmet off and they all three stare back, surprised. "Christopher." Lorelai says.

"Dad!" Rory yells, running over to him. Lauren stays by Lorelai, watching. She wasn't close to Christopher like Rory was. Well, it wasn't like Rory was either, but their relationship was different. She didn't talk to him as much as Rory did. He was never around when she was growing up, like he was sometimes with Rory. Lauren also didn't trust him. But why should she? He was never around.

"Hey!" Christopher laughs as Rory jumps into his arms and hugs him.

"This is great! What are you doing here?" She asks, when Christopher puts her back on the ground.

Lorelai and Lauren walk closer to them. "I'm here to see my girls." He tells her. "Hey, Lauren." He says.

Lauren just gives him a little wave. This was not the perfect time for her dad to come into town, with everything that is happening right now. He always had the worst timing. "Hello." Lorelai says, staring at her old boyfriend and father of her kids.

"A word. Perhaps there's a phrase in my future." Christopher jokes.

"So, um, what's with the just showing up, Mr. Spontaneity guy?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, my folks are in Connecticut, so I'm here to see them. And on the way I thought I'd stop by and surprise the Gilmore girls." He explains. "Are you surprised?"

"Oh, the teeniest feather could knock me in the gutter." Lorelai laughs.

"So, where would somebody find a place to stay here?" Chris asks Rory.

"You're staying? Really?" Rory asks.

"I'm thinking about it."

"Stay with us." Rory says, looking over at Lorelai.

Lorelai looks down at Lauren who is looking up at her, nervously. "Um, sweetie." Lorelai says, brushing her fingers through Lauren's hair.

"I don't think your mom wants.."

"No, no, it's not that. It's just that I'm still surprised."

"Mom, please." Rory begs.

Lorelai puts on a fake smile. "Why not stay with us for a couple of days?"

"Thanks. You won't even know I'm there. Lauren, can I get a little hug?" Chris asks. He knew Lauren was a little skeptical of him and he understood why, sort of, well Lorelai and Rory definitely knew, but he was trying. Lauren walks over and gives Chris a hug. Chris closes his eyes, taking his youngest daughter's embrace in. "I missed you, kid." Lauren pulls away and looks at Chris in his eyes. They just didn't feel like when her mom looked at her. Feeling uneasy, Lauren backs up into her mom. "Hey, hop on." Chris tells Rory. "Lauren, I can fit you in the front of me."

Rory walks over to the bike, as Chris takes the helmet off the seat to hand to Rory. "Hop off." Lorelai says, stopping them.

"I'll walk." Lauren says, quietly.

"Hop on." Chris says, handing Rory the helmet.

"Hop off."

"Lorelai."

Lorelai sighs. "Hop on." She says, giving in. Rory hops on the bike and Lorelai and Lauren watch them take off. "Christopher." Lorelai whispers, shaking her head.

_Okay, guys, I just want to let you all know that I'm not sure when the next update will be. Right now, we have Hurricane Isaac heading our way in the morning, so depending on if we have lights or not, depends when I'm able to write. But you guys are very loyal, so I know you'll understand ;). But I shall try my best!_


	15. Meet The Grandparents

_Hi, guys! I'm back. Thank you so much for waiting patiently. Luckily, Hurricane Issac just turned into a storm and we were all safe, but we were without power, off and on, for a couple days. But I just wanted to say that I'm back now and I will try to post my chapters frequently like I started. Thanks again!_

After Lorelai and Lauren watched Chris and Rory ride off on Christopher's motorcycle they continued on their way, just the two of them. Lauren hadn't said much to Lorelai about how she was feeling about her dad being back in town, and she really didn't need to. Lorelai knew how Lauren was feeling about it, and she also knew this was a terrible time because Lauren was going through something. But, they decided to take a deep breath, let it go, and soon he would be gone. Again.

At the house, Rory is fixing up the couch, putting blanets and pillows for Christopher to sleep on. Lauren sat by the window watching her sister when Lorelai comes walking in with coffee in her hand.

"He looks good, don't you think?" Rory asks them.

"He looks good." Lorelai agrees walking over to Lauren and sitting next to her.

Lauren just shrugs her shoulders. "He looks the same to me." She tells them.

"I like his shorter hair. Shorter's nice." Rory says.

"Do you think he'll stay long?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai rubs her daughter's back, lovingly. "I wouldn't bet a lot of money on it."

"Maybe we can get him to stay a couple of weeks." Rory suggests.

"Absolutely, by weighing him down with blankets." Lorelai jokes, as she watches Rory put down another blanket on top of five more.

"I just want him to be comfortable."

"He's gonna come and go as he pleases, babe. You know that."

"Yeah, I know."

"And no amount of bedding is gonna change that."

"I know. But he's never been to Stars Hollow before. That's gotta mean something's different, right?" Rory asks, hopeful.

"Why don't you just enjoy the time you've got, okay?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, okay." Rory says, smiling at her mom as she finishes with the couch. "I still think something's different though."

"Means he needs something." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai just smirks and glares at her daughters. "That is the worst shower I've ever had." Chris tells them as he comes downstairs. "Water pressure keeps changing every two seconds. I'll fix it tomorrow."

"Hey, you stay away from our shower." Lorelai tells him.

"We ordered Chinese food. It should be here any minute." Rory tells her dad as Chris sits down next to Lauren.

"Good. I'm starving."

"Here." Lorelai walks over and hands him the coffee in her hand.

"How is Diane?" Lauren decides to ask him.

"Um, Diane is ancient history."

"When we met her at Easter, you said she could be the one." Rory reminds him.

Lorelai sits on the other side of Lauren, as she listens to Chirstopher explain. "Mmm, the one to be gone by Memorial Day."

"You're worse than Mom." Rory laughs.

"Low blow." Lorelai scoffs.

"Can't keep a feller happy?" Chris asks her.

"Oh, I keep them happy. I keep them very happy."

"Don't get gross." Lauren says, looking up, grimacing at her mom.

"Yeah, you're upsetting me." Chris jokes.

"I'm gonna go study before the food gets here." Rory tells them.

"What? Tomorrow's Saturday."

"I know. I like to get my weekend homework done and out of the way by Saturday night so then I can do extra-credit stuff on Sunday." Rory explains before walking to her room

Chris looks at Lorelai. "Don't look at me." She tells him.

Chris looks down at Lauren who is leaning against Lorelai. "So, Lauren, how's school going?"

Lauren looks down, awkwardly, before answering. "It's good."

"She's still making those straight A's." Lorelai tells him with a smile. "Even with all the trouble she gets into."

Chris smiles. "Just like her mom."

"I'm gonna go upstairs. Call me when the food comes." Lauren tells her mom.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter, as she gets up and walks towards the stairs. "Okay, babe."

Lauren runs upstairs as Chris watches her. "They are amazing kids, Lor. I wish I could see more of myself in them other than we have similar left earlobes, but they are all you. Chip off the old perfect block."

Lorelai grins at Chris. "Why the hell are you here?"

"Behold the Queen of the subtle transition."

"Why are you here?" Lorelai asks again.

"You're gonna force me to lawyer up, Officer."

"Christopher."

"Okay, look. I've been making some changes, especially in my career, I've got all my ducks lined up in a row."

"You're opening a shooting gallery." Lorelai jokes.

"I was tying up the loose ends in my life."

"Do they make that much string?" Lorelai jokes again.

"You've always had that verbal thing, quick mind. It's annoying."

"So, you've been tying up loose ends." Lorelai says, asking Christopher to continue.

"I don't know how much your dad has told you, but I'm on the verge of a big success. It's for real this time." Chris explains. "I've got a company with actual cash flow. I've got employees. I've got an accountant, for God's sake. He wears a tie and says words like ironically. I mean, it's for real this time, Lor."

"I would love to believe it is." Lorelai tells him.

Chris sighs. "Why does your dad have more faith in me than you?"

"Mmm, my father hit his head surging rincon a couple of years ago. His judgment's a little off."

"So you have zero faith?" Chris asks her.

"I've known you since I was six, Chris. You're that guy who crashed his new porsche two hours after his parents gave it to him for his 16th birthday."

"And you were the girl in the pink tuscadero t-shirt sitting next to me."

"Horrified."

"Think again."

"Alright. Having a blast, then horrified."

"Listen to me, will you?" Chris begs.

"I am listening to you. Your life is back on track, that's great. And I appreciate you coming all the way here for the very first time might I add, to tell us that."

"I didn't come just to tell you that."

"No?" Lorelai asks.

Chris stares hard into Lorelai's eyes before looking away. "There's some things I need to do...to take care of." He tells her.

"Like?"

"I haven't been enough a part of Rory and Lauren's life. So, I wanna be around more, to be another pal they can depend on." He explains. "I mean, I'm not crazy. I know there's already a life going on here, and God knows they don't need anyone besides you. But if you give me a chance..."

"I've always had the door to Rory and Lauren open for you." Lorelai tells him.

"I know."

"You've hardly ever used it."

"Well, I wanna use it now. Is that okay?"

"Of course it is."

"Good. I mean, I know it's going to be much harder to be in Lauren's life, considering she's always had you and I've barely been around her, so she barely knows me. But I wanna change things. I want to be someone she can go to."

Lorelai sighs. "Yeah, well, that would be great, if only she was coming to me, too."

Christopher looks at her with a confused look. "What's happening? You two fighting?"

"Oh, no. We're not fighting. Just something has happened and she's hiding it from us. I mean, she's sleeping in my bed again. I don't know what's going on with her, but I've been on a mission to find out and she's been making it very difficult." Lorelai explains.

"Well, then, maybe there is a reason I'm here. I can try to find out."

Lorelai smiles knowing it was going to be impossible for him. "Yeah. Maybe." She says.

"Thanks for the door thing." Chris says, sincerely.

"Thanks for wanting it."

The next day, Chris, Rory, and Lauren are walking to the softball park where Dean is playing ball with Luke.

"So, which is your Dean?" Chris asks Rory.

"That's him over there." Rory says, pointing to Dean who is walking up to bat. "And that's Luke."

"Luke's the diner guy?"

"Yes, we eat there practically every day."

They go over and sit down on the benches. "How long do these games usually last?"

"Until they get tired." Lauren tells him.

"And then they just say the first team to get a run wins."

Luke takes a break, letting Dean run over and meet with the girls and Chris. "Hey." He says.

They all stand up. "Dean, this is my dad. Dad, this is Dean." Rory introduces.

"Dean." Chris says, putting his hand out to shake Dean's.

"Uh, nice to meet you." Dean says, shaking Chris' hand.

"Same here."

"So, do you live in the area?" Dean asks.

"No, I had some time, so I rode my bike out from Berkeley."

"Really? What do you got?"

"A 2000 Indian." Rory tells her boyfriend.

"I got an '86 Suzuki."

"Nice." Chris says, smiling.

"Yeah."

"Dean, come on!" Luke yells from the field.

"I gotta go. I'll see you later." Dean tells Rory. "It was nice meeting you." Dean runs back out to the field while they sit back down.

"So, that was a Dean?" Chris asks.

"That was a Dean."

Lauren looks around the field as her dad and sister talk, and she notices Jake and Alex walking by. She quickly tenses making it very noticable to Chris when he looks over. "Lauren, you okay?" He asks. "You're turning white."

Lauren continues to stare at Alex and Jake. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Chris follows Lauren's eyes and sees the two boys looking her way smiling. "Do you know them?"

Lauren quickly turns away and looks at Chris and Rory who are just staring at her. "Um, no. I don't. Are we done here?" She asks them.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks into the kitchen where Sookie and Michel are laughing together. Lorelai smiles as she walks closer to the them. It was very odd for the two of them to be getting along.

"Wow!" Lorelai says, in surprise.

"Wow, what?" Sookie asks.

"Wow, I have never seen you two enjoy a pleasant moment together." Lorelai tells them.

"Oh, come on."

"Oh, you have seen us enjoy a pleasant moment." Michel tells her.

"No. Not ever."

"Oh, you're being absurb."

"You have to admit, they are few and far between." Sookie says.

"Through no fault of mine."

"I'm just saying it's refreshing." Lorelai says. "It's not the usual 'grr' that's all."

"Through no fault of yours?" Sookie asks Michel. "I'm sorry, but you're the one that's so...I don't know."

"Oh, I think you do know, or you wouldn't have started saying it."

"Just yourself, caustic."

"You mean obnoxious?"

"Your words, not mine."

"Go to hell." Michel tells her as he walks away.

"Oh, no, I'm just saying it is refreshing to see the two of your just...yeah." She says, giving up as Michel leaves the kitchen.

"You, tell me about the happenings at home." Sookie says to Lorelai.

"Ah, I assume you mean, 'Did we get our toaster fixed?'" Lorelai asks, trying to change the subject. "And no, it's been cold pop-tarts for a week."

"I'm not talking about the toaster. I'm talking about the man." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai sighs. "Ah."

"So, what's it like having him around the house all the time?"

"Well, it's, um, a little weird." She says, honestly. "We have fewer clean towels than usual."

"Come on. Give me something." Sookie begs. "Tell me how you feel. I'm dying here."

"Honestly, I've been trying to figure out how this makes me feel since he asked me to take my shirt off the other day."

"Excuse me?"

"No, it was the kind of a 'hello' kind of thing." Lorelai explains.

"Wow, he's smooth."

"Yeah. I mean, I've not seen this man since last Christmas, right? We hear from him maybe once a week. Maybe. And then, all of a sudden, he's here in my town and Rory's running around all excited. Lauren's being more stand-offish. He's sleeping on the couch. And I'm thinking, 'should I be mad? Should I send him to a hotel?' but then he smiles...I mean, no matter how many years go by or how long I don't see him, whenever I do, it's always Christopher." Lorelai explains. "This man knows all my secrets. All of my bad-girl moments happened with him. My worst fashion choices, my big-hair days, the wearing of the Bonne Bell lip smackers around my neck. It was all with Christopher."

"Do you think you two will..."

"No." Lorelai says, quickly.

"Well, that's convincing." Sookie says, sarcastically.

"I don't know. He wants to be more involved with Rory and Lauren. He wants to spend more time with them and be a pal."

"It's about time."

"Yeah, that's good."

"Yes." Sookie says, trying to convince Lorelai.

"Yeah, if it's true."

"And if it's not?"

"Then it's...Christopher."

In town, Rory and Lauren are showing Christopher around the town.

"That's the flower shop." Lauren points out.

"Over there is a good pizza place." Rory tells him. "That's the stationary store. And that's Al's Pancake World."

"Good pancakes?" Chris asks.

"He doesn't serve pancakes." Lauren tells him.

"Ookay."

"He switched to international cuisine a couple of years ago and dropped the pancakes. He wouldn't changed the name, but he had already printed a million napkins with the original name, so he just kept it." Rory explains.

"What kind of international cuisine?"

"He kind of hops around. Last month, it was his salute to Paraguay."

"Anyone salute back?"

"Not really."

They walks by the bookstore. "Bookstore. Good. Come on." Chris says, excitingly, as he brings his daughters into the store. "So, I hear you two like books." He says, smiling at them as they walk around the store.

"Why, yes, we do." Rory confirms.

"I would like you both to pick something out and let me buy it for you."

"You don't have to buy me anything."

"Yeah, me either." Lauren tells him.

"Come on, what's the book of your dreams right now?" He asks them.

"Well, that would definitely be The Compact Oxford English Dictionary, but Dad..."

"Excuse me, one Compact Oxford English Dictionary, please." Chris calls out.

"I'm going to go back here." Lauren says, walking towards the back.

"Dad, no. It costs a fortune." Rory tells him.

"You need something to remember this visit by. Lauren, you better be looking for something!"

"Here you go." The worker says, handing Christopher the dictionary.

"Holy mother!" He says, laughing at how huge the book is. "This is The Monolith from 2001."

"It has every word ever recorded in the English language." Rory explains. "Plus origins and earliest usage."

"Sure you wouldn't rather have a car? They weigh about the same." Chris jokes.

In the back of the store, Lauren is going through some of the geography books. When she picks one up and starts looking through it, a hand reaches out and grabs her by the shoulder. "Ah!" Lauren yells, dropping the book on the floor. She looks up and sees Jake looking down at her.

"Hey, Lauren." He says, smiling.

"Please leave me alone." Lauren begs.

"I just want to know why you are ignoring my little brother." Jake tells her.

"I have to go." Lauren says, trying to turn away, but Jake grabs her arm, forcefully. "Hey!"

Chris jumps out of nowhere and pushes Jake back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He asks, angrily.

Jake puts his hand up in defense. "I was just helping her with her book. She dropped it." He lies.

"Get out of here, kid." Chris says, stepping in front of Lauren. Jake just smirks and walks away. "Are you okay?" Chris asks, Lauren.

Lauren just looks at her dad and to her sister, who is staring hard at her. "I'm fine. Can we go?"

Chris nods his head. "Yeah, I'm just going to pay for Rory's dictionary and we can get going. Did you pick something out?"

"I just want to go." Lauren tells him.

Chris nods his head and ushers Lauren towards the front. Rory grabs Lauren and puts her in front her, making sure to have a secure hold on her sister so that she doesn't lose her. "This is so nice of you." Rory tells her dad as he hands the guy his credit card.

"Yeah, well, I've got a lot of thing to make up for." Chris tells her.

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do." He says, looking at Rory and Lauren, who is avoiding eye contact.

The guy walks back over to them. "Uh, I'm sorry, but your card's been rejected."

"Rejected?" Chris asks, surprised. "What are you talking about?"

"I can run it through again if you'd like."

"Yes." Rory tells him.

"Uh, no." Chris says, quickly. "He doesn't need to run it through again."

"Oh, okay."

"Uh, could you maybe hold that for us?" Chris asks. "I'll come back with another card."

"Sure. No problem."

"Thanks."

"Come on." He says, pushing the girls out of the store. Lauren takes Rory's hand as they all three walk down the sidewalk in silence. "Now you'll really remember me." Chris tells them.

"I didn't want it that much anyway." Rory lies.

"Hey, listen. Don't tell your mom about this, okay?" He asks them.

Lauren nods her head, not looking at her dad. "Okay." Rory tells him.

"Thanks."

At the diner, Lorelai is sitting at a table, reading a book, when Luke comes over and pours her some more coffee.

"So, Rory and Lauren were at the game today." Luke tells her.

"Oh, yeah."

"Yeah. They were with some guy."

"Dean."

"No, I know that punk. Some older guy."

"Oh, that would've been their dad."

"Really? So, that's, uh..."

"The guy that impregnanted me with Rory and Lauren, yes." Lorelai tells him.

"Oh, well...He did a good job." Luke says, awkwardly.

"Impregnating me with Rory and Lauren?"

"Now this has taken a very weird turn."

"Yeah." Lorelai agrees as Luke hurries away just as Rory, Lauren, and Chris walk through the door.

"Hey." Rory says.

"Oh, hi!" Lorelai says, kissing her daughters. "Where were you?"

"Well, we saw Al's Paraguayan Pancake House." Chris tells her, as they all sit down. Chris' cell phone starts to ring.

"Ah-ah-ah-hey-hey-hey." Lorelai says, pointing to the no cell phone sign on Luke's wall.

Chris laughs and ignores her and answers his phone. "Hello? Emily!"

"Emily." Lorelai repeats.

"It's your mother." Chris whispers.

"Hi, Grandma!" Rory yells out.

"Uh-huh. Well, actually I'm sitting here with your girls. Sure." Chris hands the phone to Lorelai. "She wants to speak to you."

"Mm. Hi, Mom." Lorelai says, over the phone.

"Lorelai, Christopher is in town." Emily says, happily to her on the other end.

"Oh, what!?" Lorelai asks, faking a surprised emotion. "I didn't know. Although coincidentally, I'm sitting across from an amazing Christopher hologram."

"Well, I just had this wonderful idea. Christopher's parents are in town, too. You remember Straub and Francine, don't you?"

"Ah. Yes, the Schnickelfritzes." Lorelai jokes.

"The who?" Emily says, confused.

"The Haydens." Lorelai says, shaking her head.

"Well, I called them up and invited them to dinner. They said that they are free to join us all on Friday night."

"Join us all?"

"Yes. You, Rory, Lauren, Christopher, your father." Emily starts listing.

"That's quite a gathering, Mom."

"Well, I should say so. We haven't been together since you were both children. And Straub and Francine haven't see Rory since she was a baby and haven't even met Lauren."

"Yeah, I know, but..."

"It'll be like a wonderful reunion. All of us together again. I never thought it would happen."

"Yeah." Lorelai says, looking around the table. "Me either."

At the Grandparents, Lorelai, Chris, Rory, and Lauren are all standing, staring at the front door.

Lorelai sighs. "I've gotta see my parents."

Christopher sighs, too. "I've gotta see my parents."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Drama King and Queen of Connecticut." Rory says to no one in particular.

They walk closer to the door and Lorelai uses her key to open the door. "Hello, anybody home?" Lorelai yells as they walk in.

Emily walks up to them. "Oh, my god, you're here. Christopher, look at you." Emily hugs Chris.

"Emily, as always, perfect." Chris tells her.

"I am so glad to see you. I didn't hear the doorbell."

"We didn't ring the doorbell." Lorelai tells her.

"You let yourselves in?" Emily asks, surprised.

"It's okay, Mom. Look, not a rapist among us."

"Hi, Grandma." Rory says.

"You usually knock."

"Not since you gave us a key." Lorelai explains.

"That's for emergencies."

"Well, Mom, I'm starving to death. Is that enough of an emergency for you?"

"Richard's in the living room. Come on in. He's dying to see you." Emily says to Christopher, as they walk to the living room.

"Well, here they are." Richard says as they walk in.

"Hi, Grandpa." Lauren says, giving her Grandpa a hug, followed by Rory.

"Hello, girls. Lorelai. Christopher, old boy, how are you?"

"How are you, Richard?" Chris asks, shaking his hand.

"Well, I'm better than most. Not as good as some."

"And annoyed with all." Chris adds.

"Ha! You speak the truth, young man. I have made martinis." Richard tells them as he walks to the drink bar. "So, Christopher, tell me about your business."

"Oh, Richard, let the poor boy relax."

"Look, I simply want to find out how it's going."

Christopher takes the drinks from Richard. "It's going great, Richard. I'm almost afraid to jinx it by telling you how good it's going."

Richard and Christopher walk further into the living room where the ladies have already made themselves comfortable. Lorelai, Lauren, and Rory are sitting on one couch, as Christopher walks over and sits down on the other side by Rory. "Oh, that is wonderful. I always knew you had it in you. You have a splash of greatness as my mother would say. You always had that splash of greatness."

Lorelai finishes off her drink. "I'd like another splash of greatness if you don't mind." She says, getting up and fixing her own drink.

"Oh, Richard, isn't Rory the spitting image of Christopher?" Emily asks as she stares at the two. "Lauren, you look identical to your mother. It's like looking at Christopher and Lorelai when they were younger."

"And if Rory was a boy." Lauren says, sarcastically making Chris and Lorelai choke on their drink from laughing. Rory just smiles, awkwardly at her grandparents.

"I just hope you inherit your father's business sense also, my dear." Richard tells Rory.

"I know one thing for sure. You certainly have your father's musical talent." Emily says, making them all, including Lorelai who sits back down, stare at Emily.

"Oh. Wait just a minute." Lorelai tells her.

"What?"

"Mom, neither of these two have any musical talent."

"Hey, I play guitar." Chris tells her.

"You know the opening lick to Smoke on The Water." Lorelai reminds him.

"And I've since mastered the opening like to Jumpin' Jack Flash." Chris says, in defense.

"I'm a Chuck Berry man myself." Richard says. Lorelai chokes on her drink once again. "Something wrong?"

"I would never have guess that last sentence would ever come out of your mouth." Lorelai tells him.

"And why not?"

"Chuck Berry?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, Chuck Berry. He was all the rage when I was in school." Richard explains.

"Ah, so we're talking pre my Ding-A-Ling?" Lorelai asks, making Christopher chuckle.

"I believe I am." Richard says, surely.

"Do you remember when the two of you were what, ten, and you put on that adorable show for us?" Emily asks them.

"What show, Mom?"

"Lucy, Shroeder, you laying on the coffee table." Chris says, trigging Lorelai's memory.

"You pretending it was piano. God, why is that remembered?"

"Because it was such a wonderful production." Emily tells her.

"I don't know if it was a production, Mom. It was just one song." Lorelai laughs.

"Suppertime." Chris says.

"Did you write that? It was really very good." Richard tells Christopher.

Lorelai glares at her dad. "Dad, that's from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. It's a famous musical."

"Well, I thought Christopher might have written it. He's a very talented man." Rory is sitting there smiling as Christopher and Lorelai exchange looks and Lauren rolls her eyes. They really could not believe what they were hearing right now.

The doorbell rings. "That would be Straub and Francine." Emily says, getting up and walking to the foyer.

Christopher sits back and sighs. "Ha, Ha, your turn." Lorelai says.

"I haven't seen your parents in quite a number of years." Richard tells him. "We were practically inseparable for awhile."

"I remember that." Chris says, as Richard gets up and follows his wife to the foyer.

"This is weird." Rory tells them. "These are our other grandparents. We don't even know them."

"What do we call them?" Lauren asks.

"Call them what I call them." Chris frowns. "Ass-"

"Chris." Lorelai stops him.

"Sorry, my tie's too tight."

"Just, uh, call them Straub and Francine." Lorelai suggests. "Call them Mr. and Mrs. Hayden." Rory and Lauren look at their mom. "Sir and Ma'am? Why don't you just avoid calling them anything."

"Look who's here." Richard announces as he leads Emily and Christopher's parents into the room.

They all stand up to greet them. "Hello, Mother, Pop." Chris says, hugging his mom and shaking his dad's hand.

"Christopher, hello." Francine says, fixing Christopher's tie.

"Christopher."

"Mr. and Mrs. Hayden, long time no see." Lorelai greets them.

"Lorelai, you look well." Francine turns to her.

"I am, thanks. You remember Rory. You haven't seen her in quite a while. And this is Lauren. You haven't met her yet." Lorelai says, gently patting Lauren's head.

"No, we haven't." Straub says, looking at the girls.

"Christopher has sent us pictures through the years. I think Rory was just beginning to speak in complete sentences last time we've seen her."

"So now for two years then?" Lorelai jokes. They all just stares at her. "She's been talking a long time so I was making humorous comment sometimes referred to as a joke."

"I see you haven't changed, Lorelai." Straub tells her.

"No, not at all."

"Rory, Lauren, hello." Francine says to them.

Lauren and Rory just smile at their other grandparents. "Hi." Rory says as she curtsys causing Lorelai to snort and Lauren looks at her big sister with a confused look.

"Did you just curtsey?" Lauren asks her.

"Shut up."

"Uh, Straub, Francine, how about a martini?" Richard asks.

"Please." Straub says, walking to help Richard. "So, Straub how is retirement treating you?"

"Yes, do tell us about the Bahamas." Emily tells him.

"You can get an entire island there for the cost of a decent house here."

"Really?" Richard says, handing Straub the drinks.

"How about you, Richard? Any thoughts of retirement crossing your mind?" Straub asks walking back towards the group.

"Oh, Straub if only you could talk him into it. I've given up."

"We're very pleased about Christopher's business success out in California." Richard tells them.

"Yes, it's taken a while, but it seems to finally be coming together." Chris loosens up his tie as he listens to his dad speak. "Seems to be."

"Christopher, your tie, please." Francine orders him.

Rory clears her throat. "Straub and Fran...Mr. and Mrs, um...are you enjoying your time here, um, you two?" She asks, awkwardly pointing to the two.

Chris leans back and glares at Lorelai. "That she got from you."

"How old are you, young lady?" Straub asks.

"Sixteen."

A dangerous age for girls." Straub tells them.

"Straub." Francine whispers.

Lorelai glares at the two. She could not believe they were going to bring up the past as soon as they walked into the door. "Rory is a very special child." Emily tells them. "She and her sister are excellent students, very bright."

"You should talk them Straub. They can give you a run for your money." Richard says, proudly.

"Is that so?" Straub asks, as they all turn towards the girls and wait for them to say something. Lauren and Rory exchange awkward looks as Rory tries to figure out something to say. Lauren looks back at Lauren with a scared look on her face.

Lorelai puts her arm protectively around Lauren's waist. "I hate President Bush." She announces randomly.

"What?" Straub asks, astonished.

"Lorelai." Emily says, sternly.

"Oh, boy." Chris says, knowing what was about to happened.

"He's stupid. And his face is too finy for his head. And I just want to toss him out." Lorelai continues.

"This is the leader of our country." Straub reminds her.

"Ignore her." Richard tells him.

"I see your daughter's just as out of control as ever."

Richard looks up at Straub. "Pop, please. Let's try to keep it civil." Chris tells him.

"Tell me, Lorelai, what have you been doing in your life, anyway?" Straub asks. "Besides hating successful businessmen?"

"Why don't we all go to the dining room?" Emily asks them.

"Well, uh, Straub, I run an Inn near Stars Hollow."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Dad, come on." Chris begs for his dad to stop.

"Nice you found your calling."

"Dinner's ready." Emily announces trying to change the subject so a fight doesn't happen.

"And is your life everything you hoped it would be?" Straub asks still on Lorelai.

Lorelai looks over at her daughters then back at Straub. "Yes, it is."

"Because it seems to me you might not want to take quite such a haughty tone when you announce to the world that you work in a hotel."

"Well, there's nothing with where I work."

"Come on, Richard, lead us into the dining room now." Emily begs her husband, but Richard is just sitting, quietly, frowning as he listens to his daughter and Straub.

"If you'd attended university as your parents had planned, and as we had in vain for Christopher, you might have aspired to more than a blue-collar position."

Lorelai shakes her head smiling. "Don't do this." Chris tells him.

"And I wouldn't have gave a damn about you derailing your own life if you hadn't swept my son along with you."

Lorelai looks over at her daughters who are sitting back, looking sadly down at their feet. "Hey, go in the next room." Lorelai tells them. Lauren looks up at Lorelai. She really did want to leave her mom. "Go. Go." She tells them. Rory stands up and grabs her sister's hand and leads her out of the living room.

"I'm going to have to echo Christopher's call for civility here." Richard tells them. "A mutual mistake was made many years ago by these two."

"Twice if I might add." Straub tells him.

Richard ignores him. "But they've come a long way since." He continues.

Lorelai and Chris look at eachother, awkwardly. "A mutual mistake?" Straub asks. "Richard, this whole evening is ridiculous. We're suppose to sit here like one big, happy family and pretend the damages that were done are over? Gone? I don't care about how good of a student you say those girls are."

"Hey!" Lorelai yells, getting really mad about him downgrading her daughters.

"Our son was bound for Princeton. Every Hayden male attended Princeton, including myself. But it all stopped with Christopher. It's a humiliation we've had to live with everyday all because you seduced him into ruining his life. Twice!" Lorelai is sitting there shaking her head. She could not believe Christopher's dad was talking this way and Christopher was letting him. "She had that baby and she ended his future. And years later when she realized he was finally getting somewhere she seduced him again!"

Richard jumps and grabs firmly onto Straub's arm. "I recant that!" He yells, scaring Lorelai.

"You're spilling my drink!" He yells standing up.

"You owe my daughter an apology."

"Apology? That is Rich." Straub says, putting down his drink

"How dare you? How dare you!?" Richard grabs Straub by his suit.

"Richard!" Emily yells. "What are you doing?"

"How dare you come into my house and insult my daughter!" Christopher runs over and tries to pull the two away.

"Let go of me!" Straub yells.

"What is going on here?" Chris asks.

"Shame on you, Straub, for opening all this again."

"Get your purse, Francine."

Straub starts walking away with Richard following close behind. "My daughter's very successful at what she does."

"We're leaving!"

"You're not leaving, I'm kicking you out!" He says, ushering Straub towards the door while Francine and Emily, frantically follow them. Lorelai stands up and goes over to Chris.

"And you bought up Bush because..."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." Lorelai tells him. "Wow."

"Yeah."

"I feel sixteen."

In the kitchen, Emily walks in to find Rory and Lauren sitting at the bar in the kitchen.

"There you two are. I was wondering you both went." Emily says, walking over to them.

"Sorry." Rory says.

"No, it's nothing to be sorry about. Can I get you two something?"

"We're fine." Rory says, as Lauren puts up her soda to show her grandmother.

Emily chuckles. "That's hardly dinner." She opens the refridgerator and starts taking containers out. "Well, that was quite a bit of excitment tonight. Not the good kind." Emily looks up at the girls who were sitting, sadly. "None of this means anything, Rory."

"Oh, I know."

"Straub is actually a good man, very smart. He was one of the top lawyers in his field." Emily tells them as she grabs two plates. "A very arcane aspect of international law. And he's always been so active in his community. His charity work has never diminished over the years." Emily explains. Lauren and Rory just nods their heads. "Oh, let's face it. He's a big ass." Lauren and Rory start laughing. Emily sighs and sits down in front of them. "Girls, I know you heard a lot of talk about various disappointments this evening. And I know you've heard a lot of talk about it in the past, but I wanna make this very clear. Your existences have never ever been, not even for a second, included in that list."

"Really?" Lauren asks.

"Really." Emily says, smiling at her youngest grand-daughter. "Now eat up." She hands them both a plate of food and forks.

In Lorelai's old room, Lorelai is standing out on the ledge when Christopher comes out and stands next to her.

"You look great." He says sarcastically.

Lorelai sniffs. "Yeah, well, I look the way I feel, wise guy."

"That was.." Chris pauses, trying to find the right words. "that was a memorable evening."

"Oh, yes, it was beautiful in there. We should commemorate it with an oil painting or a severed head or something."

"Next time we get this group together, we're gonna have to frisk for weapons."

"Hand out gags."

"Employ six individual cones of silence." Lorelai laughs and wipes the last of her tears. "The old balcony's still the same, isn't it?"

"It all its beautiful away-from-them-ness."

"Perfect hideout, totally private. We spent a lot of time out here." Chris smirks.

"Sneaking Dad's telescope." Lorelai laughs remembering the past. "scanning the skies for alien ships."

"Never found any."

"Huh." Lorelai laughs. "Then when we were older, scanning the neighbors' houses for naked people."

"Found a couple of those." Chris says as he takes out a bottle of alcohol from his jacket. He takes a sip then hands it over to Lorelai. "Take it." Lorelai grabs it and takes a sip of it, herself. "And in an effort to futher chronicle this balcony's history, we are now in the immediate vicinity of the spot upon which was Rory's initial emanation."

Lorelai smiles. "Yes, we are. Here's to Rory." Lorelai says, taking a sip of the alcohol.

"And here's to Lauren. The brightest spots in all the darkness." Lorelai gives the bottle back to Chris. "You know, even if you hadn't gotten pregnant and everything had gone as planned, I still would've never made it through Princeton."

"Oh, I don't believe that."

"Yeah, well, that's why you're you and I'm not."

And hour or so later, Lorelai and Chris are putting their clothes back on, frantically, as they are sitting down on the ground of the balcony.

"Wow. Wow. Wow." Lorelai keeps repeating as she puts her sweater on.

"You wigged?" Chris asks.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a little wigged."

"Why?"

"Why? Are you kidding me? Chris, this is the next-to-last thing I thought would happen tonight. The last thing being a holy Saint guy riding down on a flaming chariot from Heaven to announce Armageddon." She says as they stand up.

"Hartford's the place he chooses to make his announcment? I don't think so."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Christopher."

"Yes, it was unexpected, but it was great."

"And last time it was great we conceived Lauren. Oh, God, I can't believe this."

"Fine. You know what? We should go."

"Yeah, we should go like, thirty minutes ago."

"I'm sorry." Chris sighs.

"Don't apologize. It was both of us." Chris turns around and opens the window, crawling back through it. Lorelai does the same and takes one last look at the balcony. "God, my parents have got to seal these windows up, I swear." She says, before hurring back into the room.

In the car, Rory and Lauren are looking at the two, who are driving in silence and sitting awkwardly.

"So, where were you guys?" Lauren asks them.

Lorelai puts on a fake smile. "Nowhere."

"Where's nowhere?"

"Where we were." Chris answers.

"Aah." Rory says, realizing what her parents were doing while Lauren still sat there looking confused.

At the house, they all walk in.

"Goodnight you two." Chris says, kissing Rory and Lauren on their cheeks.

"Goodnight, Dad." Rory says.

"Goodnight Lor."

"Yeah, you have a really really good night." Lorelai stutters.

Chris sighs and walks into the living room. Rory steps closer to her mom and looks closely at the side of her face. "You have some dirt or some smutz on your..." Rory starts rubbing it off just as Lorelai grabs her daughter's hand and starts rubbing her face. "Where did you..."

"It's been a long night." Lorelai says, quickly. "There's just been a lot of schmutzing going on. Come on, Lauren, you too." She says, pushing her daughters towards Rory's room. "We haven't really had a chance to talk."

"About schumutzing?" Lauren asks, confused.

"No. About all the warm and fuzzy family moments that went on tonight. Are you two okay?" Lorelai asks, as they fall onto Rory's bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rory tells her. "Lauren?"

"Totally fine." Lauren says, agreeing with her sister.

Lorelai sighs and pulls Lauren closer to her as she looks at Rory. "You both know, all those crazy people saying horrible things were directing them at me, not you."

"They were directing them to you because you had me." Rory tells her.

"No, they were directing them at me because I screwed up their big Citizen Kane plans, that's all."

"They don't know even wanna know us, do they?" Lauren asks, sadly.

"That is not true. They are just so full of anger and stupid pride that stands in the way of them realizing how much they wanna know you. Their loss, and it's a pretty big one." Lorelai explains.

Lauren takes a deep breath. "I'm going to bed now." She says, standing up.

"Hey." Lorelai calls out. Lauren turns back around to face her mom and sister. "No regrets from me or your dad."

"Yeah?" Rory asks.

Lorelai turns to her. "Oh! I mean no regrets about you. There's a misspelled tattoo incident that I'm sure he'd like to erase from his bio. But you two that's a no-brainer."

"Where does Dad have a misspelled tattoo?"

"Uh-uh, another story for another time, possibly before your first trip to Mazatlan. Goodnight, babe." Lorelai jokes, kissing her daughter on the cheek before grabbing Lauren's hand.

"Goodnight, Mom. Oh, wait, Mom?" Rory calls just as Lorelai and Lauren were leaving. "I need to talk to you."

Lorelai shakes Lauren's hand. "I'll meet you upstairs." Lauren nods her head and runs out of the room. "What's up?" She asks, sitting back down on the bed in front of Rory.

"Well, something happened the other day at the bookstore when Lauren and I were with Dad."

Lorelai quickly becomes concerned. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure exactly. But before that, while we were watching the game, Dad and I caught Lauren staring at these two boys that were walking by. One looked about her age and the other was a little bit shorter than Dean. The older one was smiling back at her, and when we asked if she knew them she told us no."

"What does that have to do with the bookstore?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"Well, Dad told us to pick out anything we wanted, so while he stayed with me, Lauren went in the back and a few minutes later we heard her book fall and her yell. We went back there and we caught the guy holding on to Lauren's arm." Lorelai looks at her daughter with a scared nervous face as she continued to explain. "Dad pushed him away and he claimed he was just helping Lauren with her book. I haven't asked her anything about it because, well, tonight happened, but I thought I should tell you." Rory explains.

Lorelai takes a deep breath. "No, okay, thanks for telling me." Lorelai stands back and walks out.

It was morning, and Lorelai woke up to Lauren sleeping next to her. She wanted to talk to her daughter last night about what Rory had told her, but by the time she got upstairs, Lauren was already passed out. Lorelai brushed her fingers through her daughter's hair, smiling sadly. Lorelai wasn't sure what was going on with her youngest, but while she looked at her, all she could see was herself. Lauren was growing up to be like her every single day and it was scaring her. But she couldn't let it go as far as her own parents let it. And this thing with Chris had to stop.

Downstairs, Chris is fixing himself some cofffee when Lorelai walks in.

"You want some coffee?" He asks her.

"No." Lorelai says, staring down at the pot.

Chris looks up quickly. Never had Lorelai ever said no to coffee. "What?"

"What?"

Lorelai walks around the kitchen, rubbing her face with her hands. She was so frustrated with everything that was happening right now, she, herself, couldn't believe she just said no to coffee. "I know you well enough to know that when you say no to coffee, all is not right in Whoville."

"Very astute." Lorelai chuckles.

"So, last night..."

"Ah! Last night was chernobyl and the Hindenburg combined."

"Right. Just checking." Chris smiles.

"My father almost hit someone. My father has probably only hit someone in college wearing boxing gloves and one of those Fred Mertz, Golden Gloves pullover sweaters."

"Fred Mertz?" Chris asks, confused.

Lorelai points to her pajamas. "I Love Lucy, Fred Mertz.

"I know it's just a weird reference."

"Hello, pajamas."

"Right, continue."

"My father had a meltdown. First with your father."

"He was asking for it."

"And then with me. And then you and me. Oh, boy!" Lorelai laughs.

"Don't say it like that."

"Stupid. Dumb."

"Much better."

"And in this parade of stupid and dumb I am the one twirling the flaming baton."

"Lor?"

"What?"

"I wanna marry you." Chris says, staring into Lorelai's eyes.

Lorelai stares back before turning away and looking much angier than she already was. "And the hits just keep on coming!"

"Just think about it. Think about it before you make a rash..."

"You are out of your mind! You are completely insane. You have flipped your lid! Charlie Manson is freaked out by you right now!"

"Come on, we're already a family."

"Who? Who's a family?" Lorelai asks him.

"Us! You, me, Rory, and Lauren." Chris tells her.

"You don't even know what a family is."

"It's people living together."

"No, it's a big commitment. It's responsibility, it's hard work. It's coming home at the same time to the same place every day." Lorelai explains to him.

"Okay, so what do you want, financial statements? I can be a family man. I'm responsible now."

"Honey, you can't even buy a book without having your credit card declined."

"Man, I told Rory and Lauren not to rat me out." Chris says, not believing his daughters went behind his back. "I can't believe they did that."

"They didn't." Lorelai tells him. "Andrew from the bookstore called, and Jackson, and the U.P.S. guy. Oh, it was the lead story on the Stars Hollow web page. And then I asked Rory, and she very reluctantly confirmed it. And she also told me about the incident with Lauren at the bookstore. Something her father should have told me. 'Rat me out.' What are you, sixteen?" Lorelai asks in disgust.

"I'm sorry."

"And what are you doing telling my daughters to lie to me, anyway?"

"They are my daughters, too."

"More like your playmates. When something happens that involves my kids, especially my eleven-year-old daughter, who can't quite take care of herself like my sixteen-year-old, I would expect her father to step in and also tell me so we can fix this together!"

"I don't deserve that. I'm just as mature as you."

"What? The Offspring is your favorite band!"

Chris laughs. "So? You're into Metallica."

"Well, Metallica is way more substantial than The Offspring."

"It's the same black sabbath riff all over again."

Lorelai groans in frustration. "The Offspring have one chord progression. They use it over and over. They just pop on new words and call it a single. And I don't wanna talk about this anymore!"

"I'm the immature one. And irresponsible one. I was willing to get married when you got pregnant with Rory."

"We were too young and wouldn't have made it. You know that."

"Well, we're not too young now."

"Okay, now I need some coffee." Lorelai walks away and pours herself some coffee.

Chris sighs and walks over to her. "What about last night? What did our having sex meant to you?"

"It meant that Jose Cuervo still has amazing magical powers."

"You're funny."

Lorelai sighs and turns to Chris, smiling. "We can't get married, Christopher. We don't even know eachother as adults."

"Well, let's get married and get to know eachother as adults."

"Well, that's very Fiddler on the Roof of you."

"Okay, fine. Let's get to know eachother right now. What do you wanna know?"

"How's your business really doing?"

Chris stares blankly at Lorelai before laughing. Lorelai catches on and realizes it was just all lies once again. "Lorelai."

"I knew it."

"Look, I was gonna tell you if it didn't pick up soon. I swear."

"You just sat there at the table last night, just smiling and nodding while my dad and your dad went on and on about Christopher and his great big business success in California."

"I didn't want to upset anybody. I wanted last night to be nice."

"Oh, well, it was."

"Oh, it would've been much better if I would've announced at the table: 'Hey, on top of everything you're upset about, I wanna add that I'm the world's biggest loser.' Would that be festive?"

"You're not a loser."

"Please."

"You're a liar, but you're not a loser."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Come on, we're arguing like an old married couple. Doesn't that show potential?" Chris jokes.

"Oh, Christopher, I swear to God.."

"I've been looking for the one, Lor. That elusive soulmate. I really have. I just believe it's your. It's always been you."

"Chris, come on."

"I don't know how much I miss Rory and Lauren until I see them like this. It's easier staying away."

"No, don't stay away." Lorelai tells him as she grabs his hand. "Don't. Those girls need their dad."

"Or their pal, right?"

"I think they'd take a combo. They are very easy to please."

"I'm sorry about Lauren."

"It's okay. I'll fix it. Just come around more because she doesn't know you like me and Rory know you and she should."

Chris just nods his head as he stares at his childhood friend and the mother of his kids. This was all hard for him, but he had to do what he does best and that is turn away and try to find a life. Not just for him though.

Outside, Chris is packing up his bike while Rory, Lorelai, and Lauren are standing in the back watching.

"So, call us when you get home." Rory tells him.

"I will."

"And call more."

Chris laughs. "I will." He says, walking over to his eldest daughter and hugging her. Then he walks over to Lauren. "I'm gonna miss you, kid."

"It's been real." Lauren jokes.

Chris just laugh and kisses her gently on her head before whispering something in her ear. When Chris pulls away, Lauren looks up at her mom. "Dad wants to know if you'll reconsider." Lorelai pulls Lauren closer to her and bends down to whisper something in her other ear. When she pulls away Lauren looks at her dad. "She says, "nope, Offspring sucks and Metallica rules."

Lorelai and Chris look at eachother, smiling. "Fair enough."

Chris walks over and kisses Lorelai on her lips before hugging her. "Drive safe." Lorelai tells him.

Chris just turns away and hops on his bike, giving his girls one last look before driving off. "He wanted you to marry him, didn't he?" Rory asks.

"Spy."

"You know, crazier things have happened."

"Crazier than having your mom and dad married?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"I don't think they have."

"Why is that so crazy?"

"Because it is. Because he wants things he is not ready for."

"How do you know?"

"I know." Lorelai assures her. "I know him so well, you have no idea."

"Maybe he can change. Maybe it's different."

"Rory."

"He did come here this time. He's never done that before."

"Hey, stop."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you getting worked up over this."

"He loves you."

"He does love me."

"Do you love him?"

"Honey, come on."

"Answer me." Lorelai sighs and looks down at Lauren who is waiting for the answer, too.

Lorelai wraps her arms around Lauren. "Honestly?"

"Yes." They both say.

"I will probably always love him."

"Okay, so?"

"But that doesn't change the fact that he still has a long way to go before he is ready to take us on full time. I mean, you two are a handful." She jokes. "And while I'm pure joy and sunshine every waking hour, I still have my own set of needs that must be met. I just wasn't right, babe. You have to trust me on that." Rory just stares at her mom before she, her mom, and her sister turn around to walk back to the house, but Lorelai is still looking at Rory, trying to figure out what is going through her mind. "Talk, please."

"I still think there was a little something different."

"Maybe you're right." Lorelai says, giving up.

"Really?"

"It would be nice."

"Yeah, it would."

"I'll tell you what, uh, let's not put all the blankets away just yet."

"Really?"

Lorelai shrugs. "You never know."

So, what's for lunch?" Lauren asks, changing the subject and actually lightening up the mood making Lorelai and Rory laugh.

"Oh, to be young and innocent with no care in the world." Lorelai jokes as she brings her daughters into the house.


	16. Founder's Day Frenzy

The Founder's Firelight Festival was coming up and the whole town, including the Gilmore Girls, were getting everything ready for the big night. The Founder's Firelight Festival is a time when the town all comes together to celebrate how Stars Hollow was found. Lauren was really putting all her time into helping out since it was steering her clear of her house. Since her dad left, Lorelai had for some reason focused a lot of her time on her daughter. She mentioned to Lauren about what happened at the bookstore, and Lauren just told her it was misunderstanding. Since then Lorelai and Rory have been trying to keep a close eye on Lauren, even pulling Dean into doing some Lauren watch, too. So, if Lauren was putting her time into something else, she didn't have time to see, or worry, about who was keeping close tabs on her. She just focused on other people and getting the town as neat and perfect for the festival.

At the bus stop, Dean is sitting on his usual bench as the bus pulls up. Rory walks out, smiling, noticing the book in Dean's hand.

"So?" She asks, as soon as she steps out.

"It's depressing." He tells her.

"It's beautiful." Rory says, taking off her booksack and sitting down next to her boyfriend.

"She throws herself under a train."

"But I bet she looked great doing it."

"I don't know, I think maybe Tolstoy's a little over my head."

"No, that's not true." Rory says, disagreeing with him. "Tolstoy wrote for the masses, the common man. It's completely untrue that you have to be a genius to read his stuff."

"Yeah, but.."

"Now, I know it's big."

"Very big."

"And long."

"Very, very long."

"And many Russian names tend to be spelled very similarly, making it confusing."

"Every single person's name ends with sky." Dean tells her. "How is that possible?"

"But it's one of my favorite books. And I know that if you just give it a try..."

"Alright. I'll try again."

Rory smiles, happily at her boyfriend. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"You won't be sorry."

"Coffee?"

"Please." They stand up, putting their bookbags back around their shoulders and begin to walk towards Luke's. "So, did anything interesting happen at school?"

Dean thinks for a moment. "Well, actually, I seen that guy you described from the bookstore."

"Really?" Rory asks in surprise.

"Yeah. His name is Jake Michaelson. His a real jerk."

"I was afraid of that." Rory says, disappointed. "He must rub off on his brother."

"I don't know what he would possibly have to mess with Lauren about, but I'm just going to keep a close on him, too." Dean tells Rory. Rory stares up at Dean, smiling, cheekly. "What?" He laughs.

"Have I told you how great you are to me? And my family?"

Dean puts his arm around Rory. "It's not a problem." He says, as he starts looking around. "Man. I thought Christmas was a big deal around here."

"Well, this is a town that likes the celebrating. Last year, we had a month-long carnival when we finally got off the septic tank system."

"A month long?" You're kidding."

"No." Rory says, very seriously. "There were rides, and a petting zoo, and balloon animals, and a freak show."

"Uh-huh." Dean says, rolling his eyes and laughing. "You almost had me going there for a second."

"Well, we did have a ribbon-cutting ceremony."

"So, what are you doing Friday night?"

"Well, I've got the usual Friday night Grandparents' dinner. But I thought maybe if we get back early enough, you and I should go watch some of the bonfire together. I mean, it's kinda of corny, but it's really pretty. And they sell star-shaped hotdogs." She says, nudging Dean in the arm.

"How about if you get out of dinner at your Grandparents' this week?"

"I don't think so."

"What if it's for a really special occasion?" Dean asks.

"Well, that special occasion better include my being relocated to a plastic bubble if my grandmother's gonna let me out of dinner." Rory explains.

"There must be some other excuse that you could use."

"Like what?"

"Like it's your three month anniversary with your boyfriend."

Rory stops walking and looks at Dean with wide eyes. "It is?" She asks.

Dean turns around. "Yeah. Three months from your birthday. I mean, that's when I gave you the bracelet, and that's when I figure this whole thing started." Dean explains.

"Wow! Three months."

"Actually, your birthday was on a Saturday, so, really, it should be Saturday, but I work Saturday and I planned this whole big thing. So, I thought maybe we could do it Friday."

"What whole big thing?"

"Just this once, miss dinner, please." Dean begs. "Don't make throw myself under a train."

"I'll see what I can do." Rory laughs.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She says, as they start walking again. "It's our three month anniversary." Rory repeats.

"Yeah, it is."

"I feel kinda stupid that I didn't know about this."

"That's quite alright."

"I mean, I feel really bad that I missed our two month anniversary. How was it?"

"Pretty good."

"I'm glad."

At the gazebo, Lauren is busy putting up lights around the railing just when Alex runs up to her.

"Lauren!" He yells, making Lauren jump up. Alex starts laughing. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Lauren mutters as she continues to set up.

"I haven't seen you at lunch lately." Alex tells her. "Or around Elizabeth."

"I've been busy."

They stand there in awkward silence for awhile. "Hey, my brother told me what happened." Lauren quickly looks over at Alex. "I'm sorry. Sometimes he doesn't know when to stop." Lauren decides to just ignore. "Lauren, I want you to come over again."

"No." Lauren tells him, quickly.

"Please. I really like you, Lauren. I promise my brother won't be there. He has a date or something, and my parents are out of town. We could just hang out and watch some movies. Please."

Lauren sighs and throws down the lights. "No, Alex. I never want to talk to you, or see you ever again."

"Lauren!" Alex begs, grabbing Lauren's hand.

Lauren jerks Alex away. "Stop! Leave me alone." Lauren walks away and Alex stands there glaring at her.

In the kitchen, Lauren is sitting at the table doing her homework, while Lorelai sits next to her with a box of hamburger helper in her hands. Rory walks out of her room and goes over to the table.

"No. Put that away." She orders her mom.

"I want to cook." Lorelai tells her.

"You can make soup."

"No, I want to really cook like on the food channel. I want to saute things, and chop things, and do the 'bam!' and I want to arrange things on a plate." Lorelai explains. "I want to wear a pretty little hat. I want to be the iron chef."

"Fine." Rory says, giving in.

"Really?" Lauren questions.

"Yeah, we'll help." Rory says, gesturing to her sister.

Lorelai turns the back around and starts reading the directions. "Okay, I need a pan."

"And a fire extinguisher." Lauren mutters, turning back to her homework.

"Funny, funny girl." Rory walks to the oven and opens it to find a pan. "Now, if I'd only bought some hamburger."

"You didn't buy hamburger?" Rory asks, confused.

"Yes, I bought hamburger. I just like saying things like that so you look at me like I'm crazy." Lorelai tells her, getting up and going to the refridgerater.

"So tell me, why the sudden need to be domestic?" Rory asks.

"Uh, I don't know." Lorelai says, looking in the fridge. "I'm in, like, a funky mood."

Rory goes to the counter and opens the cabinet. "Why?"

"Too many stars, too much love. It makes me cranky."

"I take it you haven't heard from Mr. Medina."

"No, I haven't." Lorelai says, sitting back down.

"Maybe that's why you're cranky."

Lorelai shows a fake smile. "Okay, new subject please."

"You know, you have a phone also." Lauren tells her.

"How's that homework coming?"

"Okay, fine. New topic." Rory says, walking over to them.

"Thank you."

"I have this huge favor to ask you."

"Oh, something I can hold over your head." Lorelai says, smiling widely. "Let's hear it."

"Friday night is Dean's and my three month anniversary."

"Three months? Wow."

"And Dean apparently has some big, fancy evening planned for us."

"Very classy of him."

"Yes, it is. But for me to actually partake of the aforesaid fancy evening, I have to get out of Friday night dinner."

"Ah! Yeah. Good luck with that."

"Mom."

"Do you know how much Emily Gilmore will not care about your three month anniversary?" Lorelai asks.

"I was thinking you could talk to her."

"If there was a runoff between what Emily Gilmore would care about less: a two for one toilet paper sale or your three month anniversary, your anniversary would win. Hands down."

"So you're not even gonna try to help me?" Rory asks, sadly.

"No, I'm gonna try to help you because I care. Emily Gilmore, however..." Lorelai shakes her head.

"Phone, please."

"Hey, hold on. Mom, I told you how important Friday was for me, and you're going to let Rory go out on a date, but you won't let me go to the festival?" Lauren asks, annoyed.

Rory glares at her sister. "Lauren, it's a festival. You're eleven. Do you know how many festivals you have left?"

"That doesn't matter. I actually helped put this together. That's not fair! I should be there when it starts."

"Okay, okay, okay." Lorelai says, dividing the two girls. "I will try to get you both out."

"Really?" Lauren asks, surprised.

"Yes. If it means that much to you to go to this festival, then I will explain that to my mother, but no promises."

"Okay!"

Lorelai walks over to the phone and starts dialing her mother's number. "Hello?" Emily says from the other end.

"Uh, Mom?" Lorelai asks.

"Lorelai?"

"Uh, yes. Hi."

"Hello."

"How are you doing?" Lorelai asks, as she walks into the living room.

"I'm doing fine."

"Oh, that's good." Rory and Lauren follow Lorelai. "How's dad?"

"What do you want, Lorelai?"

"Um, oh, I was just calling to say hello."

"And now you have."

"Okay, good."

"Was there anything else that you wanted to add to that hello?" Emily asks.

"Well, as a matter of face, there is."

"Aha!"

"Um, uh, you know Rory?"

"Yes, I believe I do."

"She wanted to say hello, too."

"Lorelai, I'm late for a meeting. I'd love to know why."

Lorelai turns back and sees her girls staring desperately at her. "Uh, Mom, just hear me out, okay? And don't say anything. Um, see, Friday night is Rory and Dean's three month anniversary. While that might not seem like a very big deal to you, it is to them. And I am going to ask you to do something you are so not gonna wanna do. But I'm begging you to look at it from her point of view and maybe, just maybe, let her, just this once, not come to dinner on Friday."

"Alright."

"What?" Lorelai asks, plopping down on the couch.

"Since this is a special occasion, I suppose it would be find it Rory missed dinner on Friday."

"It would?"

"Yes."

"Mom?" Rory says.

"Are you sure?"

"I believe I am." Emily laughs.

"No arguments?"

"No."

"Well, she won't be there." Lorelai reminds her.

"I understand."

"At all."

"I heard."

"All night long."

"I assumed as much."

"Okay, well, Lauren has this festival in town that she has been helping to set up and she is really looking forward to it and would like to be there when they first open to make sure everything is good. She's been looking forward to this day since they pulled her name to set up lights."

"Well, every little girl should be able to witness what they've created." Emily tells her.

Lorelai looks up quickly, in shock, at her girls. She could not believe her mother right now. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

"Anything else?"

"Uh, you know, Rory's gonna need some help getting ready for the big night, Mom, and Lauren will need a ride to the festival. So I shoud..."

"We'll see you at seven." Emily interrupts.

"Okay, right. Bye." Lorelai hangs up.

"So?" Rory asks.

"The world is officially coming to an end." Lorelai tells them.

In town, Lorelai is walking through the madness. She had just left her Inn where everywhere she looked were couples, making out, or feeling all over eachother. It was becoming quite annoying so she had to leave. Just as she reaches the road from the middle of the square, the very sparkly, glittery, huge star falls from the rope it is hanging on and just misses Lorelai's head.

"Ah!" She yells, jumping back.

"Hey, are you kay?" A guy asks as he runs over to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Man, that has never happened before."

"Really? How about that." Lorelai sighs and walks away to Luke's diner. She walks through, closing the door behind her. "I was almost crushed by a papier-mache star." Lorelai says, glaring towards Luke. She falls into the sit at the counter. "How's your day?"

"Well, it's looking pretty good now." Luke jokes.

"Coffee, please, and a shot of cynicism."

"So, why so cheery?" Luke asks, bringing a mug and the coffee pot over to her.

"I don't know. I'm just in a mood. I don't know why."

"But there's no particular reason for this mood?" Luke asks.

"No. You don't believe me?"

"Oh, I believe you. You say there's no reason for the mood, then there's no reason for the mood. Simply nuts."

"Or bipolar. That's very big nowadays."

"No, no, Patty, you're wrong." Taylor argues from the back table. "They built the fire to throw themselves on it when their families found them." Lorelai turns around and shakes her head and rolls her eyes. She about had enough with this festival.

"Taylor, you're crazy. They built the fire so they could stay warm their first night here." Patty tells him.

"Patty, I am the recording secretary for this Stars Hollow City Council I think I know how my town was founded."

Lorelai groans, loudly. "Can nobody talk about anything else but this stupid festival?" She yells. Everyone in the diner looks at her. "That came out a lot louder than it was supposed to, didn't it?"

"Yup." Luke agrees.

"This festival is commemorating the founding of our town, young lady." Taylor scorns.

"I know, Taylor. I'm sorry."

"She's bipolar." Luke tells them.

"Really?" Patty asks. "But you're so young."

"Uh, can I get you two anything else?"

"Oh, no, thank you, sweetheart."

Luke walks back behind the counter. "I don't what is wrong with me." Lorelai tells him. "This is a beautiful festival. People should be enjoying it. Hell, my eleven year old is enjoying it."

"It's a crazy festival based on a nutty myth about two lunatics who in all probability did not even exist. And even if they did, they probably dropped dead of diphtheria before age twenty-four." Lorelai starts laughing. "The town of Stars Hollow probably got its name from the local dance hall prostitute. Two rich drunk guys who made up the story to make it look good on a poster."

"You're full of hate and loathing, and I got to tell you I love it."

"Oh, it's so good to have someone to share this hate with."

"My pleasure. Hey, tomorrow, if you have time, I'm planning on despising everyone who says, 'hey, how's it going?'"

"You're on."

A woman walks in with bags and looks over at Luke. "Hey, how's it going?"

"Oh, no, that's just too easy." Lorelai says, before turning around.

Luke stares at the woman. "Rachel." He says, surprised.

"Rachel? Your Rachel?" Lorelai asks.

"Yup. I'm Rachel."

"What are you...I mean, I thought you were in the congo or Philadelphia or something." Luke asks.

"Actually, though very similar to both the congo and Philadelphia, I, uh, I was in the mideast." Rachel tells him as she walks over to the counter and puts her stuff down before sitting next to Lorelai.

"Oh, guess that postcard must have gotten lost."

"Yeah, well, things are pretty crazy over there." Rachel tells him. "Not a lot of writing time. But I finished my assignment, and I flew back to Chicago and I was walking through O'Hare, and I look up and there's a plane leaving for Hartford in, like, twenty minutes. And all of a sudden I'm on it."

"Nice story." Luke says, sarcastically.

"I should have called."

"No, you...it's fine." Luke tells her quickly.

"You look good."

"Thanks. You, um, you look...you..uh..look..." He stutters.

Lorelai watches before stepping in. "He thinks you look good, too." Lorelai tells her. "Right?"

"Right."

"And you do."

"Thank you." Rachel laughs.

"I'm Lorelai."

"Oh, yeah, she's Lorelai." Luke says, pointing to her.

"I'm Luke's friend."

"Yeah, she, uh, works at the Independence Inn."

"I run it, actually." Lorelai says.

"Sorry, she..." Luke starts laughing nervously. "runs it."

"Wow, I love that place." Rachel tells her. "That must be a pretty big job."

"It is. It's crazy. There's always something happening. Why were you in the Mideast?"

"I was doing a photo story on how Palestinian and Israeli families have been affected by the violence."

"Ah, well, so you understand about the job pressure. Wow, my daughter, Lauren, would love to pick your brain."

"Oh, yeah?" Rachel asks.

"She's big into history, geography. She loves to read about different places."

"Smart kid."

"Yeah. I have two actually. Kids. Girls." Lorelai tells her. Things were becoming very awkward as Lorelai was sitting there dicussing her life with this woman she just met. "I'm gonna go."

"Please don't let me drive you away."

"That's okay. You're not. I have to go sit in a closet or something." Lorelai says, standing up. "It was really nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you, too."

"Okay, bye." Lorelai laughs before walking out of the diner.

In Rory's room, Lorelai is brushing Rory's hair while she tells her what happened at the diner.

"I have another daughter. Two. Girls. I run the Independence Inn. I was giving this woman my whole life story. What was I think?" She asks, as she roughly brushes the brush through Rory's hair.

"Well, you spend a lot of time with us and the Inn." Rory tells her. "Ow! Okay, I'm still attached to the head."

"Okay, sorry, I'm a little worked up." Lorelai tells her.

"Mom, it's just Luke's ex-girlfriend."

"I know. I just hate that I made myself look so stupid in front of.." Lorelai clips the barette in Rory's hair.

"Luke?"

"Rachel." Lorelai says, glaring at her daughter through the mirror. "She was standing there fresh off a place. She had no plane hair at all, might I add."

"And what exactly is plane hair?"

"You know. It's all big and all baah!"

"Got it."

"And he's looking at her like she's Miss. September, and she's looking at him like's Johnny Depp." Lorelai says, as she starts brushing Rory's hair again. "And I was just babbling like a moron." She says, yanking Rory's hair. "What is wrong with me?"

"Ow! Ow!" Rory stands up. "You are now officially off hair duty."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just..."

"No, it's okay. I just think it's a little early for Dean to see me completely bald."

"Right. That's more a six month thing." Lorelai jokes.

"So, what's going on with you?"

"I don't know. It's just all this love in the air, you know? I miss Max." Lorelai sits down on Rory's bed. "There's been so much going on with your dad coming home, and family stuff, and you and sister's constant existences."

"Thanks for the love."

"Any time. So, I haven't had a lot of time to focus on it, and I miss Max."

"I know." Rory says, sadly.

"I had a dream about him the other night."

"Really? Dirty?"

"No. Absolutely not." Lorelai shakes her head. "And when you're twenty-one I'll tell you the real answer. Anyway, it's put me in a funk since then."

"Sorry."

"Me, too. We could talk about me for years, and believe me, we will. But let's focus on the lady of the evening. No hooker reference intended."

"Glad to hear it."

"Now, what are you gonna wear with that?"

"You tell me." Rory says, grabbing two sweaters to show her mom.

"Where is he taking you?" Lorelai asks.

"Why?"

"Well, you don't want to clash with the decor. A lady plans ahead."

"Well, if you must know, he's taking me Andeloro's." Rory says, smiling widely.

Lorelai gleams with excitment for her daughter. "Oh, isn't that romantic."

"I know." Rory giggles.

"Wow, it's gonna be just like Lady and the Tramp. You'll share a plate of spaghetti but it'll just be one long strand. You won't realize it until you accidentally meet in the middle. And then, he'll push a meatball towards you with his nose and you'll push it back with your nose. And then, you'll bring the meatball home and save it in the refrigerator for years..."

"Mom." Rory says, interrupting her mom before she went even further.

"Neither. Just wear your coat. But your flower's just a little smushed." Lorelai says, standing up and walking over to Rory.

"I'm leaving!" Lauren yells from the stairs. Lorelai and Rory walk out of the room. "You look so pretty, Rory."

"Thanks, sis." Rory says, spinning around.

"Okay. After the grandparents' I will meet you at the festival." Lorelai tells her youngest.

"Okay. I'll be there. Thanks again, Mom."

"Yeah, yeah. Go be a kid." Lorelai says, ushering Lauren out the door.

A car honks from outside. "That's Dean." Rory tells Lorelai. "Bye, Mom."

Lorelai hugs Rory. "Bye, honey. Have fun. Don't forget the meatball."

Rory waves goodbye and walks out leaving Lorelai there watching her.

In Hartford, Lorelai walks to the door, coffee in hand. She chugs it as she reaches the door and starts looking for a place she could throw it away so her mother doesn't see it. She hurries and sticks it in her purse, before reaching for the doorbell, but Emily opens the door before she can do it.

"You're late."

Lorelai glares at her mom. "How did you do that?" She asks.

"What?"

"Answer the door before I even rang the bell?"

"I thought I heard something, and so I came to the door. You were there. Come in, please."

Lorelai walks in, still looking at her mother. "You thought you heard something?"

"Yes." Emily tells her.

"Mom, that door is, like, teen feet thick."

"So?"

"So, it wasn't like I was standing out there with a band of jackals." She says, handing her mom her purse and coat. "I was just drinking coffee."

"Lorelai, what is it that you want to hear?" Emily asks. "That I was standing by the window, staring out at the driveway, waiting to pounce the moment you arrived?"

"Yes, because believe it or not that would be less creepy."

Emily looks down and sees the cup of coffee in Lorelai's purse. "Get yourself a drink, please."

Lorelai sighs and walks into the living room where Richard is sitting, reading the paper. "Hey, Dad."

"Lorelai."

"Sorry, I'm late. I was helping Rory get ready for her big date and, well, you know girls." Lorelai explains.

"Mm-hmm."

"So, how's work?" Lorelai asks, walking around.

"Oh, work is fine."

"Yeah? Good. Good. My work's fine, too."

"Mmm-hmm?" Lorelai starts messing with figurines on the stand next to the couch. Richard looks up when he hears something break. "Lorelai, sit down."

"Sorry." Lorelai laughs, awkwardly before sitting down like she was told.

"I am trying to read. To please, just be quiet, and try not to break anything else."

Emily walks into the room. "So, we having a nice chat?" She asks.

"Yeah, we're having a great conversation, me and Morrie."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing. Thanks, Mom, for letting Rory and Lauren out of dinner. They really appreciated it. Lauren was so excited to be there for the first day of the festival."

"Well, they both deserve to celebate." Emily says as she sits down next to Richard. "A three month anniversary is a landmark feat at her age, or at any age, for some people."

Lorelai stops smiling, knowing that comment was made for her. "I was gonna get a drink. I'm gonna get right on that." Lorelai says, walking over to the drink bar.

The doorbell rings and Emily quickly gets up. "I'll get that."

"Can I freshen up your drink, Dad?" Lorelai asks Richard.

"No, thank you. One drink before dinner is quite enough."

"Right. Sorry."

Emily walks in with a guy at her side. Richard and Lorelai both look at them, confused about why there was a guy there. "Lorelai, I'd like you to meet Chase Bradford."

"Hey." Lorelai says, walking up to them and shaking his hand.

"Hey."

"He was just telling me that he grew up right around the corner from here."

"Oh, really?"

"Stone house on the corner." Chase tells her.

"Oh, the one with dobermans."

"That's right. Leopold and Loeb. I'm afraid they passed on quite a few years ago."

"Postmen finally got organized, huh?" Lorelai jokes.

"Uh, Chase, this is my husband, Richard."

Richard stands up and shakes Chase's hand. "How you do?"

"Fine, Richard. Just fine."

"Uh, please, sit down." Emily chestures towards the couch Lorelai is sitting on.

"Emily, I didn't know we were having company for dinner."

"Oh, well, it was just sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing." Emily tells him as they all sit down. "Chase's mother and I are in the D.A.R. together, and he's just moved back to Hartford and it seemed like a nice idea.

"Yes, very nice." Lorelai says, smiling awkwardly.

"Chase, can I get you a drink?" Richard asks.

"A scotch, neat."

"Uh, Glenfiddich?"

"Fine." Richard nods and walks towards the drink bar. "So, Lorelai, your mother's told me all about you."

Lorelai starts smiling and looking over at Emily. "Really?"

"Oh, yes. I'm just sorry your daughters couldn't join us for dinner. I adore children."

"Mom, could I talk to you for a minute?" Lorelai asks Emily.

"Lorelai, we have company."

"It'll just take a second, really."

"But..."

"Come on, it'll be fun! Excuse us. We're gonna have a spur-of-the-moment conversation." Lorelai tells him as she stands up and walks out with Emily following behind. "Is this a setup?" Lorelai asks as soon as they reach the foyer.

"What?"

"Uh, Connecticut ken in there. Is he my invited escort for the evening?"

"Lorelai, his mother is a friend of mine."

"And?"

"He just moved back here. He doesn't know anyone."

"And?"

"And I thought he would enjoy meeting you."

"AHA!" Lorelai says pointing at Emily.

"Put that finger down."

"Ah, this is why the Miss. Congeniality act when Rory and Lauren wanted to beg out of dinner."

"It just seemed like a good opportunity."

"Mom, thank you for the thought, but I can get my own men."

Emily starts laughing. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Lorelai says, finding it hurtful that her mother didn't think she could do it on her own.

"I must disagree."

"You must?"

"Chase is a quality man. He has good breeding. He comes from a nice family. He makes a nice living. He's attractive."

"Mom. Mmm-mmm, no."

"Is it gonna kill you to simply keep an open mind about him?"

"Mom, he is not my type."

"Why not? Because I like him?" Emily asks.

"You know, I swear, I don't know which one, but there is a game show out there with you name on it."

"Well, that must be it. You've hardly said two words to the man. You couldn't possibly hate him already."

"Oh, no, it's that arcade game where the mole keeps sticking his head out. You have to pound him as many times as you can with the mallet. You would be a master at that."

"Lorelai, I realize that Chase may not be as controversial as your usual brand of men."

"They'd erect your stature of you next to it with perfect hair, pearls, and a bronze mallet."

"But I want you to think about something. Tonight, your daughter is celebrating her three month anniversary. What was the last relationship you had that lasted that long?" Lorelai freezes and looks at her mom, blankly. "I thought so."

At the festival, Lauren is laughing with a group of people as she watches them look at the gazebo when they turn the lights on. It was beautiful and Lauren was very proud of herself. It had been awhile since she had done something that really pleased, not just herself, but everyone around her. She was also so happy that she skipped family dinner for this. Sure, she had never really been into the events of the town before. They would just go and do their thing, but this time she actually put effort and a lot of her creativeness into doing something special for everyone. Lauren excused herself from the group, and started to walk around to check out everything else that was happening. When she turned her back from the town, for a split second, she was hit, suddenly, with a hand covering her mouth and dragging her away.

At the restaurant, Dean and Rory are just finishing up their dinner.

"That was really good." Rory tells him.

"It was?"

"Yes, it was."

"How was the salad?"

"Great."

"What about that cheese bread thing? Too heavy?" Dean asks.

"Just heavy enough." Rory assures him.

"Really?"

"Everything was perfect." Rory tells him as she smiles lovingly at her boyfriend. "Even the soda was good. I don't know how they do it, but the coke here is definitely superior to the coke anywhere else."

"Okay. At what point during that did you start making fun of me?"

"I would never make fun of you. Especially not after you ordered three kinds of pasta because I couldn't decide."

"Well, you shouldn't have to decide. Tonight you should have everything you want." Dean tells her.

"I just have to say that I am now a very big fan of the three month anniversary."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Definitely. I think they should have t-shirts and newsletters."

"Well, I'm glad." Dean laughs.

"You did all this for me."

"It's not over yet."

"Wow! This just like that Christmas that I got a full set of illustrated encyclopedias." Dean just looks at her. "I wanted them." She tells him.

"Oh, uh, good." He says, just as the waiter brings over dessert and a brown bag.

"One Tiramisu, two forks, and uh, one meatball to go." The waiter says, handing the bag to Rory.

"Thank you."

"You want to explain the meatball?" Dean asks her.

"It's a mother-daughter thing."

"Okay, well, uh, ladie's first." Dean says, looking at the dessert.

"Thank you." Rory grabs her fork and digs into the dessert. "Okay. Have I mentioned how much I'm loving the three month anniversary thing?"

"Yeah, you did."

"Because this tiramisu is so good that if the anniversary were completely sucking right now, this would save it." Rory says, taking another bite. "What?" She asks noticing Dean sitting back in his chair.

"Nothing."

"Stop it."

Dean starts laughing. "No, you look cute."

"I'm eating."

"Well, you eat cute."

"I do not eat cute. No one eats cute. Bambi, maybe, but he's a cartoon."

"So, uh, after we finish here, we move on to phase 2 of the anniversary evening." Dean tells her.

"Phase 2. Sounds very official. Are there spacesuits involved?"

"With matching helmets."

"Impressive."

Dean chuckles before grabbing his own fork and digging into the delicious dessert.

At Alex's, Lauren is sitting in living room. She could not believe Alex really did this to her. Kidnappying is illegal, especially in Stars Hollow. They'd run you out of town. Lauren sat there quietly, searching for a phone that she could call her mom on, but before she could get up, Alex walks back into the room.

"I'm really sorry for doing that." Alex tells her.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "That is not how you approach someone. If you wanted to talk to me, just talk to me."

"Are you serious? Lauren, you wouldn't even give me full sentences. I had to do something for you to listen to me."

"Okay, but this isn't how you do it. A lot of people will be looking for me out there when they notice that I'm gone. So tell me what you want to tell me so that I can leave." Lauren orders him.

Alex sighs. "Sorry. I can't let you leave."

Lauren quickly looks at Alex with an angry look. "What are you talking about, Alex!? I can't stay here!"

"Just for tonight. I really want to hang out with you."

"Are you high or something? I am eleven. Do you not think that my mom or my sister will not notice that I'm not sleeping in my bed tonight? Plus, my mom is meeting me at the festival. So, please explain how this is going to work!"

"Look, my brother will be home later tonight. I just want to hang out with you until he gets home. Is that okay?"

"You can't force me to stay here, Alex."

"Yes, I can."

"Do you not have friends or something?" Lauren asks him.

"Are you hungry?" Alex asks, walking towards the kitchen.

"This is so weird." Lauren whispers to herself.

At the grandparents, everyone is sitting around the dinner table eating.

"So, Lorelai, are you a member of the D.A.R.?" Chase asks.

"No, I'm not." She says, shaking her head. "D-A-R-N." Lorelai starts laughing at her own joke while everyone just looks at her. "It's like, darn, cause it's a play on D.A.R." She starts explaining but then sees no one really cared. "Boy, these carrots are really tiny."

"Chase, I'm simply fascinated about your work situation. Tell us how you wound up back here at home." Emily tells him. "I mean, you move away to make your fortune, you end up right back here. Isn't like funny?"

"Hilarious." Lorelai chimes in.

"It's comedy for the masses." Richard adds.

"Well, I worked hard and the company was very good to me. You know a thing or two about company loyaly, I assume, Richard." Richard gives him a small smile. "Well, the company offered me a choice of East Coast locations. Sort of a big vote of confidence in the job I was doing. Picking your locale. It's a very conveted position to be in."

"Yeah, I would like to be picking my locale right now." Lorelai tells him.

Emily glares at Lorelai as Chase continues. "So, I sat down and made my wish list. I looked for places that offered location amenities. As well as job growth. Finally, after days of research checking into traffic conditions, uh, crime rates, the best school systems.." Chase looks over at Lorelai when he says that. "..my decision came down to just two places. One was in New York and one was in Hartford."

"And you chose Hartford."

"I did at that."

"Emily, is there any more roast?" Richard asks.

Emily signals Richard to wait as Chase continues to talk. "Hartford has all the cosmopolitan, big city benefits New York has without actually having to live in New York. It just seemed like a no-brainer."

"I'll get Dad some more roast." Lorelai offers.

"Lee will bring it." Emily tells her.

"Oh, but it's so much personal this way." Lorelai says, smiling at her Dad.

"Yeah, hurry back." Chase tells her. "I simply have to know what the allure of this Stars Hollow is I've heard so much about."

"Just miles and miles and miles." Lorelai laughs, standing up and going to the kitchen.

At Alex's, Alex has the t.v. on and is watching it as Lauren sits there, uncomfortably. They hadn't said a word since Alex came back with water that Lauren refused to drink. Alex had tried holding her hand, but Lauren just moved hers away. Lauren was trying to figure out if Alex really did have any friends, or if it was just him and his brother. Their parents seemed to be out of town a lot, which made Lauren question if his parents were even around in the first place. Jake had to be Dean and Rory's age, so she was pretty sure that they might know him. She wondered if they knew how much of a creep he was. But as she was thinking about that, Jake walks into the house and starts laughing when he sees Alex and Lauren sitting together on the couch.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here." Jake says, smugly.

"Go away, Jake. She's mine." Alex tells him.

"Hey, little man. Don't worry. I'm not going to take her from you." Jake bends down next to Lauren and puts his mouth by her ear. "Where's Daddy?" He whispers. Lauren's body shivers as she smells his alcohol breath. She instantly regretted not going with her mom to Hartford.

Through town, Dean and Rory are walking hand in hand just enjoying eachothers company and the watching the people at the festival.

"So, what book did you bring?" Dean asks.

"What?"

"Come on. You always bring a book with you, and I was just wondering what's the three month anniversary book?"

"Actually, I brought The New Yorker." Rory tells him.

"A magazine. Really?"

"It's the fiction issue."

The speaker starts squeaking and the Mayor comes on. "People of Stars Hollow, and our many friends. It gives me great pleasure to preside over our annual Founders Firelight Festival for the 32nd time." Everyone starts clapping. "Many a true love has had its start right on the spot where I stand. And I don't mind telling you that this very festival right by this gazebo, is where I met my own true love." The mayor tells them. "And now my friends if you will join me in lighting the fire."

"I wonder where Lauren is. She decorated the gazebo." Dean says, looking around.

"She's probably just hanging out with her friends." Rory says. "Okay, take me to the surprise now."

"But I thought you said you want to see the bonfire being lit."

"Oh, I do." Rory says, pulling Dean away from the group.

"Wait, but Mayor Porter said..."

"Trust me, it's going to be awhile for it's lit. We'll have plenty of time before they're ready."

Back at dinner, everyone is still listening to Chase.

"It's reall fascinating stuff." He tells them.

"It sounds it. Tell us more." Emily encourages.

Lorelai and Richard were looking bored out of their mind as they sat there listening. Lorelai pours herself some more coffee then slides it over to her father. "Well, we're building new statistcal models that let us do a better job of predicting death than we've ever been able to do. Richard, you might find this interesting." Chase says, looking over at Richard.

"Well, I've never been one for sitting at a computer building models, Chase. I'm a client-contact man myself."

"But these models give you a better product to sell to those clients."

"Tha does sound interesting." Emily tells him.

Lorelai glares at her mother. "Oh, it is." Chase says. "In fact, if you were to answer a few simple questions for me, I could practically pinpoint the day you're going to die."

Lorelai smiles, suddenly interested. "Go ahead. Ask her the questions."

Emily glares at her daughter. "I think I'll pass."

"No, no, Lorelai." Chase laughs. "I'd have to feed the information into a computer to get the answer. I'm not Kreskin." He and Emily start to laugh at his little joke while Richard and Lorelai just sigh, rolling their eyes, wishing this would all just end.

"Well, Chase, why don't you and Lorelai retire to the living room for some brandy while I help Lee clean up?"

"While you do what?" Lorelai asks.

"That sounds lovely, shall we?" Chase asks, staring at Lorelai in a real creepy way.

"Uh, oh, sure. I'm just going to, um, go and powder my something." She says, quickly, grabbing her purse. "I'll meet you in the living room."

"I'll be waiting." He says, as he watches Lorelai leave the table.

Upstairs Lorelai sneaks into her old room and turns the light on. She sighs, leaning back against the door, happy to finally get away from the insane downstairs. She notices her coat and scarf laying down on the bed and she smirks, grabbing it and quietly opening the window. She crawls through just as Richard comes in. "Lorelai, your mother wants to know if..." Richard stops and sees Lorelai sneaking out.

"Hi, Daddy. Okay, I know this is bad. And I know this probably brings back all the horrible aspects of my childhood for you. See, I'm really sorry that we fought last week. And I'm really sorry you're so disappointed in me. And I really wish there was some way I could fix that. But there probably isn't, and I accept that because I am an adult now and I am proud of who I have become. But I am begging you, please, please do not make me go back down there because that guy is boring."

Richard looks around the room and turns towards the door. "Emily, she's not up here!" He yells.

Lorelai smiles, gratefully. "Thank you, Daddy."

Richard smiles back and watches his daughter sneak away, secretly wishing to do the same.

Back at Alex's, Lauren is listening to Alex and Jake argue over something, probably about her, in one of the rooms. Lauren looks around and sees a cordless phone hanging out on one of the coffee tables. She looks around, making sure no one is coming, and quickly grabs the phone and dials a familiar number.

"Hello?" A voice on the other end says.

"Elizabeth, I need you help!" Lauren whispers in a hurry before they come back into the room.

"Lauren? Where are you calling from? I thought you were at the festival." Elizabeth asks, confused.

"I'm supposed to be, but Alex and his brother kidnapped me and brought me back to their house. Alex refuses to let me go and I think Jake is thinking about keeping me, too. I need you to please..." Suddenly Lauren is pushed in the back and falls to the floor, making the phone fall out of her hands.

"What are you doing?" Jake asks.

Elizabeth hears the commotion. "Lauren!? Lauren!?" The phone hangs up and Elizabeth become immediately worried for her best friend.

"Who were you talking to?" Alex asks her.

Lauren groans in pain from her back. "I was talking to Elizabeth. I was going to tell her to tell my mom or my sister that I was staying at her house for the night." Lauren lies.

Alex glares at her for a moment before nodding his head. "Good idea."

"Look, I don't understand why you are doing this to me." Lauren says, picking herself back up off the floor.

Jake starts laughing. "Well, this is Stars Hollow. Nothing exciting ever happens here. Hey, your sister is Rory Gilmore, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"You're not nearly as pretty as she is." Jake says, slowly reaching over to grab Lauren's cheek, but she flinches away. "But you'll do." He tells her.

Lauren looks over at Alex who looked nervous himself. "Alex, please. Let me go."

"I can't." Alex says, sadly. "Not anymore. We'll get in trouble now."

"I won't say anything. I promise." Lauren begs.

"Come on, Lauren. I want to show you something." Jake says, grabbing Lauren's arm and lifting in her the air. Alex goes to follows, but Jake pushes him back down. "Stay here!" Alex watches his brother drag Lauren into one of the back rooms. He sits down on the couch and rubs his hands through his hair. What did I do, he says to himself.

At a junkyard, Dean and Rory are standing outside the fence.

"We're here." Dean tells her.

"Where?"

"Come on."

"Dean, what is this?"

"Okay, uh, did you ever see Christine?" Dean asks.

"Yes."

"Well, it's nothing like that. Come on." He tells her as he opens the gate for her to go through as he follows her.

"You brought me to beirut?" Rory asks, confused as she looks around at all the old junky cars.

"It's a salvage yard." He says, leading her around.

"Ah. And yet it looks so much like beirut."

He stops a car that wasn't all there. "Okay, uh, here we are."

"Wow."

"It's a car."

"It is?"

"Well, it will be."

"When it grows up?" Rory asks.

Dean laughs. "When I fix it."

"What?"

"Um. it's yours."

"What do you mean it's mine?"

"I mean, I'm buidling it piece by piece for you." He explains.

"No." Rory says, looking at the unfinished car.

"Yeah, I started with the frame. The seats and the windshield just went in yesterday."

Rory looks up at her boyfriend in amazement. "You're building me a car?"

"It's gonna take a while. But when I'm done, it'll be great."

"You're building me car. You're building me a car." Rory repeats, trying to believe it.

Dean smiles, lovingly at his girlfriend. "That's right."

"You're buidling me a car?"

"I'm building you a car."

"This is crazy. Why would you do this?"

"I don't know. You didn't have one."

"You're completely insane."

"What? I didn't want you wasting time on the bus anymore. I mean, that is very valuable time we could be arguing about your ongoing obsession with very confusing Russian authors."

"I can't believe this."

"Do you like it?" Dean asks, nervously.

"Do I like it? Are you kidding?" She asks, reaching up and kissing Dean.

Dean pulls away and laughs. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Take it, mister."

"Come on, get in." Dean tries to open the driver door, but it falls to the ground. "I'll, uh, I'll fix that."

"Don't. I like it like that." Rory tells him as she gets into the car." Dean runs to the other side and jumps into the passenger seat. Rory couldn't stop smiling as she checks everything out. "This is amazing." She tells him.

"I'm glad you like it."

"I had no idea that three months was the car anniversary."

"Four months, you get a plane." Dean jokes.

"Boy, relationships sure have changed since I was a kid." Dean wraps his arm around Rory and pulls her in so that she is resting against his shoulder. "I'm having one of those moments right now."

"What moments?"

"One of those moments when everything is so perfect and so wonderful that you almost feel sad because nothing can ever be this good again."

"So, basically, I'm depressing you?" Dean asks.

"Yeap."

"You're very weird."

"And you're wonderful." She says, staring at him.

Dean leans in and kisses Rory gently on the lips. They continue to stare at eachother once they pull away. "Rory."

"Yeah?"

"I love you." Rory's smile disappears and her face turns to utter shock. "Rory?"

"Yeah."

"Did you hear me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, say something." Dean says, uncomfortably.

Rory sits up and looks at Dean, trying to figure out the right words to say so she doesn't hurt him. "I...I..." She stutters.

"Yeah?"

"I love the car."

"Uh, that's it?" Dean asks, confused.

"No, I just...I'm surprised. I didn't expect...I don't.."

Dean looks away and pulls him arm away from Rory. "You don't love me?"

"No, I just have to think about it for a minute."

"Think about what?" Dean scoffs. He couldn't believe he just put his feelings out there and Rory is stepping all over them.

"Well, saying I love you is a really difficult thing." Rory tells him.

"Well, I just did it."

"And you did it really well."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I'm sorry. Please. This totally came as a surprise, I mean, with the dinner and the car and then the...I just need a minute to think about it."

"This is not something you think about, Rory! This is something that you either feel or you don't."

"Please don't be mad." Rory begs.

"Why? Because I say, I love you, and you want to think about it? Go home and discuss it with your mother, make one of your pro-con lists?"

"Not fair."

Dean shakes his head. "I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. I don't even know what I was thinking."

"Dean. Please. It's just not that easy for me. I mean, saying I love you means a lot. Think about it from my point of view. I mean, my mom and our life. I mean, my mom said that she loved my dad and then.."

"You don't get pregnant saying I love you."

"I know. I'm just confused. I need to...it's a really big deal."

"Fine. Come on." Dean says, annoyed, as he gets out of the car.

"Dean, please don't be mad." Rory begs.

"I'll take you home."

"Dean, tonight was amazing. It was perfect. Please, I swear, I just need a minute..."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter, alright? Let's go." Rory gets out the car and follows an angry Dean out of the junkyard.

At the festival, Lorelai is walking through it, coffee in hand, watching all the couples hug and hold hands with eachother. It was actually very peaceful now considering what she had experienced tonight. Lorelai sees Luke sitting along, on one of the benches, and walks over to him and sits down.

"Hi. Where's the fire department when you need them?" Lorelai asks, looking towards the bonfire.

"Aren't you suppose to be in Hartford?" Luke asks.

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"I climbed out the window."

"Oh, okay."

"That's it? You're not curious why?"

"No."

"That's what I love about you."

"Hey, how long have you been here?"

"A little while."

"Did you see Taylor and Harry get into a fistfight?"

"No!"

Luke starts laughing. "Yeah. It was good."

"Oh, how did I miss that? I'm so bummed." Lorelai sighs in disappointment. "So, where's Rachel?"

"Uh, she's a Founders' party punch junkie."

"God, even the nice girls aren't safe." Lorelai jokes.

"Yeah, she's been running around here, taking all kinds of pictures."

"She's having a good time." She tells him.

"I guess so. I hope so."

"So, what's the haps with you two?"

"The haps? Well, let's see. What is the haps?"

Lorelai glares at Luke as he starts to continue to make fun of her. "I mean, like, you know..."

"I know what you meant by the haps."

"Well, you're repeating it a thousand times."

"I was pondering."

"You ponder really slowly."

"If I did it fast, it wouldn't be pondering. Pondering by nature has a slow connotation."

"Okay, fine, fine."

"It's okay."

"Is she, um, staying?"

"I don't know."

"Do you want her to?"

"I don't know."

"She seems to really like you." Lorelai tells him.

"Yeah, she does, but she doesn't have the greatest attention span. But she is here."

"Yes, she is."

Luke takes a deep breath before exhaling. "I don't know, you spend a lot of time debating things." He tells her. "Is it right, or is it wrong? Should I do this, should I do that? Sometimes you should just jump in, and take a shot. What's the worst that can happen? She left before. I lived. Maybe this time..."

"I think that's really great."

"You do?"

"Yeah." She says, shaking her head.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome.

Just as Luke and Lorelai are finishing up their conversation, Elizabeth runs over to them frantically. "Lorelai! Lorelai!" She yells as she makes her way closer to them.

Lorelai looks at her daughter's best friend with worried eyes. "Honey, what's going on?" Lorelai finally sees that Elizabeth had tears in her eyes. "Elizabeth, what happened?"

"It's Lauren!" She says, out of breath.

"What?! What about Lauren?" Lorelai says, as she and Luke stand up. "Wait. I'm suppose to meet her here. Where is she?"

Elizabeth starts shaking her head. "She's not here. She's not here anymore. They took her!"

"What!?"

"Who took her, Elizabeth?" Luke asks.

"Alex and his brother. She tried calling me, but they hung it up! We need to go get her!" Elizabeth yells.

Lorelai wasn't sure what was going on. All she could think about was that someone took her little girl. Luke looks over at Lorelai, who looked like she was no longer in her body, as she just stared at Elizabeth. "Where is she, Elizabeth?"

"I'll show you. Come on." She says, running towards the house. Luke grabs Lorelai's hand because she was not moving and drags her away to follow Elizabeth.

At Alex's, Lauren is sitting against the wall, on the floor, in Jake's room. Jake is lighting candles and trying to find a cd to put into the stereo. Lauren was scared. She didn't know what Jake was up to, and it was freaking her out.

"You do know I'm eleven, right?" Lauren asks him.

Jake laughs. "Yeah, I know. But you'll be twelve soon. So, it's all good."

"You're disgusting." Lauren grimaces at the thought.

"Why don't you come sit on the bed?"

"Nah, I'm good here." Lauren tells him.

"Fine. I can always just go to you." He says, smirking towards Lauren.

Lauren rolls her eyes and looks away. She just wanted to be home, or hanging out with her mom at the festival and then go home and discuss everything that happened on Rory's date, but not she felt like she was never leaving.

Outside the house, Elizabeth runs to it with Luke and Lorelai trailing behind.

"This is it." She tells them.

Lorelai looks at the house and then at Luke. "Luke, what if she..."

"Don't." Luke says, stopping Lorelai for going further.

"But what.."

"No!" Luke yells, causing her to jump back a little. "She's fine. I'm going to get her out. You just be close waiting to see your daughter." Lorelai nods her head as she watches Luke walk up to the porch.

In the house, Alex pacing back and forth through the living room. He kept thinking about what his brother had planned for Lauren and he wanted to go in and save her, but that would mean a good beating from his brother, and he didn't want that. In Jake's room, Jake has all the candles lilt and has soft music playing the background. She was way too young for this, Lauren thought. Jake smiles at Lauren and walks closer to her. Lauren tenses up and pulls her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, securely. This was just becoming way too much for her. Jake kneels down in front of Lauren and slowly swipes his hand across her cheek, gently. Lauren closes her eyes, shaking, as her tears start to develop. Suddenly, there's a hard banging on the door, making them all jump. Jake turns around.

"Who is that, Alex?!" He yells.

Alex runs into the room. "I don't know, Jake." He looks down at a shaking Lauren, who is sitting on the floor. He felt so bad to have put her through this.

"Well, go find out!" Jake yells.

Alex turns around and runs to the door. He opens it and sees Luke standing in front of him. He looks behind Luke and sees Lorelai and Elizabeth watching. "Are you Alex?" Luke asks.

"Yes, sir." Alex says with a shakey voice.

"We're here to get Lauren." Luke says, trying to walk passed him, but Alex closes the door and blocks the entry just enough that Luke can't pass.

"She's not here, sir."

"We know she is here, Alex! She called me!" Elizabeth yells. She was trying to run up to the porch, but Lorelai was holding her back. She couldn't rish something happened to Lauren's best friend, too.

In the room, Jake is covering Lauren's mouth with his hand. Lauren is looking around frantically with her eyes to find something that she could use to get away. But when she hears Luke's voice, then her best friend's, Lauren couldn't take it much longer. This was her chance, whether it was bad outcome or not. She had to try. Lauren bites down onto Jake's hand, making him pull back and hiss in pain. "You bitch!"

"Luke! Luke!" Lauren yells as loud as she could.

At the front door, they all hear Lauren's cry for help. Lorelai runs up to the porch, but Luke blocks her from going passed him. "I'm coming, Lauren!" He yells, pushing Alex easily aside and running towards Lauren's voice.

Jake slaps Lauren hard on her cheek, making her fall to the floor. Luke barges in and sees Lauren crying on the floor and Jake standing above her. "Authorities are on their way." Luke tells him.

Jake starts laughing. "Nothing is happening, sir. Alex just invited his friend over. I was just keeping her company while he went pick up some food." Jake lies.

Luke shakes his head. "Lauren, stand up and come over to me." Lauren stands up and tries to run to Luke, but Jake grabs her making Luke rush towards them and tackling Jake to the ground. "Lauren, your mom is outside!"

Lauren breathes out relief to find out her mom was here. She runs out the room where Alex is. He tries to grab her, but with all the strength she had she pushes Alex to the ground and runs out the front door where Lorelai and Elizabeth are standing. "Mom!" She cries out as she runs straight into Lorelai's arms.

"Oh, my gosh. Lauren." Lorelai cries, holding Lauren tightly and kissing her gently all over her face. "Are you okay!?" She asks, searching Lauren over.

Lauren ignores her mom because she wasn't okay, but right now she just wanted to feel secure and that was in her mom's arms. She wraps her arms around Lorelai's neck and rests her head on her mother's shoulders. Lorelai knew she was all Lauren needed right now, so she wasn't going to pressure anything on her just yet. Elizabeth watches the mother-daughter interaction. She was starting to feel bad about pressuring Lauren into hanging out with Alex. She felt like the worst best friend ever and she wasn't sure if Lauren would ever forgive her.

Just as Luke drags Jake out of the house, the cops start pulling up and get out their cars, running towards the house. As Lorelai is holding her daughter, Luke and her make eye contact. 'Thank you.' she mouths to him. Luke just nods his head and walks over to them, brushing his hand through Lauren's hair.

Later, after statements were made and Jake and Alex were brought in, everyone went home. At the house, Lorelai helped Lauren change into her pajamas and they then made themselves comfortable on the couch. It wasn't long until Lauren was sleeping with her head resting on her mom's lap. Lorelai felt bad for not seeing it. Not fighting Lauren harder for her to tell her what was going on. Lorelai needed someone right now more than ever though. She picks up the phone and starts dialing a number.

"Hi. You've reached Max Medina." Lorelai sighs, realizing she got Max's answering machine instead of the real thing. "I'm not here right now. Leave a message at the beep and I'll get back to you. Thanks." Lorelai was about to leave a message just as Rory walks in. Lorelai looks over and sees a distraught Rory looking back at her. "Rory?"

"We just broke up." Rory tells her.

Lorelai slowly gets up, without waking Lauren, and walks over to her other daughter. She quickly wraps her arms around Rory and Rory hugs her mom back. This was not a good night for the Gilmore Girls.


	17. Wipe Your Eyes

"Tell me what happened." Lorelai says, gently as she pulls away from Rory to take a good look at her.

"We broke up." Rory says, simply.

"But I don't understand."

"We went to dinner, and then we walked by the bonfire, but it wasn't lit. So we went to this junkyard, and we sat in this car and then...oh, god!" Rory freaks.

"What?"

"I forgot your meatball in the car."

"Oh, honey, forget it."

"Oh, I can't believe I left your meatball in the car."

"Okay. Come on." Lorelai says, leading her daughter to the living room.

"After I told the waiter to wrap it up and everything. And everyone was like, what do you want with one meatball? And I was like it's a mother-daughter thing. And I'm sure he thought I was nuts, but he was so nice. And he did it anyway." Rory explains before noticing her sister laying down sleeping on the couch. She could see the tears stains on Lauren's cheek glistening in the light. She looks over at Lorelai with a worried look. "Did something happen?" She asks.

Lorelai sighs, looking over at Lauren then back at her oldest. "Lauren was attacked tonight by that boy Alex and his brother. They took her from the festival and was holding her captive in their house."

Rory's eyes widen. "What!? Is she okay? Did they..."

"No! No." Lorelai says, quickly, knowing exactly where her daughter's mind was leading to. "None of that. At least, not that I know of yet. I haven't really talked to her about it. But Elizabeth found me and Luke and we went over there and got her. Jake and Alex are in custody right now."

"Oh, my gosh. Poor Lauren. Dean did tell me about Alex's brother. He said he was a really big jerk. Oh, my gosh. I should have kept a closer eye on her!"

"Hey, hey. It's okay. We did all we could, but your sister is fine. I promise. We will all deal with this tomorrow, but for now, I want to know what happened to you." Lorelai tells her. "Just tell me what happened."

Rory looks at her mom. "He just broke up with me, okay?"

"That doesn't make any sense. This is Dean we're talking about. He's crazy about you. He calls, like, twenty-five time a day. Have you seen the cover of his notebook? It's one step away from stalker material."

Rory stands up. "I have to go to bed."

"Wait." Lorelai says, following her Rory to her room. "Take me through the night step by step."

"Why?" Rory laughs, awkwardly.

"So I can help decipher what happened here."

"What happened here is we broke up. He didn't wanna be my boyfriend anymore, end of story." Rory says, frustrated with the whole thing. She really did not want to talk about this anymore.

"That is so not end of story." Lorelai tells her as she follows Rory into her room.

"Yes, it is."

"Honey, he did not plan an entire romantic evening complete with dinner and a junkyard which we'll get back to later and then suddenly decide to dump you."

"How do you know?" Rory asks while she looks into her closet and pulls out a big box and dumps whatever is in there out onto her floor.

"Because I've read every Nancy Drew mystery ever written, the one about the amish country, twice." Rory brings the box to her bed and starts putting some stuff inside. "I know there's more to the story than what you're telling me. What are you doing?"

"Getting rid of all his stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Everything he gave me, everything he touched. Everything he looked at."

"Honey, honey, will you just calm down for just one second?" Lorelai begs.

"He doesn't wanna be my boyfriend, fine."

"Okay, it will be fine." Lorelai promises her. Rory starts taking clothes out of the drawer. Lorelai notices the clothes and takes one of them from Rory.

"What?"

"Mine."

"Oh."

"Is there someone else?"

"No."

"Is he moving? Is he dying? Did his football team lose a game?"

"What?"

"It's happened."

"Did he, uh, try something?" Lorelai asks her nervously.

Rory stops what she is doing and look at her mom. "What?"

"You know, did he wanna.."

"What?"

"Did he want to go faster than you?"

"God, no!" Rory says, grimacing at Lorelai like that was the most ridiculous thing ever.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You're just not giving me much to go off of here." Rory walks back to her closet and takes the dress that she went to the dance with Dean with and throws it into the box. "Honey, that's your fancy dress that I made for you."

"That I wore to a dance that I went to with him." Rory reminds her.

"Oh, yeah." Rory grabs a sweater. "The sweater's brand new."

"Well, he saw me in it yesterday and liked it."

"Well, then he's got good taste."

"He said it brought out the blue in my eyes."

"Well, then he's gay." Lorelai jokes, but Rory was not having it.

"You're not funny and it goes."

"I'm a little funny. And if you throw away everything Dean ever saw you wear, you're gonna be walking around in a towel." Rory grabs the stuffed chicken that is on her chair and throws it in the box, too. Lorelai takes it out. "Colonel Clucker? Are you serious? He has been with you since you were four."

"The firs time Dean came over, he picked it up."

"Well, that's not the Colonel's fault. He was sitting there, minding his own business, and a guy comes in and picks him up. What's a stuffed bird to do?"

Rory takes the animal out of Lorelai's hand and puts it back in the box. "I don't want to joke about this, not now." She hands the box over to her mom. "Here, I don't want to look at that anymore."

"Okay. I'll, um, I'll put it away."

"No, take it out of the house." Rory says as she sits on her bed. "Throw it in a dumpster, burn it, I don't care. Just...I want it gone."

Lorelai rolls her eyes and puts the box down before sitting in front of her daughter. "Honey, you know, someday when this is all in the past, you may be sorry that you don't have some of those things anymore."

"I don't care."

"But, Rory.."

"I don't care!" Rory whines.

"Okay, fine. It's gone."

"Thank you."

"So, I'll take care of it, and you go to bed. Get some rest. And maybe you'll feel more like talking in the morning."

"Okay." Rory says, sadly.

"Oh, honey. Goodnight." Lorelai pulls Rory in and kisses her on the cheek.

Lorelai gets up and grabs the box. "Mom."

"Yeah?" Lorelai asks, turning back around.

"Far, far away from the house, okay?"

"Hey, it sleeps with the fishes." Lorelai smiles, backing out of the room and closing the door behind her. She brings the box to the hallway closet and sets it on the floor, putting a blanket over it to hide it just incase Rory would go in there. When she closes the door, she walks back to the living room, finding Lauren sitting up and looking at her. "Hey, you're up." Lorelai says, putting on a smile for her youngest.

"Dean broke up with Rory?" Lauren asks her.

Lorelai sighs and walks over to her daughter, putting her hand out for Lauren to take. "Yeah, sweets. Come on, lets go to bed. We'll talk about everything in the morning." Lauren nods her head and takes Lorelai's hand, following her upstairs and of course, to her mom's room to sleep.

The next morning, Lorelai and Lauren are sleeping. Lauren had a few nightmares, here and there, so Lorelai stayed up most of the night to watch her and keep her calm. But finally when she fell asleep, it felt like for only a minute when Rory barges in with a big smile on her face. She walks to the bed and starts shaking Lorelai.

"Mom. Mom, get up." Lorelai moans tiredly.

She reaches her hand up, with her eyes still closed, and feels Rory to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "Rory, what's the matter?"

"Nothing. I just want to get started." Rory tells her as she pulls the sheets off of her sister and Lorelai.

"Ugh, Rory, go away!" Lauren yells.

"I agree." Lorelai says, pulling the covers back over them.

"I made a list of all the things we say we're gonna do on weekends, but when the weekend comes around, you say they're too boring to actually do on a weekend day." Rory explains, walking to the window and opening the curtains for the sun to shine in. "So then you say we'll do them during the week which, of course, we never do." Lorelai and Lauren sit up watching Rory open every single window. "I think that we should get them all out of the way today once and for all." Rory opens Lorelai's closet to find something for her mom to wear. Lorelai grabs the clock on her nightstand. "And to make it interesting, we should come up with, like, a reward system. So once we're done with everything on the list, we could go get manicures." Lauren falls back onto the pillow. She was already tired of hearing her sister's voice and it was still so early. "Or we could go to that swiss place for fondue for dinner," Lorelai finally looks at the clock. "or we could stuff our purses full of sour patch kids and milk duds." Rory tells her, walking over with clothes and putting them on the bed. "And we can go see the Stars Hollow Elementary school production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She sits down on the bed in front of her mother who is glaring at her.

"It's six o'clock." Lorelai tells her, showing Rory the clock.

"I know."

"On Saturday morning."

"That's right."

"It's six o'clock on Saturday morning!"

"Do you want to wear docks or sneakers?"

"I want to wear slippers."

"Up, please!"

"Rory, my heart. It is Saturday, the day of rest."

"Sunday's the day of rest."

"No, Saturday is the day of pre-rest."

"Pre-rest?"

"Yeah, so that way when you actually get to Sunday, you're rested enough to enjoy your rest." Lorelai says, smiling at her daughter.

"That makes absolutely no sense."

"That's because it's six 'o clock on Saturday morning!" Lorelai whines.

"Rory, go away!" Lauren whines from under the blankets.

"Lauren, I have your clothes on your bed when you get up." Rory pulls the covers off of them.

"Oh, geez!" Lorelai yells.

"Up, please!" Rory sings, happily.

"You made a rhyme."

"I'll see you two downstairs." Rory says, walking out.

Lorelai looks over at Lauren who is staring back at her. "We could just tie her up and lock her in a closet until noon." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai smirks. "If only that were possible." Lorelai says, sitting up.

An hour later, Lorelai and Lauren come downstairs, but stop and stare at the living room when they see that it has been completely reorgnized. Lauren chokes back a laugh as she and her mom turn around and go into the kitchen.

"Hello. Did you rearrange the furniture?" Lorelai asks Rory, who is sitting at the table going over her list. Lauren walks straight to the coffee and starts pouring her mom and her a cup.

"Yes." Rory smiles.

"Good. Cause for a minute I thought we were having a problem with decorator elves. And I was gonna have to call an exterminator and tent the place. But it was just you. Great. Good." She says, taking the coffee Lauren hands her. "So now, was there any, uh, reason that you just suddenly felt the need to move around large pieces of furniture first thing in the morning?"

"I was up. It was there." Rory tells her.

Lauren sits down next to Rory and starts looking at what she is writing. "Okay, good thought process. Great." Lorelai says, nodding her head. "Now, I noticed that you didn't move the t.v. though."

"It was too heavy."

"Right. Okay." Lorelai says, looking into the living room. "Well, I like this. Yeah. This is good. Now of course when the sofa actually faced the t.v., it made it a little easier to watch. But, you know, this is good, too. It'll be like, um, you know, like radio."

"Are you ready to go?" Rory asks them.

"Yeah, I am. Just one quick sec. Could you put the pen down?" Lorelai asks, scooting Lauren off the chair and taking her spot before sitting Lauren on her lap.

"I'm just finishing the list." Rory tells her.

"Yes, I see. And as much as I love your list, let's just, uh, finish this particular one in a little while, okay?" Lorelai asks, taking the pen from Rory.

"Okay."

"Rory, I'm concerned about you. I wish you would talk to me. Both of you." Lorelai says to both her girls.

"Why me?" Lauren asks. "Rory is the one walking around here like a crazy person."

"Look, I don't want to deal with it right now." Rory tells her. "I can't deal with it right now.

"Fair enough. But listen, I've had my heart broken before. It's really hard. It's hard for everyone, so can I give you a little advice?"

"Okay." Rory says, ready to listen.

"I think what you really need to do today is wallow."

"Wallow?"

"Oh, yeah. Get back in your pajamas, got to bed, eat nothing but gallons of ice cream and tons of pizza, don't take a shower, or shave your legs, or put on any kind of makeup at all. And just sit in the dark, watch a really sad movie and have a good long cry and just wallow. You need to wallow." Lorelai explains.

Lauren starts smiling. "Can I do that? That sounds like fun."

Lorelai brushes her finger across Lauren's face. "Shush, you."

"No." Rory says.

"Rory, your first love is intense and your first breakup even more intense. Shoving it away and ignoring it while you make lists it's not gonna help."

"I don't want to wallow."

"Try it for one day."

"No." Rory says, shaking her head.

"One day, one day or pizza and pajamas. I'll rent Love Story and the Champ, An Affair to Remmeber, Ishtar."

"I don't want to be that kind of girl." Rory says, stubbornly.

"The kind of girl who watches Ishtar?" Lorelai asks.

"The kind of girl who just fall apart because she doesn't have a boyfriend."

"That description hardly applies to you."

"It will."

"Not true."

"So I used to have a boyfriend and now I don't. Okay, that's just the way it is. I mean sitting in the dark eating junk food and not shaving my legs isn't gonna change that, is it?"

"No."

"Okay, so I don't even want to go there. I have things to do. I have school and Harvard to think about."

"Honey, Harvard's like three years away."

"But now is the time to be preparing for it. I mean, Harvard is hard to get into and I don't know why I even spend my time thinking about anything else."

"Because you have a pulse." Lauren says, looking at Rory's list.

"I'm sixteen. I have the rest of my life to have a boyfriend. I should be keeping my eye on the prize right now."

"I admire your attitude." Lorelai tells her.

"Thank you."

"So shoud we rent Old Yeller, too or is it just a guy's crying movie?"

"You're not listening to me."

"I am listening to you. I just, I don't agree with you."

"I don't want to wallow, and you can't make me. And anyway, we have a bigger problem. What happened to Lauren was horrible." Lauren puts the list back down on the table as she starts remembering last night. Lorelai could feel Lauren tensing up in arms. "We need to focus on her and getting her back on track."

"I'm fine." Lauren laughs, nervously.

"You are not fine."

"I agree." Lorelai says, sadly, as she looks at her daughter who is avoiding all eye contact.

"I don't want to talk about it. Please? Can we just focus on how crazy Rory is being right now? Please?" Lauren begs her mom.

Lorelai kisses her daughter's shoulder and looks at Rory. "So that must be the list."

"Yes, it is." Rory says, looking down at it.

"May I see it, please?" Rory hands her mom the paper. "We do not need a garden hose."

"We don't have one." Rory tells her.

"We don't have a garden either." Lauren reminds her sister.

"But maybe if we have a hose, we can grow one." Rory tells her.

"Could I see the pen for sec?" Lorelai asks.

"Why?"

"Small adjusment. Small adjustment." Lorelai starts writing. Lauren looks down at it, and chuckles. Lorelai slowly hands the list back to Rory for her to read.

"Mom."

"What? It's on the list. Don't you have to do it if it's on the list?"

Rory takes the pen and scratches it out. "I am not going to wallow."

"But I put it after going to the recycling center."

They are walking through town where everyone else is walking and opening up their businesses. Lorelai looks around.

"What are these people doing up? It's Saturday morning."

"Some people like getting up early." Rory tells her.

"You lie."

"No, they do it voluntarily."

"Really?"

"Every day."

Lauren is looking around. She knew that Jake and Alex were in custody, but for some reason she still had an eerly feeling about everything. I mean, she is with her mom and sister, so she knew she was safe, but she was still scared. They were walking to Luke's to get some breakfast when Rory suddenly stops. Lorelai and Lauren turn back around. "What?" Lorelai asks.

"I can't go that way." Rory tells them.

"Why, we're going to Luke's."

"No."

"Well, you pulled me out of bed at six in the morning and then you say no to Luke's? Don't you know that's dangerous?"

"I can't go that way."

"Reason, please?"

"We'd have to go by Doose's market."

"So?"

"So, we might run into..."

"Oh!"

"Yeah."

"Right. Um, you don't know if he's working?" Lorelai asks.

"I don't remember. His weekend schedule changes a lot."

"Okay, we'll just take the long way."

"No."

"Why?"

"We'd have to go by the school."

"But there's no school today."

"But on his days off, he plays football there with his friends." Rory tells her.

"Well, what time?"

"It varies."

"Okay, we'll just go down Peach, we're circle around..." Lauren starts shaking her head. "Why are you shaking your head?"

"We can't go that way, Mom." Lauren says. "They live on that street."

"Sweetie, they aren't there anymore." Lauren just looks at her mom with a sad look. She never wanted to pass that way ever again unless they absolutely had to and right now they didn't have to." Lorelai sighs. "Rory, Lauren, loves of my life, you realize you've completely cut us off from Luke's where the happy coffee is."

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. It's okay." Lorelai pulls both her girls to her sides and starts looking around. "We'll figure out something."

They start walking through a small dirty allyway, where there's garbage and junk. "Sorry." Rory apologizes.

"No, this is good. It's like G.I. Jane, but we get to keep our hair." Lorelai jokes.

"I just couldn't."

"Honey, say no more. Think of this as an adventure. Three girls battling the elements, desperate for survival."

"Or coffee."

"Same thing."

"You know, I bet you can tell a lot about people from their garbage." Lauren tells them as she begins to look around the junk.

"Yeah?"

"Think about it. Trash is discarded aspects of people's lives. It talks about their eating habits, what they read, do they go to concerts, are they responsible, do they pay their bills on time?" Lauren explains.

"Yeah, you know honey, that trash doesn't actually talk at all unless it's on Sasame Street, and I remember you being obsessed with that show, but I didn't think you'd think it was real."

"I'm just trying to make a point."

"That going through garbage is interesting and educational." Rory says, nodding her head, completely understanding exactly what her sister is talking about while Lorelai just looks at the two like they are crazy.

"And stinky and a little nuts." Lorelai adds.

"There's nothing nuts about wanting to know more about human nature." Rory tells her. "Curiousity is how we grow."

Lorelai watches Lauren pick up a shirt that was laying in a garbage bag. "Ugh!" Lorelai throws the shirt out of Lauren's hand and grabs her. "We need to get you both out of this alley."

At Luke's, Lorelai and the girls finally made their way there. They enter from the side and Lorelai starts looking around, in confusion, at all the people that were crowded there.

"Who are all these people?" She asks.

"It's the six a.m. crowd." Rory tells her.

"I officially recognize nobody in this place."

"Hey." Rachel says, walking over to them with coffee and mugs in her hands.

"Oh, hi!"

Rachel hands them each a mug. "Coffee while you wait?"

"Oh, bless you. So, Luke put you to work, huh?"

"Yeah, well, I figured if I'm gonna be hangin around here for a while, the least I could do is help out."

"So you're gonna be hanging around for a while here?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Oh, well, that's nice."

"So, where is Luke?" Lauren asks.

"Well, we were kind of up late last night, so I let him sleep in." Rachel tells her.

Lorelai laughs. "Sleep in? Luke?"

"Oh, believe me, it wasn't easy to get him to agree to it, but in the end, a little sweet talk, a couple excedrin ., he finally caved." Rachel explains before walking away.

"Hey, there's a seat over there." Rory points out.

"Great."

"Go, go, go! I'll be over in a sec." Rachel tells them.

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren start walking to the table. Lauren looks around and sees everyone looking around at them. "I feel like everyone is staring at me." She tells them.

"Well, yeah, because you've got a banana peel stuck to your foot." Lorelai jokes.

"I do?" Lauren looks down.

"I'm kidding." Lorelai laughs. "Nobody's staring at you."

"No, because they are all busy staring at me." Rory tells them. "They know."

"They don't know." Lorelai says, rolling her eyes.

"It's probably all around town by now."

"Honey, it just happened last night. It's, like, six in the morning."

"And my thing was bigger. I had cops and everything. They know about me." Lauren tells her sister.

"Do you both want to go home?"

"No, we have a list." Rory reminds her.

"Okay. Great. I'm gonna order us something. Any preferences? Eggs, french toast, key to the dumpster?"

"I don't care."

"Lauren?"

"I'm not hungry." She tells her mom.

Lorelai stands up. "Alright. French toast it is. I'll be right back." Lorelai walks over to the counter when Miss. Patty walks in.

"Oh, Lorelai, what a nice surprise so early in the morning." She says, walking over to Lorelai. "So, how's things?"

Lorelai smiles, nervously. She could tell that everyone knew. It was a long and hard night for both her girls. "You know, don't you?"

"Yes, and I feel awful. I feel completely responsible."

"Well, you should." Lorelai jokes.

"I got Dean that job, and I certainly encouraged them." Patty tells her. "I felt they were so right together."

"Miss. Patty, please don't say anything to Rory about it. She's a little concerned about everybody finding out. And Lauren is really embarrassed."

"Of course. Not a peep. Poor Lauren. That little girl should not have had gone through that. But don't you worry, we are making sure those two boys never show up in this town ever again. Just give those angels a hug from me. I mean, you don't have to say it's from me. Just give her a hug."

Lorelai smiles, gratefull. "Got it." Lorelai turns around and sees Luke coming downstairs. "Oh, well, good morning, sleeping beauty."

"Yeah, well, Rachel thought I looked a little tired." Luke tells her.

"No, it's good. You need a little break." Lorelai assures him. "So, she seems pretty comfortable here, huh?"

"Yeah, well, she always could just fit in places, you know. It's a talent of hers." Luke sees Rachel walking passed them and they both exchange smiles at one another.

"She looks good in your apron."

"Yeah, well, can I get you anything?" Luke asks.

"Oh, um, do you think you can make those really crazy chocolate chip pancakes and go extra heavy on the chocolate?" Lorelai asks.

Luke looks around Lorelai's back and sees Rory and Lauren sitting at a table. "How's she doing?"

"I don't know." She says honestly. "She won't talk about it yet. But that wasn't the end of my night, sadly, Dean broke up with Rory."

"What!?"

"Keep it down. She doesn't want anybody to know about it."

Luke shakes his head and huffs in anger. "I knew it. I just knew that kid was trouble."

"Yes, you did. You knew it. Pancakes, please."

"God, he's got nerve. I mean what does his think? He's gonna do better than Rory? What is wrong with these boys today!? They are crazy. Geez. Alright. Well, forget it. Okay?"

"Could we get off the small talk and get cooking, please?" Lorelai begs him.

"How is she?"

"She's been dumped by her first boyfriend." Lorelai tells him. "If you haven't noticed, my kids try to occupy their minds with other things. So, obviously not too good."

"Okay. I'm gonna put some whipped cream on the pancakes, too."

"Thank you, Luke."

"Yeah."

"Not a word, okay?"

"I got it." Luke promises before walking to the back.

Lorelai turns around and goes back to the table where she finds her two girls sulking in the coffee. "Rory, are you sure you don't want to..."

"Do not say wallow."

"Swallow your coffee before you eat?"

"I am fine."

"But if you could see the look on your face."

"It's the same look you had on your face when you broke up with Max." Lauren tells her.

"And did wallowing help you get over him?" Rory asks, curiously.

Lorelai looks at her daughter, trying to figure out something good to say. "I'm not saying wallowing will help you get over Dean. It's part of the process. It's the morning period. It's a step, an important step. The only thing that'll get you over somebody is time."

"How much time did it take you to get over Max?"

"I'm not sure exactly."

"Approximately?"

"A while."

"Be vaguer."

"Rory, come on." Lorelai says, annoyed, just as Luke comes over with more coffee.

"Coffee?" He asks. "Pancakes are coming right up." He tells Lauren and Rory.

'I'm not hungry." Lauren tells him. Lorelai looks at Lauren. She knew this was going to be a long process for her daughter. She and Rory were like her, both so stubborn to admit what was wrong.

"Hey, I've got some strawberries back there. You like strawberries, don't you?" Luke asks her.

"Yeah, I like strawberries, but..."

"I'm getting you strawberries." He grins before walking away.

Lauren glares at her mom. "Honey, you need to eat."

"I'm not hungry. And I don't want to be here anymore. I'm going outside. Come get me when you are ready to go shopping." Lauren grabs her coat and walks out the door.

"And I have bigger issues?" Rory asks.

Outside, Lauren walks across the street, filled with frustration and anger inside of her. She was tired of people telling her what she needed to do, how she needed to feel, what she needed to look like. And she was tired of the whole town looking at her with sad eyes. She just wanted to move on. She didn't want to talk about it anymore. As Lauren was thinking and walking quickly through the streets, she runs into someone she doesn't know and jumps up.

"I am so sorry." The man says, bending down to Lauren's level. Lauren falls to the ground, looking at the man with a horrified look on her face. Lauren didn't know why she was freaking out right now, but sudden flashbacks from the night started to come back to her.

"No! No! Leave me alone!" Lauren screams, shaking her body back and forth as she holds her legs closely to her chest.

Lorelai and Rory were in the middle of talking, when Lorelai looks out the window and sees Lauren on the ground with a man hovering above her. "Oh, god!" She yells, running out the door with Rory running behind her. "Lauren!" Lorelai runs up to Lauren who is still on the ground.

"I am so sorry, Lorelai. We ran into eachother then she just started freaking out." He tells her.

Lorelai shakes her head. "It's okay. It's okay. Hey, Lauren. It's Mom." Lauren looks up and jumps into Lorelai's arms, holding her tightly. "It's okay. I got you." She whispers into her daughter's ear. "Come on." She says, lifting Lauren up on her feet. She bends down to her daughter's level and looks into her eyes. "It's okay. Okay?"

Lauren quickly wipes her face and nods her head. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm good." She says.

Lorelai knew better than that, but she ignored it, for now, and took Lauren's hand while looking at Rory, who was staring at her sister. She wasn't home when everything happened last night, so it freaked her out that her sister was having a major meltdown and she didn't know how to help. "Hey." Lorelai says, jerking lightly on Rory's shirt to get her attention. "Where's that list?"

"What?" Rory asks, snapping back to reality.

"The list. We've got a lot to do today." Lorelai tells her. "Otherwise I'm gonna be dragging your butt out of bed at six again tomorrow morning. So, where do we start?"

She takes out her list from her jacket and reads it. "Well, we need a soap dish for the kitchen."

"Oh, a kitchen soap dish. Quite decadent, but what the hell?" Lorelai jokes, wrapping her arm around Rory, while still holding onto Lauren with her other hand and they start to walk away.

At the house, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren all walk in with bags in their hands.

"Well, that was a very successful outing." Rory says, happily.

"Yes, it was." Lorelai agrees, as they put the bags on the kitchen table.

"We got everything on the list except for the brown extension cord."

"Which will be in on Tuesday."

"So, I think that qualifies as a check, too."

"Are you happy?" Lauren asks her.

"I appreciate a job well done, yeah."

"I can't wait to try the toaster pizza. It looks so gross." Lorelai tells them as she picks up the boxes from the bag.

"I'm gonna go plug in my new wall air freshener." Rory tells them while walking to her bedroom. "Give me five minutes and then come sniff my room."

"Cheese or pepperoni?"

"Lauren, you choose!" Rory yells out.

Lorelai turns to Lauren and holds up boxes. "I don't care."

"Both. Good choice!"

In Rory's room, Rory had just got done putting in her freshner and was hanging around her room when everything started to come back in her mind. She kept thinking about Dean. Rory was trying not to cry when she fell back onto her bed. She looks down at her wrist and notices that she is still wearing the bracelet that he gave her for her birthday. She sits up and breathes out in frustration. She was not going to cry, she said to herself. Rory did not to wallow. So, to get her mind off of things, she pulls out her booksack and starts taking her books out. A flyer falls out of her notebooks, so she picks it up and opens it. She forgot that Madeline was having a party at her house.

Rory walks out of her room and over to where Lauren, is sitting on the counter, and Lorelai is standing in front of her as they wait for the pizza to pop out from the toaster. "Look." She says, handing Lorelai the flyer.

"What is that?" Lauren asks, trying to look over Lorelai's arm.

"Madeline's having a party." Lorelai reads.

"I'm going to go."

Lauren and Lorelai both look up at Rory with surprise looks. "You're going to a Chilton party?" Lauren asks, amused.

"Yes, I am." Rory confirms.

"Honey, why don't you just stay home and read The Bell Jar? Same effect." Lorelai jokes.

"Hey, I'm going to be going to school there for the next two and a half years. It wouldn't kill me to be social. Right? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing." Lorelai smiles, lovingly.

"Okay, then it's settled."

"Um, can I make a suggestion?" Lorelai asks.

"Go ahead."

"Why don't you see if Lane can come with you? You know, that way if the socializing doesn't turn out how you planned, you got a friendly face around."

"Okay, good idea. Thank you." Rory says, smiling happily. "Can I take the car?"

"Yes."

"Can I borrow something to wear?"

"Yes."

"Are you gonna give in to anything I say because you feel sorry for me?"

"Yes!" Lorelai exclaims.

"I'll make a list." Rory laughs, walking back into her room.

"Mom, are you insane?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai looks at her other daughter with a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"Rory can't go to that party."

"Why not?"

"Um, because it's a Chilton party and everyone hates her."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "They do not hate her."

"Okay, she hates them. It's going to turn out bad." Lauren tells her.

"Well, I am glad to see that you are worried about your sister, but I'm sure everything will be fine. Now, lets start on you." Lorelai says, looking at Lauren with a serious look.

"I don't want to talk about me." Lauren says, avoiding contact.

Lorelai taps on her daughter's knee. "Honey, why don't you call Elizabeth over? She had been calling here nonstop since last night to check on you and you haven't answered. Are you mad at her?"

Lauren shakes her head. "No, I'm not mad."

"Then why won't you talk to your best friend since kindergarten who gets you in trouble every single time you are with her?" Lorelai asks.

"Fine. I'll call her to come over!" Lauren yells hopping off the counter. "As long as we never have to talk about me ever again!" Lauren starts walking out of the kitchen.

"I make no promises!" Lorelai yells.

That night Rory and Lane are getting ready to go to the party while Lauren waited in the living room for Elizabeth to come over. She was flicking through channels on the t.v. to keep her mind occupied, but so far it wasn't working and she knew once Elizabeth came over she would just want to talk about what happened.

In Rory's room, Rory and Lane are standing in front of the mirror putting their make up on. "Am I all twisty back here?" Rory asks.

Lane looks behind Rory to check her dress. "Oh, a little. Here" She says, fixing it. "So, how are you?"

"I'm fine." Rory tells her with a fake smile on her face.

Lane nods her head. "How are you really?"

"Life goes on, right?"

"You know, I saw Dean today, I wasn't sure if I should tell you."

"Why not?"

"I mean, I wasn't sure you'd want to know."

"No, that's fine." Rory assures her. "What did he say?"

"Nothing. He crossed the street as soon as I saw him." Lane tells her. "But if it's any consolation, he looked really sad."

Rory walks over to her bed and starts putting stuff into her bag. "I don't want him to be sad."

"Rory, are you sure you wanna go out tonight?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"Because you just broke up. I mean, I'd be perfectly fine to just hang out here and listen to music, talk, not talk, whatever."

"No, I am not hanging out." Rory says. "Everyone needs to stop worrying about me. It was just a break-up. What happened to my sister was far more worse than what I experienced. She's traumatized and doesn't even know it. We are going to this party. It's gonna be great. I don't want to dwell on this. That's final."

Lorelai walks in untangling a necklace in her hand. "Don't argue with her, or you'll find yourself the proud owner of three garden weasels." Lorelai tells Lane.

"Mom."

"Three, cause one's just not enough. Here, turn around."

"Why?"

"Fourteen hours of labor, that's why."

"Okay." Rory turns around and Lorelai puts the necklace around her daughter's neck. "What is this?"

"I thought it would go with your dress, and it does."

"It's pretty."

"Yeah. It's really pretty." Lorelai smiles back at her daughter. "Here." Lorelai says, digging in her pocket. "Here is the phone and some mad money. If for any reason, you think you're not gonna be home before twelve, you call me."

Lauren drags herself in the room. "Elizabeth is about to be here." She tells her mom.

"Don't look so enthused." Lorelai jokes as Lauren plops herself right next to Lane. Lorelai looks back and sees Rory staring down at something on her dresser. "Rory?"

"The cornstarch." Rory tells them.

"What?"

"Um, the cornstarch. The first time Dean kissed me, he..I forgot to put it with the other things." Rory explains. "I'll just throw it out."

"Hey, why don't you let us do that." Lorelai says, taking the cornstarch out of Rory's hand and tosses it over to Lauren. "Take care of that."

"Sure thing." Lauren says, smiling confidently at her sister.

"You guys get going." Lorelai says, kissing Rory on her cheek. "Have fun. Bye."

Rory and Lane walk out and go to the front door just in time to let Elizabeth in. "Lauren, Elizabeth is here!" Rory yells.

Lauren closes her eyes and sighs. Lorelai walks over and pulls her daughter up from where she is sitting. They walk into the foyer where Elizabeth is standing awkwardly. "Hey, Elizabeth. How's it going?" Lorelai asks.

"It's good." She tells her. "Why are you holding a box of cornstarch?"

Lauren looks down and sees that she still has the box in her hand. "Oh, umm."

Lorelai takes it from Lauren. "I'll just take care of that. You two go into the living room. I'll be there in a second." Lauren and Elizabeth head for the living room as Lorelai turns away and goes to the hallway closet to dispose the cornstarch into the Dean box. She looks up and notices her Max box hanging out on top of the closet. As she goes to pull it out, though, Lauren calls her name. "Okay, coming." She says, quickly, putting the box back and closing the door.

"There's nothing on t.v." Lauren tells her mom as soon as she walks in.

"Lauren, you have company. We're not looking for anything on t.v." Lorelai tells her, sitting on the other side of Lauren.

"You're mad at me." Elizabeth blurts out, making Lorelai and Lauren both look her way.

Lauren starts to hesitate as she looks at Elizabeth, then at her mom, then back at Elizabeth. "No, I'm not mad at you." She tells her.

Elizabeth rolls her eyes, not believing her. "Whatever. You've been avoiding me. Lauren, I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't know Alex and his brother were like that. I'm so so sorry."

"I didn't know either. It's not your fault." Lauren assures her.

"It feels like my fault."

"No, it's more my fault than anyones. I should have did something. I should have yelled or fought harder. I should have never went over there the first time in the first place."

"Wait. You went over there?" Lorelai asks, confused. Lauren and Elizabeth both look at eachother. They forgot that they had never told Lorelai about Lauren going over there.

"Uh, yeah."

"When?"

"When you went on your double date with Sookie and Jackson. I am so sorry! I wanted to tell you, Mom, but I didn't want to think about..." Lauren freezes realizing she hadn't told Elizabeth what happened that day either.

"About what, Lauren?" Lorelai asks her.

Lauren sighs, before looking at her mom directly in her eyes. "Last night wasn't the first time Jake tried something." She says, honestly.

Lorelai's eyes widen. She did not want to think about someone doing something to her eleven year-old daughter. "What did he do, Lauren?" She asks, worriedly.

Lauren take a deep breath looking at her friend and her mom who were both staring at her waiting for her to explain. She never wanted to talk about that day again, but now she screwed up and had no choice. "I didn't want him to." Lauren starts off as tears start to develop in her eyes. "Alex just wanted to hang out. So we went into his room and started talking, but then Jake, his brother, came in and asked Alex to go and do something so that he could be alone with me." Lauren explains as her tears finally fall. "He said he just wanted to teach me how to do stuff with Alex. I told him I was too young, though, but he insisted and started to rub my leg, over and over again."

Lorelai was trying to hold it together as she listens to Lauren explain, but it was hard as she watched Lauren breakdown in front of her. "Lauren, did he..." She didn't want to say it, more less think about it but she had to ask.

Lauren shakes her head. "I ran out. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Mom!" Lauren cries. Lorelai quickly brings her daughter into her arms and lets her cry. She knew there was something more that was happening to Lauren and she was really angry with herself for not forcing it out of her, but now Jake and Alex were away and all Lorelai needed to do now was protect her daughter and love her and to let her know that everything was going to be okay. Elizabeth sat back, thinking about what Lauren had just told them. She started to wipe her own tears that started to make their way out. She felt like such a horrible friend. Who begs their best friend to go hang out with a boy? Lorelai pulls Lauren back to look at her. "None of this was your fault." Lorelai assures her as she wipes Lauren's tears with her fingers. "I will never let anything like that happen to you again, but if it would, I want you to come to me. I always thought we three had that kind of a relationship where we tell eachother everything."

"We do!" Lauren tells her mom quickly. "I was scared. Plus, Rory had a lot going on with Dean and I didn't want to get in the middle of that and you and Max were always together."

"Lauren, don't you ever think that you are not important in this family. You're my baby, my youngest, I am here to look out for you always. No questions and ifs or buts about it. You're mine, kid, and it's going to stay that way forever."

Lauren gives her mom and small smile before reaching back up and hugging her tightly around her neck. "I'm sorry." She whispers.

"I know." Lorelai says, nodding her head and kissing her daughter gently on her cheek. "I love you, kid."

"I love you, too." Lorelai gives Lauren a kiss one more time, as Lauren pulls away and looks at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looks sadly at her best friend. "I'm so sorry, Lauren."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not. I should have known."

"Everyone should have knew, but they didn't because I didn't tell them. I'm sorry for not telling you. I mean, if I would have then maybe you would have ran to my mom or sister and told them. Believe me that would have taken a lot off my shoulders." She laughs. "I'm sorry."

Elizabeth reaches out and she and Lauren hug. "It's okay." Elizabeth tells her.

"Who want some popcorn?!" Lorelai yells, excitingly, as she gets up.

"And a good movie!?" Lauren asks, hopeful.

Lorelai laughs. "Yes. I will pick a great one out for you as soon as I get the popcorn started. Elizabeth you are welcome to stay as long as you'd like."

"Thanks, Lorelai."

Lorelai goes to walk to the kitchen but Lauren runs after her. "Mom!" Lorelai turns back around and looks down at her daughter. "Thanks."

Lorelai brushes her fingers gently through Lauren's long brown hair. "Anytime. We'll talk more about everything at another time, but right now, go hang out with your best friend."

Lauren smiles gratefully at her mom before turning back to the living room.

An hour so later, they are all three sitting on the couch watching a movie.

"Who needs more popcorn?" Lorelai asks.

"Me!" Lauren says, raising her hand.

"I'll be right back." Lorelai gets up and walks to the kitchen.

"Your mom is so cool." Elizabeth tells Lauren.

"Yeah, I know." Lauren says like it's no big deal.

Lorelai overhears them and shakes her head, smiling. She was so happy to be that kind of mom that her daughters loved to hang out with and talk to. Most kids didn't have it good like her daughters did. Like Lane and Elizabeth, Rory and Lauren's best friends, their parents were either strict or never around, so to be that adult her kids' friends' enjoyed being around with, Lorelai wouldn't trade it for the world. Lorelai starts walking back to the living room, popcorn in hand, but stops, once again, at the hallway closet. She hurries to the living room and drops the popcorn on the table. "You two will be okay for like an hour, huh?"

"Why?" Lauren asks.

"I have something I need to go take care of real quick." She says, rushing back to the closet and taking a book out. "I'll ask Babette to watch out for you. Call me if you need me." Lorelai says, running out the door.

Lauren watches the front door, where her mom ran out of her. She was so confused. "What is that about?" Elizabeth asks.

"No idea."

In Harford, Lorelai pulls up on the street, in Sookie's car. She gets out and walks downstairs. She rings the doorbell and stands there, nervously, waiting for the door to open. She thinks about leaving just as Max opens the door. He looks at her with surprise.

"Lorelai, what are.."

"Hey, uh, Rory and Dean broke up." She says, smiling at him.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry. Rory."

"Yeah, Rory and Dean broke up, and she won't wallow. And I told her that she should wallow, you know, because that's supposed to help you get through the pain and then you can accept it, and then you can get over somebody, and you can move on with your life. And then she asked me, how long it was before I got over you. And I didn't know what to say, you know, because I can't lie to her. And I realized that if I gave her any time frame at all that I would be lying because I'm not over you. And I don't know how long it will be before I am. And who am I to teach her about healing, and moving on, and breakups, anyhow? I mean, I might as well be teaching her to eat fire or swallow a sword or put her legs behind her head, you know, because at least that's a trade. I mean, the first two are. I don't know. But the point is that I'm an idiot, and I'm a hypocrite. And I really miss you."

"Do you want to come in?" Max asks her.

"Yes, please." She says, as they smile at eachother and she walks through the door.

At Madeline's party, Rory and Lane walk in to a crowded house and music blaring.

"Wow, this is unbelievable." Lane says, looking around. "My wedding won't be this big. This is amazing! People live here?"

"This is Madeline's house." Rory tells her.

"Is this what your grandparents house looks like?"

"No. I mean, it's big, but it's not this hearst castley."

"I mean, there should be a map or a tour guide or a Robin Leach or something."

"Hey, Lane, thanks for coming with me." Rory says, sincerely.

"Anytime."

Madeline spots them walking towards them and jumps up, happily. "You came!" She yells.

"Yeah." Rory tells her.

Madeline, Louise, and Paris walk closer to them. "Who's watching the farm?" Louise jokes.

"Madeline, your house is beautiful."

"Thanks, it's my stepfather's."

"So, where is he?" Louise asks.

"My stepfather? He's in Japan."

Louise laughs. "Not your stepfather. Prince Charming."

"He didn't come." Rory tells them.

"Why?"

"Uh, his white horse was in the shop."

"You guys didn't break up, did you?"

"Hi, I'm Lane." Lane says, introducing herself to break up the awkwardness that was happening between all of them.

"As in, walk down a?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Hi, I'm Madeline."

"We better go mingle. Later Paris." Louise says, as she and Madeline walk away.

Paris steps up and sighs as she looks at Lane and Rory. "So, I didn't think you were much of a party girl."

"I'm not usually." Rory says, as they follow Paris to the food table. "But I thought I might come by and check it out."

"It's the same exact people we see every day at school, except now we get to see them dance. So, where is your boyfriend?"

"We, uh, we broke up." Rory tells her.

"Oh. At least you had a boyfriend for awhile."

"So, do you know which way will lead us to some soda?"

"Keep up because I'm not turning around." She tells them as she starts walking away.

"Wow. You didn't exaggerate." Lane whispers.

"Paris needs no embellishment."

They turn around when they hear Tristin and his girlfriend fighting. "Summer!"

"Can we do this later?" She asks. "There's a party going on."

"Look, just tell me what you were doing locked in the bathroom with Austin?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Yeap."

"No."

"Well, why don't you tell me what I was doing?" Summer asks him. "Since you seem to know everything."

"Hey, you are my girlfriend."

"Oh, now he's a caveman." Summer jokes, as she begins to walk away.

"Summer, please." Tristin begs.

Summer ignores him and keeps walking. Tristin sighs and looks around at everyone looking at him.

"I just love that Summer, don't you?" Paris asks them. "9:45."

"Why do you keep checking your watch?"

"My mom says I have to stay till 10:30."

"Why would she care?" Rory asks.

"She thinks I'm not much of a people person." Paris tells her. "Shocking, huh?"

"I'm floored."

Lane sees a Korean boy walking over to them. "Oh, no."

"What?" Rory asks.

"It just figures that the only Korean boy at this party has his Korean girl radar turned on."

"Hi." He says, looking right at Lane.

"Hi."

"I'm Henry."

"I'm Lane. This is Rory and Paris."

"We've met." Paris tells them.

"Hi, Paris. So, would you like to dance?" He asks, Lane.

"Oh, well, we're talking here."

"Oh, yeah, but, I mean, one dance?" He asks, again. "You can put the conversation on hold for once dance, right? Unless this is a Mid-East peace talk kind of conversation."

"One dance." Henry walks to the dance floor as Lane takes her jacket off and hands it to Rory. "If I'm not back in one dance, you're coming down with a really bad case of anything that means we have to go home." Lane tells Rory.

"Oh, is it getting warm in here, or is it just me?" Rory plays along.

"Thank you." She says, as she meets Henry on the dance floor."

"Unbelievable. She's here five minutes, she has a date. I've been going to this school for nine years, and I'm the soda monitor." Paris says, storming away.

Rory stares at Tristin, sadly, as he just stands there pissed off. She felt bad for him because, well, just yesterday she was in that same position that he was in right now, so she knew how he had to be feeling.

Back at Max's, things had got a little heated and Lorelai and Max had begun making out in his living room.

"Just incase this comes up later, I did not come here for this." Lorelai tells him as she pulls away.

"Okay, got it." Max says, pulling her back in to kiss. "Oh, this is crazy!" He says, pushing Lorelai away.

"No, it's. It's nuts." Lorelai agrees.

"I mean, I don't see you for months, and then all of a sudden..."

"Ding-dong, Avon Lady." Lorelai jokes.

"It's insane."

"Completely." Lorelai says, reaching for Max once again and they start making out. "You do that so good."

"Okay, we got to get a grip here." Max tells her as he pulls her away.

"I thought that's what we were doing."

"You know, you can sit over there on that couch."

"Fine." Lorelai smirks, walking to the other couch.

"And I'm gonna sit over here on this chair. Far away from eachother. And I'm gonna put this table right in between us." Max puts the small table in front of him and Lorelai. "Just like that. Okay, good. And we're gonna sit here and talk about this calmly."

"Sounds good."

"How you been?"

"Good, really good."

"Oh, you look really good."

"So do you."

"I missed you."

"Oh, I'm glad. Otherwise that greeting there would have been a little inappropriate."

"You know, actually, I've been thinking about us lately."

"You have?" Lorelai smiles.

"Haven't you?" He asks.

"No."

"No?"

"No, I haven't given it any thought at all."

"I'm flattered."

"No, no, I needed not to give it any thought at all otherwise I would give it too much thought and that would be hard. And so I just didn't deal. Like mother, like daughter, I guess."

"Oh, I understand."

"So with all the thought you've been giving it, have you come up with any great solutions?"

"No. You're still Rory's mother, and I'm still her teacher. And we're still us. I got nothing."

"So nothing's changed?" Lorelai asks a little disappointed.

"Nothing's changed." Max says sadly.

"So, I guess my coming was probably a bad idea."

"Probably."

They sit there for a second in silence before Max throws the little table, in front of them aside. "Screw this." He says, as he and Lorelai jump up from where they are sitting and continue their make-up session.

Back at the house, Lauren and Elizabeth had been watching the same movie, since Lorelai had left. They hadn't said much to eachother since Lauren's breakdown. While they continued to stuff their face with junk food, Elizabeth looks over at Lauren, who is concentrating on the t.v. She wanted to ask Lauren a bunch of questions about what happened, but she was nervous to.

"Whatever you want to ask me, just go ahead." Lauren tells her.

Elizabeth jumps a little because she didn't think Lauren could see that she was staring at her. "I just don't want to bring it up again." Elizabeth tells her.

Lauren rolls her eyes and looks at her friend with a smile. "It's okay. I'm going to have to talk about it with my mom later on, so I might as well practice with you."

"I just want to know if you were scared."

"Uh, yeah. Of course I was scared. I didn't know what they were going to do to me." Lauren tells her. "Then I tried thinking about what my mom would do in this kind of situation if she was in it and I thought, hm, she would talk. A lot. So, that's what I did."

"What did you talk about?"

"I just asked him if he had friends. Which apprently he doesn't. I just kept talking, but he would make up excuses to leave the room. Now, with his brother I couldn't really say much. I was too creeped out."

"How can you just be so comfortable about talking about this?" Elizabeth asks, confused.

Lauren looks at her friend with a crazy look. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I mean, you have a breakdown when your mom is here, but then you can sit here and talk to me about it like..."

"Like what, Elizabeth?" Lauren asks. She couldn't believe Elizabeth, who is suppose to be her best friend, was really thinking that she had no care in the world about what happened to her. "I'm not just brushing it off like you think I am. So much more could have happened in that house, if it wasn't for Luke coming in and getting me."

"I brought them there." Elizabeth tells her.

"I know, and I thanked you for that, but now you are actually insinuating that I enjoyed being kidnapped and being held hostage by Alex and his creepy brother!"

"That's not what I'm saying, Lauren! I'm just saying that you are way too calm about all this. I mean, yeah, earlier when you were explaining it to us you cried, but you walk around like it was nothing."

"What do you want me to do, Elizabeth!? Stay in my room and cry all day!? I am not that girl. I am a Gilmore. We deal with it and then we get over it. It's what we do! It's what I'm going to do. If you think I'm just walking around here like it was no big deal, you are sadly mistaken. That day is going to be with me for the rest of my life! And if I didn't think it was no big deal, do you really think I would still be sleeping in my mom's room!? I am eleven, not five. Who does that? I do, because I am terrified. And you, as my best friend, should understand."

"Lauren..."

"No, I'm done." Lauren says, looking at her friend with so much anger in her eyes. "Lock up when you leave." Lauren runs upstairs, leaving Elizabeth on the couch, not believing what started as a great night, turned into the worst one ever.

At the party, Rory is walking around the house when Paris runs up to her.

"My watch stopped. What time is it?" Paris asks her.

"It's 10:35." Rory tells her.

"Yes! Bye." She says, happily, and runs out the door.

Rory walks over to an empty chair and sits down. She takes a book out of her purse and opens it, but it's interrupted when Tristin and his girlfriend, Summer, walk in. "Tristin, stop it!" Summer complains.

"You're making me chase you around the whole party." Tristin tells her.

"Just trying to have fun."

"Okay, you won't talk to me or dance. Why the hell did you even come with me?"

"Stop yelling."

"Summer, please, can we just go?"

"No."

"Please." Tristin begs, once more.

"No. I'm sick of fighting with you. I'm sick of hearing twenty times a day, you're my girlfriend."

"Okay, could we possibly do this where a room full of people aren't staring at us?"

"I think we should break up."

"Okay, I really want to go outside and talk about this."

"Then go. Bye." Summer walks away leaving Trisin in a room with everyone staring at him.

"Summer, come on!" He yells. He turns towards Rory, who was watching the whole thing. When she puts her head down, avoiding eye contact, and Tristin storms off.

At Max's, Max and Lorelai are laying in bed, undressed, wrapped in eachother's arms.

"Well, I certainly did not come over here for that." Lorelai says, smirking.

"I know."

"You are a wonderful man."

"I know." He chuckles. "So, what happens now?"

"I don't know." Lorelai sits up and looks at the clock on the nightstand. "It's late. I just ran out of the house like a crazy person. Lauren is probably wondering where I am."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second." Max says, sitting up as well. "This is it? You leave, and we forget this ever happened?"

"No."

"Than what?"

"I leave, and we go on with our lives." Lorelai tells him. "And then at some point we buy some soup."

"Lorelai."

"What? Soup is good food."

"Stop."

"I don't want to leave here and forget this ever happened. I want to think of a solution that will make everything better. And I've bene rattling my brain for an idea. Hence the babbling about soup being good food. But I can't think of anything."

"I think we should talk."

"What?"

"On the phone. You and me, about us, on a regular basis." Max explains.

Lorelai smiles. "But.."

"We're not gonna solve this staying away from eachother."

"No, we're not."

"And obviously, we are not gonna solve this by not staying away from eachother."

"But we'll burn more calories." Lorelai laughs.

"I want to solve this."

"So do I."

"So we'll talk?" He asks.

"We'll talk." Max leans in and kisses Lorelai. "Hey." She says, pulling away. "I thought we were supposed to be talking."

"There's plenty of time for talk." He grins, kissing Lorelai once more.

At the party, Tristin is sitting alone in the piano just as Rory walks in.

"Oh, sorry." She says, noticing him sitting at the piano.

"No problem."

"I'm sorry." Rory says, sincerely, about his break up with Summer.

"About what?"

"About you and Summer."

"I don't want to talk about Summer."

"Okay. So, how did you do on that Biology test?"

Tristin looks up at Rory. "What?"

"The test. It was hard, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. It's was hard."

"I got a B-plus." Rory says, walking closer to him.

"What are you doing?" He asks, confused.

"I'm talking about the test." She tells him.

"Why?"

"Because you said you didn't want to talk about Summer."

"I don't."

"Okay, so I moved to Biology. Sorry, did you want to talk about Spanish?"

"You just loved it, didn't you?"

"Loved what?"

"Seeing me nailed like that. It must have been a great moment."

"Not really." Rory tells him, honestly.

"Please. You loved it, she loves it, everybody loved it."

"I did not love it." Rory says as she sits down next to him.

"I really liked her, too."

"Yeah, I know."

"So, where's your boyfriend tonight?" Tristin asks.

Rory turns away and sighs. "He's not my boyfriend anymore."

"Why not?"

"He didn't want to be."

"Idiot."

"So is Summer."

"You think you'll get back together?"

"He was pretty set in his decision."

Tristin finally looks at Rory. "When did it happen?"

"Yesterday."

"Wow."

"It was our three month anniversary." Rory explains.

"That sucks."

"Yeah, it does suck. Do you think you guys will?"

"No." Tristin says quickly, shaking his head. "No. No. No. No." He repeats.

"So, no?" Rory laughs.

"Hey. I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time for awhile." Tristin says, sincerely.

"Oh, that's okay."

"It is?"

"Well, no, but you're sad."

"Yeah, well, I am sorry."

"I accept your apology."

"Oh, man." Tristin laughs. "It's a great party, huh?"

"Yeah, not bad. It gave me a chance to catch up on my reading."

"You are very odd, you know that?"

"Thank you." Rory smiles.

"You're welcome." They stare a eachother for a few moments, before Tristin leans and kisses Rory on the lips. Rory hesitates for a moment, while still kissing him, but then pulls away quickly. "I'm sorry. What did I do?" He asks, when he notices Rory is crying.

"No, it's not you." She says, sniffling, as she stands up. "I just have to go." Rory runs out of the room and back into the main room where everyone is still dancing. She runs over to Lane. "We have to go." She tells her.

"Rory, are you okay!?" Lane asks with worry, but Rory just walk away. "I have to go." She says, turning towards Henry.

"Wait. Can I get your number?" He asks her.

"Uh, last name's Kim. We're the only ones in Stars Hollow." Lane says, before running off to catch up with Rory.

At the house, Lauren is pacing back and forth through the downstairs hallway, while she is on the phone trying to get in touch with her mom. Lorelai walks in and sees her.

"Hey, what are you doing?" She asks, Lauren. Lauren puts down the phone and looks at her mom with tears. "What's wrong?"

"I've been trying to get in touch with you for an hour now. It's Rory." She says, pointing into the living room where Rory is eating out of a tub of ice cream.

Rory looks up at her mom with tears falling down her cheek. "I'm ready to wallow now."

Lorelai walks over to Rory and sits down next to her. She kisses her numerous times on her forehead and takes the tub of ice cream off Rory's lap. Lorelai grabs a pillow and puts it on her lap, signaling for Rory to lay her head down. Rory quickly does as she is told and cries hysterically on her mom's lap. "Lauren, pizza. Hurry!" She whispers. Lauren nods her head and runs with the phone into the next room to call the pizza guy. Lorelai tries to sooth Rory the best way that she can as her daughter finally breaks down.

_'Hey, you, come over and let me embrace you. I know that I am causing you pain, too. But remember if you need to cry I'm here to wipe your eyes. Tonight before you fall asleep, I'll run my thumb across your cheek. Cry, cause I'm here to wipe your eyes.'_


	18. Save Tonight

It had been a long week for the Gilmores. After Rory's breakdown, finally, about the break up, she put herself back together with the help of her mom and decided she just needed to move on. She told herself that there was nothing she could do about it and she needed to keep her focus on what she did have and school. Lorelai was proud of Rory for finally letting her feelings out, but she was still concerned about her other daughter. Lauren and Elizabeth still weren't talking and Lorelai was still confused on why they weren't talking. When she left them, things were great. They were watching a movie, eating junk food, and they were laughing, being kids. But when she found out that Lauren went off on Elizabeth, she was confused, and of course she was not getting a straight answer from Lauren. All she would tell her was that Elizabeth is not the friend she thought she was and that she didn't need someone who didn't believe in her in her life. Now, after all that excitement, it was Friday and they were at the usual dinner with their grandparents.

Everyone was quiet. Just sitting silently eating their food. Emily looked around at all of them and was becoming irritable.

"Everyone is awfully quiet tonight." Emily says, breaking the silence.

"Sorry, Mom, I'm just tired."

"Me, too. School." Rory tells her.

"Work."

"Life." Lauren adds.

"Dig it, Man."

"Peace out, Humphrey." Rory says.

"Mystery." Emily says, shaking her head. Emily puts her fork down in frustration when she realizes the conversation was still not going anywhere. "Well, this is ridiculous. Four intelligent women sitting here in complete silence. Must be something to talk about." Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren all look at eachother. "Do you know that every night at dinner, the Kennedy clan would sit around the table having lively debates about everything under the sun? They would quiz eachother about current events, hystorical facts, interrectual trivia. Now the Gilmore clan is just as smart, and worldly as the Kennedys. So, come on, somebody say something." Emily begs.

"Did you know that butt model makes $10,000 a day?" Lauren asks them.

Lorelai and Rory snort as they try to hold back their laughter. Emily rolls her eyes and shakes her head, not finding it amusing at all. "Camelot is truely dead."

"Emily!" Richard calls out from the front door.

"In here. Just follow the crickets." Emily tells him.

"I am sorry I'm late." Richard tells them as he walks into the dining room. "But I come bearing wonderful news. I just got off the phone. Long distance." He says, sitting down.

"God?" Lorelai asks.

"London."

"God lives in London?"

"My mother lives in London."

"Your mother is God?"

"Lorelai.." Richard says, impatiently.

"So, God is a woman." Lorelai smiles as she looks at her daughters.

"Lorelai..."

"And a relative. That's so cool. I'm gonna totally ask for favors."

"Make her stop." Richard begs the girls.

"Oh, that we could." Rory tells him as Lauren laughs.

"You spoke with your mother." Emily says, for him to continue.

"Yes, I did. She's fine, she sends her love and she's coming to visit."

"What?" Emily asks, surprised.

"You're kidding." Lorelai asks.

"When?"

"I'm gonna get to meet my great-grandma?" Rory asks.

"Lorelai I." Richard confirms.

"When?" Emily asks again.

"I was named after her." Lorelai tells her kids.

"I figured." Rory laughs.

"Richard, when?"

"You both are going to love her. My mother's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

"We share that also." Lorelai tells them.

"I'm asking a question here." Emily yells. "Does no one hear me?" Everyone looks towards her. "Am I suddenly invisible?"

"I'm sorry. What was the question?" Richard asks.

"When is your mother arriving?"

"A week from today." Emily freezes. She could not believe Richard's mother was coming. There was so much she had to prepare. Emily quickly gets up and leaves the table. "Rory, Lauren, I'm telling you, it's going to be such a treat."

"I still can't get over that I'm related to God. It's going to make getting Madonna tickets so much easier." Lorelai jokes.

On the way home, Lauren and Rory were getting excited that their great-grandmother, whom they never met, was coming over to visit. They wanted to know all about her.

"So tell us more about her." Lauren begs their mom.

"I don't really know that much."

"Well, you know more than we do." Rory tells her.

"Well, let's see. Uh, she moved to London when Grandpa died. But she didn't like to travel. So once a year Mom and Dad would go to visit her, usually leaving me behind, much to my relief, by the way. And that's it. The rest I know from stories, just like you two." Lorelai explains.

"Grandpa says I remind him of her."

Lorelai smiles. "That is the biggest compliment that can be wrenched out of Grumpy McFarlane, believe me."

"I hope she likes me." Lauren says.

Lorelai looks over at her youngest. "She'll love you."

"I hope she and Grandma get along." Rory says.

"She'll love you." Lorelai tells her, ignoring Rory's comment on purpose.

It was the end of school, and Lauren was walking out of the double doors and runs right into Elizabeth. Elizabeth looks at her and Lauren tries to walk away, but Elizabeth quickly gets in front of her.

"Lauren, are you ever going to talk to me?" She asks.

Lauren looks away and takes a deep breath to hold her composure. "I have to go." She says, trying to move away.

Elizabeth steps back in front of her. "Just wait."

Lauren pushes Elizabeth out of the way. "Move, Elizabeth!"

"Not until you talk to me!" Elizabeth says, shoving Lauren back.

"You really don't want to do this right now, Elizabeth." Lauren warns her as she gets into her face.

"Yes, I do."

Lauren closes her eyes. She knew her mom was not going to like what she was about to do, but Lauren was fed up. She pushes Elizabeth down on the ground, but Elizabeth gets back up and tackles Lauren onto the grass. They start wrestling on the ground. But just in time, Rory steps off the bus and sees her sister rolling around in the grass with Elizabeth. She runs over and sees that they are actually fighting.

"Lauren, what are you doing!?" Rory yells.

"I'm not your best friend anymore! So leave me the hell alone!" Lauren yells at Elizabeth.

"But I didn't do anything!"

Rory quickly grabs Lauren when she makes it on top and pulls her off of Elizabeth. "What is wrong with you!?"

Lauren huffs and grabs her booksack from off the ground. "I'm not doing this anymore." She tells Elizabeth and walks away.

Rory watches Lauren walk away and then looks back at Elizabeth. "I'm sorry, Rory."

"I'll talk to her, Liz." Rory says, as she runs after her little sister.

At the Inn, Lorelai is at the front desk when the phone rings.

"Independence Inn." She answers.

"I need the hatrack." Emily says in panic.

"The fish flies at night." Lorelai whispers.

"What?"

"I don't know. Who is this?"

"This is your mother." Emily tells her.

"Oh, well, hi, Mom, I didn't recognize your voice." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"I need the hatrack back."

"What hatrack?"

"The hatrack I gave you."

"What hatrack?" Lorelai asks again, still not knowing what her mother is talking about.

"The hatrack I gave you for Christmas five years ago."

"Uh, well..."

"It's large, bronze with dragons or weasels, I don't know. Some sort of lizard-type animal that you hang your coats on."

"Yes, yes, I remember it."

"Thank God. I need it back." Emily says in relief.

"You need a Christmas present back?" Lorelai asks.

"Temporaily."

"Why, Mom?"

"I need it back because Richard's mother gave it to us, and she'll notice if it's not there."

"You gave me a used present?" Lorelai asks.

"No, we never used it."

"I can't believe it." She laughs.

"You'll get it back."

"You gave me a second hand present." Lorelai not believing it. "Like something you got at the junk store."

"You're being a little dramatic. It was still in the crate."

"You actually went, huh, what should I get Lorelai this year? You know what? I can't be bothered. Let's give her something we don't want anymore."

"You're not funny."

"What would Miss. Manners say about this?"

"If she met your Grandmother, she'd understand. Now, please. Just bring it back with you when you come tonight, okay?"

"Okay, sure."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Bye." Lorelai hangs up and looks over at Michel who is trying not to laugh. "You, hush!" She says, when she sees her girls walk in. "Hey, how was school?" Rory drags Lauren over to the desk. Lorelai takes in Lauren's appearance. "What is with the messy look? When you left this morning you had less grass stains."

Lauren rolls her eyes and Rory nudges her to speak. "I got in a fight." She tells her.

"You what?" Lorelai says, surprised. "With who? And why was I not called?"

"It happened after school. I found her and Elizabeth rolling around in the grass when I got off the bus." Rory tells her.

"Elizabeth? Why did you get in a fight with Elizabeth?" Lorelai asks.

"She wouldn't move out of my way."

"So, you tackled her until she did? What is with you?"

"I'm sorry, Mom, but she just wouldn't stop bugging me. And she pushed me, too, so don't think she is innocent in all this." Lauren tells her.

"Geez, kid. Come on. Let's get you cleaned up." Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand and leads her to the back.

It was the night they all were waiting for. Lorelai's grandmother was coming into town and they were having their usual Friday night dinner with her, so everyone was very on edge about the whole thing, except one who was very excited.

"Come on, let's go!" Lorelai yells, from the living room.

"Relax, I'm almost ready." Lauren yells from upstairs.

"We're gonna be late." Lorelai says, walking towards Rory's room.

"No, we're not." Rory tells her.

"Well, it's Friday night. Traffic's bad on Friday night."

"Since when?" Rory asks, holding up a necklace on her neck for Lorelai to put on.

"Since the beginning of time." Lorelai says, helping Rory.

"What's up with you?"

"Nothing."

"You've been ready and bugging us for almost an hour. Usually, I have to drag you kicking and screaming to go to dinner."

"Now, then."

"You whine, you complain, you act like a child."

"I do not."

"I had to pay you $5 once so you wouldn't go in sweats."

"Make your point and make it fast." Lorelai says, turning Rory away. "As we move quickly to the front door."

Rory grabs her coat from the chair. "My point is that you're mean."

"I'm not mean."

"You are. You want to go to dinner to see Grandma uncomfortable, that's mean." She says, as they walk to the foyer.

"Oh! Okay, look. I will admit I work very hard, and sometimes I am a little tired come Friday night for the Gilmore family dinner. Lauren, move it! But I had a light day today and my grandmother, who I haven't seen in years, is gonna be there." Lauren runs downstairs and meets them in the foyer.

"Do you think she'll like this?" Lauren asks them, as she spins around in her light purple dress that Lorelai had made for her a long time ago.

"She'll love it." Lorelai tells her, smiling at her daughter. She had never seen her so happy to go to dinner before, so this was just icing on the cake.

"So, it has nothing to do with the fact that Grandma hates Great-Grandma?" Rory asks.

"Not at all."

"And when you see Grandma miserable and uncomfortable, you're gonna be sad and sympathetic?"

"Not at all." Lorelai smiles.

"Mean."

"I'm kidding."

"I want you to be nice."

"I will be nice." Lorelai promises while she helps Lauren into her coat.

"And no outward reveling in someone's pain."

"I promise. Internal reveling only."

"Okay, then we can go." Rory says walking to the door.

"Okay, good."

"Oh, wait." Lauren says, walking back to the coat rack and digs under the table. "Mom, you said you were bringing the camera."

"Ah!" Lorelai laughs evily grabbing the camera from Lauren. "So the internal reveling can continue for years to come." She says, walking out the door.

"Mean." Rory says following her mom and Lauren out the door.

At the Grandparents, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are all carrying the hatrack and struggling while they do.

"God, this thing weighs, like, 1,000 pounds." Lauren complains as she struggles with the front of the rack.

"I know. I know. Here, put it down." Lorelai tells her. They set the rack down behind a plant by the door.

"What are we doing?" Rory asks.

"Incase Gran comes to the door, you know."

"Oh, good thinking."

"I mean, she's eighty. The eyes have got to be gone, right?"

"Let's just try to keep her inside the house."

Lorelai knocks on the door and Emily opens it quickly. "You have it?" She asks.

"We got it." Lorelai says, as they walk back to the rack.

"Hurry up. Bring it in here." Emily instructs them. They all three once again pick up the rack and struggle as they bring it inside. "Be quiet. Be quiet."

"Mom, thanks for the direction and all, but, uh, we need some help." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry, sorry." Emily says, helping Lauren with her side. "Get it over there." They drop it on the corner near the door. "Okay, put your coats on it."

"How'd you get her in here without her noticing it wasn't there?" Lorelai asks, as they take off their coats and put them on the rack.

"Well, I brought her in through the back, and I had Stella wax the floors. Also she napped, so that took about an hour." Emily explains.

"Where is she now?" Rory asks.

"In the living room scratching the diamond pendant I bought her against a mirror."

"So, uh, we shouldn't keep her waiting, huh?" Lorelai asks.

"No, you're right. We shouldn't. Oh, Heaven help me." Emily sighs as she goes into the living room.

Lorelai watches her mom with a smirk on her face. Rory didn't even have to look at her to know what her mom was thinking. "Stop." She says, following Emily.

"Mom, look who's here." Emily announces.

"Who?" She asks, keeping her eyes on the paper in her hand.

"Well, look."

"If I wanted to look, I would look. I haven't looked. Therefore you just draw your own conclusions." Richard brings her over a drink. "Oh, thank you, dear boy." She says, taking the drink from her son.

"You're welcome, Trix." Richard says.

"Trix?" Lauren whispers to her mom.

"Dad's pet name for Gran." Lorelai whispers back.

"Isn't it just darling?" Emily asks.

"Hi, Gran." Lorelai says, happily.

"Lorelai." She exclaims, looking at her grand-daughter.

"Yes. It's so good to see you again."

"Trix, this is Rory and Lauren." Richard introduces. "You haven't met them yet."

"No, I don't believe I have."

"Hello." Rory says, smiling at her. Lauren gives her a little wave.

"Come. I want to get a very good look at the three of you." Lorelai takes her daughters and leads them over to Gran. "They're tall."

"Well, yes, they are." Richard laughs.

"How's your health?"

"Oh, good."

"Very healthy." Rory tells her.

"Good, that means that the majority of your blood is Gilmore blood. Gilmores don't get sick. Am I right, Richard?"

"No, we wouldn't dare, Trix."

"That's right. Your mother is always sick."

"I am hardly always sick." Emily chuckles.

"You're sick right now."

"Are you sick?" Lorelai asks.

"Headache."

"Gilmores don't have headaches. Our heads are perfect. You don't drink?"

"Uh, well.." Lorelai chuckles as she looks at her dad.

"Emily, get this woman a drink."

"Oh, I'll do it." Richard says, walking towards the bar.

"Oh, thanks, Dad. White wine."

"Uh, I'm going to go get the hor d'oeuvres." Emily tells them, excusing herself.

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren sit down on the couch in front of their grandmother. "So, you're Rory and Lauren."

"Yes, Ma'am." Rory says, smiling.

Lorelai looks proudly at her daughters. "My son speaks of you two constantly. He seems very fond of the both of you. Says you have big dreams."

"Well, we're very fond of him, too."

"Rory is in Chilton, Mom." Richard says as he walks back over and hands Lorelai her drink. He sits down in his chair to join into the conversation.

"Really? How nice." Gran says. "And Lauren, how old are you?"

"Eleven." Lauren tells her, nervously, as she leans closer into Lorelai.

"Really? Well, you look far more older than eleven. Are you smart?"

Richard laughs. "She is as smart as a whip, Trix. She wants to travel the world someday."

Lorelai sqeezes Lauren, proudly. She felt so great to have had two very smart girls. She'd do anything for them to live their dreams. "Straighter A's than I've ever seen." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, that's good." Emily walks in with a tray. "Is this cheese?" Gran asks.

"Yes, it is." Emily tells her.

"Am I supposed to eat that cheese?"

"Well, only if you like."

The girls glance at eachother feeling the tension in the room, but Lorelai couldn't help but smirk at her mother. "Emily, where are those spiced nuts that Trix likes so much?" Richard asks.

"I'll get some." Emily puts down the tray and walks quickly out of the room.

"So, Lorelai, since I've seen you last, you've grown up, gotten pregnant, twice, out of wedlock, raised two children, and still haven't bothered to get married. Have I left anything out?"

Lorelai sits for a moment thinking. "Well, uh, some time in between, uh, growing up and getting pregnant, I got my ears pierced." She jokes.

"I've always hated scandal. However, I've always appreciated self-sufficiency. Tell me, how do you suppose these children?"

"I run an Inn."

"Hard work?"

"Yes, it is."

"Good. Hard work is good for a woman. Makes her stronger. I admire people who enjoy hard work."

Emily walks back in with a bowl of nuts. "Here we go. Spiced nuts."

"Thank you, Emily. I suppose I could just put these nuts in my hand."

"I'll be right back." Emily puts the bowl down and walks back towards the kitchen.

"So, Gran, when was the last time I saw you?" Lorelai asks.

"You were still in your teen, wild hair flying everywhere. I've seen you've taken care of that."

"Uh, yes, I joined a support group, bought a hairbrush, and just taking it one day at a time."

"That was a joke?"

"Yes, it is."

"Very good."

"Thank you."

"I have dishes and napkins." Emily announces walking back into the room with a tray.

"Good for you." Gran tells her. "Richard, I would like to be escorted into the dining room now."

"Your wish is my command." Richard tells her. He gets up and helps his mother towards the dining room.

"Well, I'm not sure that dinner's ready just yet." Emily says.

"Well, perhaps our presence in the dining room will teach your help that when one is told dinner is at seven, people often expect dinner at seven."

"But it's only five after, Mom."

"Only five after? Richard, in the event that I'm kidnapped and ransom is demanded at a certain time, I would prefer that Emily not be in charge of the drop-off." She jokes. Richard laughs and the girls follow them into the the dining room, leaving Emily standing, tray in hand, as she watches them leave. This was going to be a long night she thought.

"Grandma, this dinner's delicious." Rory tells Emily.

"Very good, young lady. We all believed you." Gran laughs. "Now, let's talk about your education."

"Rory is in the top 10% of her class." Richard tells her.

"We're very proudof our Rory. She's going to Harvard." Emily adds.

Gran quickly grimaces at Emily. "Harvard!?"

"Yes, ma'am." Rory confirms.

"Richard, how can you allow this girl to go to Harvard?"

"Now, Trix..."

"You and your father were Yale men. If you don't mind me asking, Chilton is rather an expensive institution. I'm curious how the manager of an Inn can afford such a luxury?" The girls all look down at their plate in embarrassment.

"We're helping Lorelai out a little." Emily tells Gran.

"Yes, we've seen to it that Rory's education is taken care of."

"But it's temporary. It's a loan." Lorelai explains. "I plan to pay them back every cent. They know this." Lorelai laughs, nervously.

"And what about Lauren? I'm sure she wants to go to Chilton." Gran says looking at the youngest Gilmore.

Lauren hesitates for a moment looking at her grandparents, sister, and Mom, before turning back to Gran. "I don't plan on going to Chilton." She tells her.

Gran drops her utensils. "That's it. I'm done. Richard." Richard gets up to help. "Tomorrow, girls, I shall plan the menu. When you've lived in Europe, you learn a thing or two about food."

"Oh, I can't." Rory tells her. "I'm studying tomorrow. I'm in this study group and our presentation is due on Monday."

"Oh, very well, your mother and sister can tell you all about it."

"I will." Lorelai smiles at Rory. "I promise."

"Won't you have dessert?" Emily asks.

"I once traveled to a small village in Cambodia. I didn't eat dessert there, either." She says, walking away.

The next day, Rory is sitting in the living room working on her homework just as Lorelai runs through the front door.

"Hi!" She yells as she throws her keys on the table and runs to the upstairs. "Five minute talking break while I change. Where's your sister?" She asks, running upstairs.

Rory follows her upstairs. "She's getting dressed."

Up in Lorelai's room, Lorelai is digging through her closet when Rory walks in and falls into the chair. "My day: big leak, 3rd floor. Lots of things going squish that should not be squishing. Michel is no help. Now I'm late for dinner, which, by the way, I'm completely bugged you're not coming to." She says, taking off her shirt and grabbing two other ones from her closet. "Which one? Blue, black, bad, good?"

"Black."

"Okay. Are you sure you can't come?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. If I'm not prepared tomorrow, Paris is gonna send me to the tower."

Lorelai sighs and slips on her black sweater. "Okay, now, how do I look?"

"Beautiful."

"Okay. My five minutes are up. Let's go!" She yells grabbing another pair of shoes. "Lauren!"

"Coming!" Lauren yells, running out of her room and following them down the stairs.

"There is money on the kitchen table and there's really good chocolate cake that I took out and defrosted for you specially this morning, and call me if you need me. And I'll be home early. And what else?" Lorelai says, quickly as she grabs her coat and hands Lauren's her.

"Don't be mean to Grandma." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, broken record. Okay, we're gone."

"Be good!"

"Bye!" Lauren tells her sister as she and her mom run out the front door.

At the Grandparents, everyone is sitting around the table.

"What did you think about the rabbit, Lauren?" Gran asks.

"Oh, it was good." Lauren tells her.

"You know, I brought it with me."

"Excuse me?" Lorelai asks.

"From London. London has the best game."

"You brought it with you from London?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"Did you get it a seat?"

"Dry ice." Richard tells her.

"Wow, that's inventive." Lorelai laughs.

"Well, it looks like we're finished here."

"Let's retire to the living room." Richard asks them.

They all stand up. "Lorelai, walk with me. I have something I want to discuss with you."

"Okay." Lorelai says, walking to Gran's side as Lauren runs to the living room.

"I've been thinking about something I heard the other night."

"What was that?"

"That you borrowed money from your parents for Rory's school."

"Uh, well, if you're worried about them getting the money back..."

"You know, Shakespeare once wrote, 'neither a borrower nor a lender be.' Do you consider Shakespeare a wise man?"

"Uh, sure."

"We certainly don't mind loaning Lorelai the money, if that's what you're worried about." Emily tells Gran as she and Lorelai take their seats.

"Certainly not." Richard confirms. "Rory and Lauren are first priority in this house." He says, walking over and handing them their drinks.

"I'm not concerned about whether you mind or not. Loaning money is a dirty business. It's distasteful, and I don't care for it." Lorelai sighs and Lauren gives her mom a sad look. She knew it wasn't her mom's fault that she had to borrow the money from the grandparents, but she knows her mom just wants what's best and she will do anything for them. That's what she loved so much about her. "As you know, I came into town to check up on the family investments, and to talk with our lawyers. I have some thing to put in order, and one of them is setting up a trust fund for Rory and Lauren." Lauren sits up when she hears her name and trust fund in the same sentence.

Lorelai looks at her kid then back at Gran. "That's amazing. Really?"

"Now, normally, I would set up a fund so that they will have access to it when they turn twenty-five. However, considering the situation, if you like, I will arrange for them to get it now."

"Now?" Lorelai and Lauren both say surprised.

"Now?" Emily asks.

"That way, Rory can us it to pay for Chilton."

"Oh, Gran, I don't know what to say. That's so generous of you."

"My mother is a very special woman, isn't she?" Richard asks.

"You talk about me like I'm dead." Gran jokes.

"Oh, you're never going to die. You're too stubborn." Richard laughs.

Lauren looks around confused. "But why do I need it now?" She asks her.

Gran looks at Lauren with a very serious look. "Now, I know that you said you did not want to go to Chilton, but if your grandfather says that you are as smart as he says you are, then I don't see why not. A child your age needs the education as early as she can get it, and Chilton is a very good school. Just ask your sister."

"But I'm only eleven." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai wraps her arm around her daughter, securely. She understood why Lauren didn't want to go, and sadly, she knew she would most likely always be the only one, but she was not going to force Lauren to go to Chilton if her heart really told her not to. She would never force her kids into something they didn't want to do, even if she knew it was probably best for them. "That is the very reason why you should go. The sooner the better. I believe you will regret it if you don't." Gran tells her. "You want to go to a good college, don't you? Yale preferably."

"Well, yeah." Lauren tells her.

"Then Chilton is the way to go."

Lauren sighs. She did not want to argue with her great-grandmother who she actually grew very fond of. She reminded her a lot of her mom in some ways, and she annoyed her Grandma, which was a plus. So, Lauren just sat back and decided to just leave the adults to talk. "I have arranged for you, Lorelai, and your mother and I to have tea tomorrow before I leave." Lorelai looks over at Emily who still had a horrified, still look on her face. "We'll just let the adults go so that Lauren won't be so bored." She smiles towards, who plants a fake one back, as Gran stands up. "Good night, Emily."

"Goodnight." Emily says back as they watch Gran walk away.

"Well, I'll just walk mother upstairs and be right back." Richard tells them while he gets up and follows Gran.

"Wow. That was quite a bomb she just dropped." Lorelai says, smiling.

"It certainly was."

"Sure was." Lauren says, sadly.

"Well, we should be going." Lorelai taps Lauren on her knee, signaling for her to get up with her. "Thanks for dinner. I'll see you tomorrow." They walks to the front door and grab their coats.

Emily puts her drink down. "Lorelai." She calls out running after them. "You're not honestly considering accepting that money, are you?"

Lorelai help Lauren into her coat. "Yeah, of couse I'm considering it."

"I don't think that's very wise."

"Why not?"

"Because these are young girls. They won't know the first thing about managing that money."

Lauren could tell her grandmother was upset about everything, and frankly, so was she. "I'm just going to go wait in the car." Lauren tells them. "Bye, Grandma." Lauren opens the door and slips out.

"I'm going to help them." Lorelai tells Emily.

"You don't know the first thing about managing that money, either."

"No, but I'm very familiar with the second thing." Lorelai jokes.

"How can you not see the pitfalls involved in accepting this money? I mean, you are the one who brags about how special your relationship with your daughters are. I'm stunned that you want to jeapardize it like this."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you know as well as I do that money means freedom."

"And?"

"If Rory and Lauren have that money then they won't need you anymore."

"I don't know, Mom. Rory is sixteen, and Lauren is eleven. There's still a couple of way I may come in handy, buying beer and stuff."

"Well, I'm glad you think losing your daughters is so funny."

"Mom."

"They will be self-sufficient. They won't need you to pay for anything. They won't have to turn to you."

"Everything in a relationship isn't about money, Mom."

"Rory will move out as soon as she can."

"So what?"

"She won't need you to help put her through college, or to buy a car. And Lauren will be able to do everything that you helped Rory with by herself. She won't need you to do those things for her."

"Okay. You know what? Say goodbye to Dad for me as soon as the voices in your head subside." Lorelai says as she goes to open the door, but Emily continues.

"Why should they wait to backpack across Europe with you? They can afford to go themselves, and they can take a friend, or a boyfriend or anyone."

"Yeah, well, they want to go with me."

"Well, now, of course they do. They don't have options, but the minute you give them options.."

"Okay, that's it! You're nuts and I'm going. In that order." Lorelai says, walking out.

"It's terrible not to be needed. You'll see!" Emily calls out.

In the car, Lorelai looks over at Lauren, who had fallen asleep. She reaches out and brushes the hair out of Lauren's face. Lauren and Rory had a future. Even Lorelai could see that. She knew Lauren was happy about the money, but she wasn't happy about what Gran wanted her to use it for. And Rory didn't even know, so she wasn't even sure if she was going to tell her yet. Her girls were her everything. She couldn't lose them.

At the house, Lorelai and Lauren walk through the door. Lorelai slips Lauren's coat off her tired daughter.

"Go upstairs. I'm just going to go talk to Rory." Lorelai tells her. Lauren nods her head and drags herself upstairs. Lorelai puts her keys on the table and walks into the kitchen. She sees the cake that she had put out for Rory, half-eaten, and takes a bite of it herself. Lorelai slips into Rory's room to find her daughter fast asleep. She smiles and walks over to the bed and slowly slipping the book out from under Rory's arm and throwing the blankets, gently over her. She looks around at all of the Harvard posters on Rory's wall. She wanted to wake her daughter up and tell her all about the great news she recieved tonight, but once again, her mother was in her head repeating over and over again about how her children won't need her. So, with that, Lorelai just sighs and turns the lights out before walking out, leaving Rory to sleep peacefully.

At the flower shop, Lorelai and Sookie are walking around and Lorelai had just got done telling Sookie about her night.

"That is amazing." Sookie tells her.

"I know. One minute it's pass the pot roast and the next minue its hey have a pile of money. Things are never boring a the Gilmore house."

"What did Rory say when you told her?"

"I haven't told her yet."

"What!?"

"She was asleep when I got home."

"Hi, for that much money, you wake her up. You hire singing telegrams, women jump out of cakes. People dress up like bankers and dance with those toasters."

"Well, she's been working her butt off all week on this Chilton paper, so I let her sleep. And I'll tell her tonight."

"Call her now. Oh, or page her!"

"I don't wanna bother her while she's at school." Lorelai says, looking at some flowers. "I can never decide. Carnations: tacky or retro?"

Sookie gives Lorelai a strange look. "You don't want to tell her."

"Yeah, I do. I think."

"Oh, well, I understand the hesitation." Sookie says, sarcastically.

"You do?"

"Absolutely. Who wants to be the bearer of good news? All that hugging and happiness. A nightmare."

"I was. I was thrilled when Gran told me about it. And I was going to tell Rory right away. I mean you have one kid that is upset and then you think, well, what if the other kid is so happy and then you have to figure out how you need to react now. Do you console your daughter who is upset on how she has to spend her money, or do you jump up and down for the other daughter who is happy how she has to spend her money."

"But.."

"My mother cornered me by the door saying all this stuff about how when Rory gets the money she's not gonna need me, and she's gonna move out of the house sooner."

"What? That's crazy."

"I know it is. It's crazy, and yet..."

"Honey, come on. The woman is just trying to mess with your mind, you know that."

"I do."

"She just doesn't wanna lose control of you. She wants you permanently obligated to her."

"I know, I know that."

"So, then what? You don't believe what she said, do you?"

"I don't know. I mean, you're right, what you're saying, she wants to mess with my mind, and make me feel obligated. But, I mean, what if the money does change our relationship?"

"Impossible."

"Well, anything's possible."

"Come on."

"I couldn't stand that. I like things the way they are now."

"Lorelai, this is Rory and Lauren we're talking about. They are like the most unmaterilisitic kids in the world."

"No, it's not about what they would buy. I don't care if they buy a house, or a boat, or the elephant man's bones. It's just that, you know, it's about the freedom. I mean, if I had access to all that money as a kid, I would have left the house so fast."

"Faster than seventeen?" Sookie asks. "Lauren is eleven. I really don't think she is ready to leave."

"God, no. I know this is crazy. I have my mom's voice stuck in my head. It's like that annoying cranberries song. I hate that I let her do this. I hate that I let her get to me."

"Well then don't let her. Call Rory and tell her about the money, and you'll see that nothing will be any different. I mean, did Lauren's demeanor towards you change at all when your grandmother told her?"

"No. But I don't want them to go to Europe without me. That was gonna be our thing."

"They are not gonna go without you. I promise."

"Hey." Lorelai picks up Sookie wrist to check the time. "Oh, no. Ah, I've got to g home." She groans.

"Why? What are you doing?"

"I have to change and go to tea with Gran and the cast of Gaslight." Lorelai tells her.

"Wow." Sookie laughs. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." Lorelai walks away.

In the square, Lauren is sitting inside the gazebo reading a book, just as Elizabeth walks up to her.

"This is the first time I'm seeing you not surrounded by anyone." Elizabeth laughs.

Lauren rolls her eyes and looks up at Elizabeth. "What do you want?"

"I just came to say I'm sorry for yesterday. Obviously we are no longer friends anymore. You hate me, and I understand that. I shouldn't have said those things I said. I didn't mean them."

"If you didn't mean them, then you wouldn't have said it." Lauren tells her.

"Lauren."

"Don't worry. I may be rich soon and be going to a different school. You won't have to see me anymore." Lauren says, slamming her book and walking passed Elizabeth.

At tea, Lorelai walks in and sees her mother sitting alone at a table. She takes a deep breath and walks over to her.

"Hi." She says as she puts her purse down by the chair and sits.

"Hello." Emily greets her.

"Where's Gran?"

"Torturing the bathroom attendant, I suppose."

"So, um, this place seems clean." Lorelai says, awkwardly as she looks around the place.

"Yes, it's famous for its cleanliness. So, what did Rory say when you told her?" Emily asks. "About the money I mean." Lorelai takes a deep breath. "She must've been very excited."

"Yes, she was." Lorelai says, as she looks into the menu to avoid the conversation. "Rose Tea." She reads. "That's not really tea, is it? it's like rose petals in hot water. More like a bad floral arrangement."

"Well, what did Rory say?" Emily asks again.

"She was happy." Lorelai tells her.

"Happy?"

"Yeah. She screamed, she did that air lasso thing over her head."

"Lorelai, be serious."

"She was asleep when I got home, Mom, so I couldn't tell her."

Emily smirks. "She doesn't know?"

"Well. Something I said must've really struck a chord with you."

"Excuse me?"

"You didn't tell her, so you must've had a reason."

"She was asleep, Mom. I just told you that."

"The only thing I can think of is you must have reconsidered based on our conversation."

Lorelai shakes her head. "I didn't reconsider."

"Yesterday, you could harly wait to get home to announce your great fortune to her. I'm surprised Lauren didn't wake Rory up and tell her the exciting news."

"I told Lauren not to say anything, and anyway, it's not like Lauren is exactly thrilled about it." Lorelai tells her. "Considering how Gran wants her to spend it, but I still think it's a great idea."

"But they have their own money to put themselves through school and to go to Europe..."

"Stop. Right now." Lorelai orders her mother. "This is just like you, to take something that should be great and twist it into something ugly. Why do you do that? What is wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Yes, there is. There is something seriously wrong with you. You should be studied."

"I don't understand why you are getting so upset. I respect the decision that you made."

"I made no decision."

"Whatever you say."

"Okay, you know what? I'm gonna call her." Lorelai says, reaching down in her purse and grabbing her phone. "And tell her right now."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am." Lorelai says, as she looks at her phone and starts moving it around trying to find a signal.

"What are you doing?"

"The reception sucks in here."

"Stop it. You looke like you're having a fit."

"Okay, i'm gonna go find a payphone." Lorelai tosses her phone back into her purse and goes to get up, but Emily grabs her arm.

"Your Grandmother will be back any second . Just have a sandwich."

"Have a sandwich. That's what you have to say to me? Have a sandwich?"

"Well, what do you want me to say to you?"

"I want you to say that you are sorry that you tried to talk me out of taking this money. That you realize that you were just being petty, and controlling, and mean. And that you know there is no amount of money that could change the relationship my girls and I have. That's what I want you to say."

"I will not."

"Well, say it, Mom, or I'm finding a payphone."

"Lorelai, you're here." Gran says, walking up.

"Hi, Gran."

"So, have you ordered the tea yet?"

"No, not yet." Emily tells her.

"Well, good, because I'm afraid I'm going to have to take my leave of you a little earlier than I had anticipated." She tells them.

"What? Why?" Lorelai asks, disappointed.

"My train leaves tonight, and I have a little last-minute packing to do."

"Well, I can help you with your packing." Emily offers.

"Plus, I really don't wish to witness anymore of this ughly little fight you two seem to be having. Raising your voice during high tea." Emily and Lorelai glance at eachother feeling embarrassed. "Whoever heard of such a thing?"

"Oh, Gran, please. I'm so sorry. We're done. Please don't leave."

"I can see now that offering the trust fund was a bad idea. Afterall, taking into account the maturity level of those involved, this large amount of money would probably not be safe."

"No, Gran, that isn't true. Rory and Lauren are incredibly mature kids."

"Oh, I'm sure they are. It's you I'm worried about. And I'm sure she gets it from you." She tells Emily. "Tell Rory and Lauren goodbye for me. You are all welcome to visit me in London anytime. Emily, please get my coat. I will meet you outside." Gran walks away leaving Emily and Lorelai with their heads low.

"Well, you won." Lorelai tells her mother.

"I did not win."

"You didn't want me to take the money, I'm not taking the money. That's called winning."

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not."

"Well...yes, I am."

"Forget it, Mom. It's not big deal."

"No, it is a big deal. Here Rory and Lauren had this wonderful opportunity, and we...and I...maybe I can talk to her."

"Oh, yes, that'll work." Lorelai laughs.

"Well, I'll go to your father. He can talk to her."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Mom."

"But Chilton."

"Rory can still go to Chilton, unless you're rethinking our agreement."

"No, not at all. I am not rethinking anything." Emily tells her.

"Okay, then we're good. Hell, Lauren may change her mind and we might have to come to another agreement. You never know." Lorelai jokes knowing full well that Lauren would not change her mind.

Emily smiles proudly. "Are you sure?"

Lorelai smiles once again. "We're good."

"Well, I'd better go out there before she leaves me here." Emily says, standing up.

"I'm sure you'll be sorry to see her go." Lorelai laughs.

"Oh, yes, I don't know what I'll do with myself. See you Friday?"

"See you Friday." Emily goes to walk away, but Lorelai calls her name. "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you one favor?"

"Anything. Anything at all."

"Don't make us take the coat rack back."

Emily laughs. "Deal."

At the bus stop, Lorelai is sitting on the bench just as the bus pulls up. She stands up and hands Rory her coffee when she comes out.

"Hi." She says, smiling lovingly at her daughter.

"Hey." Rory says a bit surprised.

"Here." Lorelai reaches over and kisses Rory on her cheek as she takes the coffee.

"Thanks. I thought you were gonna have tea today."

Lorelai picks up the third coffee she has sitting on the bench for Lauren and she and Rory begin to walk. "Uh, we did. We finished."

"Finished early."

"Yeah, well, once you're done with those little sandwiches, there's basically no reason to pretend you like tea anymore." Lorelai explains.

"I totally understand." Rory agrees pretending she knows what Lorelai is talking about.

Lauren runs up to them. "Hey, am I rich yet?" She ask her mom.

Lorelai hands her daughter the other coffee in her hand. "What are you talking about?" Rory asks.

"Oh, well, there's something I have to tell you." Lorelai tells Rory.

"What?"

"You lost out on a quarter of a million dollars today."

"What!?"

Lorelai nods her head with a big smile on her face, as Lauren celebrates by dancing along side of them.


	19. Just Passing Through

Thanks guys for the reviews. They really mean a lot and I'm so glad you all are enjoying the stories. Please continue to read and review and I will take all your comments and suggestions into consideration! (:

At Friday night dinner, it was just the Gilmore girls there while Richard was on business.

"Grandma, can I have some baby pictures of you and Grandpa?" Lauren asks.

"Any particular reason?" Emily asks.

"Yeah, we're doing this family-history project for school."

"Oh, well, if it's for school, I suppose I could dig something up."

Lauren looks over at Lorelai. "And I need some of Mom, too." She tells her.

"I thought we already had this conversation." Lorelai tells her.

"Yeah, but I don't believe you."

"Mother, tell her."

"I don't have baby pictures of your mother." Emily tells Lauren.

"Thank you."

"How could you not have any baby pictures of Mom?" Rory asks.

"Because when your mother was seven, I came downstairs and found her burning all of her baby pictures." Emily explains.

Rory and Lauren look at Lorelai astonished. "Why would you do that?" Rory asks her. "I'm sure you were a cute baby."

Lorelai glares at Emily. "She was. She was very cute.." Emily tells them.

"4, 3, 2, 1." Lorelai counts.

"In most respects." Emily finishes.

"Then we have lift off!"

"What does that mean?" Lauren asks, confused.

"Nothing." Lorelai says, annoyed.

"I don't see what the problem is. You certainly grew into it." Emily tells her daughter.

"Grew into what?"

"As a child, your mother had an unusually large head."

"The best thing about it was she'd tell me constantly." Lorelai tells them. "My first complete sentence was, 'big head want dolly.'

Rory starts laughing. "I can't imagine it being that bad."

"It wasn't." Emily tells her. "It just affected her balance a little, so.."

"Okay, can we talk about something besides my formerly huge head?" Lorelai interrupts her mother, begging her to stop.

"Are these new chairs, Grandma?" Rory asks.

"Why, yes, Rory, they are." Emily says, surprised that Rory even noticed.

"They are?" Lorelai questions.

"I got them from a dealer in Maine last summer. He just finished restoring them."

"They look exactly like the old ones."

"They're nice." Lauren says as she moves around in the chair.

"Sure they're new?"

"Of course I'm sure. I bought them."

"I don't see any difference at all."

"Well, the arch in the back is higher, and they have a completely different leg."

Lorelai looks down. "Mm. No difference."

"Of course I could only get ten, so I'm two chairs short of a set."

"You're telling me."

"Lorelai, do you realize how rare these chairs are?" Emily asks.

"No."

"I've searched for three years for them. I'd combed every fine antique store on the East coast, and this is all I could find. I blame Peg Mossley."

"Peg Mossley, evil, evil woman." Lorelai says.

"What did Peg Mossley do?" Rory asks them.

"She lured these two German children to her gingerbread house, and then she tried to eat them. Pass the artichokes, please."

"I made the mistake of telling Peg all my favorite special spots, and that woman moved in and completely wiped them out. You can't find a decent briedermeier hutch in all of Connecticut. I'm desperate for new sources." Emily tells her.

"What about Kim's Antiques?" Rory asks. Lorelai quickly looks up at her daughter.

"What's Kim's antiques?" Emily asks.

"Didn't that burn down?" Lorelai asks as she glares at her daughter.

"My best friend, Lane, her parents have this great antique store in Stars Hollow."

"Is that so? Why haven't you ever told me about it?" Emily asks Lorelai.

"Oh, I don't know, Mom. I guess it just got lost in my big head."

"Maybe you should come to Stars Hollow and I'll take you there." Rory suggests. "Like Saturday. You can come see the town."

"Well, won't you have to study?"

"I can put off studying for one day."

"I'm working." Lorelai blurts out.

"No one is asking you to do anything, Lorelai. This is between Rory and me. I accept your offer, Rory. I would love to spend Saturday with you. Lauren, will you busy Saturday?"

Lauren is looking into her spoon at herself. "No, I can hang out." She tells them.

"Great." Rory says, happily.

"Well, I'm just sorry that I'm gonna miss it."

"Eat your artichoke, Lorelai." Emily tells her.

At the diner, Luke walks over with three plates and goes over to the girls.

"Okay, two french toast with bacon crispy. Pancakes, two eggs over easy." He says, setting the plates down in front of each of them.

Lorelai looks down and sighs. "Oh."

"What?"

"You put the eggs on top of the pancakes."

"Oops." Lauren says as she takes a bite of her bacon.

"What?" Luke asks.

"Yeah, well, it's, uh, like two eyes staring at me." Lorelai tells him. "See, I can't eat it like this."

"Hence the 'oops.'" Rory tells him.

"What are you talking about? You always order the same thing."

"Yeah, but you usually put the eggs on the side so my breakfast is not ogling me." Lorelai explains.

"It's the same food."

"Yeah, I need the eggs put on the side."

"You want a brand new plate."

"Yes." Lorelai smiles up at him.

"How about if I take this plate in the back, and I take the eggs off the pancakes, I put the same eggs on the side, and bring the plate back? What happens then?"

"Then I can eat my breakfast."

"It's the same food, just a different configuration."

"I won't know that."

"I'm gonna take the plate in the back." Luke grabs Lorelai's plate back and walks to the back.

"So, what time does the judgemental express arrive?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Grandma get here at noon. Are you sure you won't do lunch?"

"Oh, no, I can't. Lunch is bad."

Rachel pops out from the back. "Lorelai, you're here." She says, walking towards them. "Good. Don't move."

"I won't."

"What are you doing at lunch?" Lauren asks.

"Oh, I have important things to do."

"Like what?"

"Well, at noon, I have to not have lunch with my mother."

"Very nice." Rory says, rolling her eyes.

Rachel walks back up to them. "So, I'm developing my picture from the Firelight Festival. Some amazing stuff. And I'm thinking maybe there's a book here, Faces of Small Town America." She jokes.

"Ah, you should feel safe you don't live near these people."

"Exactly. And the very last shot on my roll was this." Rachel hands her a photo of Lorelai and Luke. Rory and Lauren scoot closer to take a peek.

"Wow, when did you take this?"

"When you weren't looking."

Luke walks over to them. "What's that?" He asks.

"Oh, it's a picture of us." Lorelai says, showing him.

"Us?"

"Rachel took it." Lauren tells him.

"For the Firelight Festival." Rachel reminds him.

"Oh, sure, yeah. So here's your plate. No eyes." Luke hands Lorelai back her plate.

"Thank you."

"Do you wear contacts?" Rachel asks her.

"Me? No."

"God, you've got amazing eyes."

"Oh, wow." Rory says, grabbing a picture from the stack. "Look at this."

Lorelai grabs the picture. "What is that?"

"Oh, it's an old abandon inn I ran across when I was exploring the other day." Rachel tells her.

"This is Dragonfly." Lorelai remembers. "I totally forgot about this place."

"Well, it doesn't look like it's been operational in years."

"Look at all the trees. It's pretty." Lauren says.

"Oh, I'm buzzing." Rory says, grabbing her pager.

"What've I said about buzzing in public?" Lorelai jokes.

"It's Lane. 911, that's trig. Gotta go." Rory grabs her jacket. "Lauren, come with me so I don't have to find you when Grandma gets here."

Lauren huffs and takes one last bite of her bacon. "Fine." She says, getting up.

"Bye Rachel!" Rory waves.

"Bye." Rachel says, smiling.

"Take a..." Lauren grabs her toast. "Yeah." Lorelai says.

"Bye!" Lauren tells them as she follows Rory out the door.

"Those are the very first kids that I've met that aren't annoying." Rachel tells Lorelai.

Lorelai nods her head, agreeing. "Yes, they really aren't."

"See, I might consider doing the whole mom thing if I could be guaranteed that I'd get one just like yours."

"Oh, you can. You just have to go to Sears." Lorelai looks back down at the picture in her hand. "God, where is this again?"

"Uh, it's kind of by the mill. You go across a little footbridge with the mean duck family living under it."

"Yes, the Armbrewsters. Wow, it's really amazing."

"Do you want to see it?" Rachel asks Lorelai, taking her by surprise.

"What?"

"The Inn. I'm gonna head out that way in a little while." Lorelai hesitates for a second. "Come on, finish you breakfast. I'll drive us out there."

"Drive her out where?" Luke asks as he walks back up to them.

"Oh, Lorelai and I are going to cruise the docks"

"Yeah, we're gonna see how many sailors we can get to tattoo our names on their butts."

Luke rolls his eyes, not even bothering to ask. "So what do you think?"

"Well, I have to check in at the Inn first."

"Well, that's great. Good. I'll pick you up there."

"Okay, good."

At the house, Rory and Lauren are outside, on the porch, waiting for Emily to arrive.

"So this is weird, right?" Lauren asks her sister.

"What is?" Rory asks, looking up from her book.

"Grandma coming here. I mean last time she was here was for your dance thing, but that was just to the house, and now she's coming and is going to be exploring the town with us. It's weird, right?" Lauren explains.

Rory shrugs. "I don't know. I mean, kinda. But it's nice. We get to show Grandma our town and what we do. I think it'll be cool."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So, have you talked to Elizabeth yet?" Rory asks.

Lauren sighs. "No. I haven't and I don't plan to either."

"Don't you think you're overreacting just a little? I mean she just asked you a question and you went crazy on her."

"No, she told me I didn't seem upset about what happened to me. Who says that?" Lauren asks with disgust.

"Lauren, what happened to you was very wrong, and it shouldn't have ever happened. Mom has been explaining sex to us since we could talk. Telling us we should wait until we are married or until we at least know it's right and if it is to talk to her. So you know that it was wrong what Jake did, so you had a very different reaction than most kids your age would do and you were able to think about it and talk to us, but maybe Elizabeth doesn't quite understand. She isn't that lucky when it comes to the parents thing. They aren't around much and she doesn't have siblings like you do." Rory explains that best way that she could.

"So what you are saying is that Elizabeth was just confused?"

"Yeah. It doesn't hurt to ask. Afterall, she was your best friend."

"Yeah." Lauren says, sadly. She knew her sister was right. "Do you think I'll ever see them again?"

Rory puts her hand gently onto Lauren's knee. "I hope not, and if you do I'll make sure nothing happens." Lauren and Rory exchange smiles just as Emily pulls up. "Grandma's here." They both get up and walk down the stairs to greet their grandmother. "Grandma!" Rory calls out as Emily steps out the vehicle.

"Rory, Lauren, what a lovely day to..." Emily steps right into a dirty hole and gets stuck.

"Are you okay?"

"I guess putting in a walkway never occured to your mother." Emily groans.

"Actually it occurs to her every day on the way to work." Lauren tells her.

"Here." Rory pulls Emily out of the hole.

"Thank you." She says, looking down at her shoe.

"Are your shoes okay?" Rory asks as soon as they walk into the house.

"Just a little muddy, that's all." Emily says, taking them off.

"Here, give them. I'll clean them for you."

"Oh, you don't have to do that." Emily says, handing Rory her shoes.

"No worries, Grandma." Lauren says, leading them into the kitchen. "Mom found this great shoe cleaner. It gets out pretty much anything."

"Do you want something to drink? There should be iced tea in the fridge." Rory tells her.

"Iced tea would be nice."

"Lauren, can you grab the cleaner." Lauren nods her head and walks to the cabinet and takes out the cleaner while Emily opens the refrigerator.

"Oh, my god! There's nothing in here."

"I know. It's a little sparse." Rory tells her as she begins cleaning the shoes.

"It's The Grapes of Wrath."

"Don't worry we eat fine."

"No food, no drinks. Do you at least have plates?" Emily asks.

"Yes, we have plates." Rory confirms.

Emily walks to the cabinets and reaches up for a plate. She looks at it with a confused look. "There are women in bikinis on them."

"The original Charlie's Angels." Lauren tells her. "It took us years to get a complete set."

"You can find the Kate Jacksons and the Shelley Hacks pretty easily." Rory explains as she walks over to her Grandmother. "Even the Cheryl Ladds. But the Farrah Fawcetts and Jaclyn Smiths are a little harder to come by, but still accessible. The real trick, however, is to find the Tanya Roberts. We have three."

"You have three Tanya Roberts?"

"Yeap."

"And I was worried. Silly me." Emily says, as she puts the plate back. "How are you doing with those shoes?"

"All done." Rory shows her.

"Ah, that's amazing! What is that you used?"

"I don't know. We got it off one of those late night t.v. ads. Apparently it also gets rust off nails and hinges, waxes your car perfectly, and weatherproofs windows and doors."

"Isn't that nice."

"Okay, about today. I think we should just give you the grand tour of the town. So, we can start by walking to Kim's Antiques which takes us by all the good sites."

"Well, uh, Rory, I don't think I wore the right shoes for the grand tour. Why don't we just drive?"

"You can borrow some of my mom's shoes." Lauren tells her while she runs towards the stairs. Rory nods her head and smiles at her grandma while she follows Lauren and Emily stops by the stairs, unsure.

"I don't think so. Rory, hold on a minute."

"Grandma, you'll be missing the true Stars Hollow experience if you don't walk. Trust me."

"Alright. But I won't wear anything with rhinestones or zebra stripes or anything that has batteries or that sings or makes animal noises or moves on its own."

"Grandma, we got it!" Lauren yells from upstairs.

At the old Dragonfly, Lorelai is looking at it while Rachel takes pictures.

"Wow, must have been something when it was all fixed up and nice." Lorelai tells her.

"Can I ask what the fascination with this place is?"

"Oh, well, me and my friend, Sookie, we've been kinda toying with the idea of opening our own place together." Lorelai explains.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, someday." Lorelai laughs. "Obviously not now. We're still saving up."

"Are you close?"

"No, not at all."

"Well, this looks like it could be a great place."

"Yeah, it really does." Lorelai says, as she walks up on the steps of the porch. "God. A little paint, some pretty curtains, $150,00 of construction, and we're open for business."

"Did you always want to own an Inn?" Rachel asks.

"Oh, no, I was still dreaming of owning a red camaro when Rory appeared on the scene and then I was just dreaming of owning a house when Lauren was discovered."

"Ah, right."

"It's a new idea in the last couple of years, actually." Lorelai tells her. "How about you? Did you always want to be a photographer?"

"Not specifically. I just remember growing up thinking, 'I want to be anywhere but here.'"

"AH, that was you in the other room!" Lorelai jokes as she looks into the windows.

"I made sure to pick something that would keep me moving. Constantly."

"Sounds exciting."

"It is. Tiring, too. And now that I'm here, back with Luke, I don't know."

Lorelai walks back over. "Things seem to be going pretty well for you guys."

"I guess." Rachel says a little unsure. "But I tell you these last couple of weeks it's become increasingly apparent to me that things just can't continue the way they've been."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I think it's time we get serious." Lorelai was surprised hearing this. She had never thought of Luke being that guy who settles down and it actually bugged her a little just thinking about it. "I'm ready to settle down, I guess, is the creepy, old-fashioned term for it. Pretty damn scary, huh?"

Lorelai starts laughing. She wasn't sure what to say to Rachel except to nod and laugh a little. "Pretty damn scary." She tells her.

In town, Rory, Lauren, and Emily are walking through the square.

"I feel ridiculous." Emily says as she walks the town in Lorelai's socks and shoes.

"You look great." Rory tells her.

"I look like cydesdale."

"You look like you're comfortable."

"People are staring."

"Because you look great."

"Yes, what a shame your grandfather isn't here. He'd fall in love with me all over again." Emily says sarcastically. They walk into Kim's Antique and are immediately hit with furniture in their face. "I think we came in through the storeroom."

"Nope. This is it." Lauren tells her.

"This is the antique store?"

"You have to dig, but you can find great stuff here." Rory explains.

Emily starts bending down under stuff so she doesn't hit it. "This is ridiculous. No one can run a quality business like this. This place is dusty and disorganized. And you can't possibly..." Emily stops when she sees a piece of furniture. "Oh, not that is gorgeous Look at the woodwork. It's exquisite." She says, mesmerized into the wood. "I wonder if it has a mate."

Lauren looks at the piece next to it. "Grandma, look at this. It's got like little flowers all over it."

Emily looks over. "It's very pretty."

"Is it something special?"

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah."

"Then it's something special."

Lauren smiles at her grandmother and looks back at the furniture. "Hi!" Lane says, walking over to them.

"Lane, this is my grandma." Rory introduces. "Grandma, this is my friend, Lane."

"Well, I've heard a lot about you." Emily says, smiling at the young girl.

"It's nice to meet you. Uh, Rory, can I talk to you for a sec?" Lane asks.

Rory looks at her Grandma. "Go. Talk. I have a lot of looking to do here and Lauren can help me."

Rory nods and follows Lane. "Problem." Lane tells her.

"Hit me."

"It's been a week since that party and he has not called."

"Henry."

"He said he'd call."

"Maybe he's been busy."

"Maybe he has a girlfriend."

"Lane."

"A tiny, perfect Korean girl that his parents will love and approve of."

"Lane, you are a tiny, perfect Korean girl that his parents would love and approve of."

"No, they'd know."

"Know what?"

"Know that I listen to the wrong music. And wish I could go blonde without looking like an idiot, or that I'd take a whopper over kimchi in a heartbeat."

"Now you're just going crazy."

"So he doesn't like me, he's not gonna call. It's not the end of the world. I'll live. I'll go on. There's always college, unless my parents get their way, and then it's, 'I take thee, Jesus, to be my lawful wedded husband.'"

"Lane, with all due respect to your fiance, Henry will call." Rory assures her.

"No, he's not."

"Then why did he talk to you all night and follow you around everywhere you went, and ask you to dance six times?"

"Was it six times?" Lane asks, smiling.

"It was six times. And he did not ask you to dance six times because you're a good dancer. Because to tell you the truth, and as much as I love you, you're not."

"Really?"

"You're an embarrassment to the art of dancing."

"Thank you." They laugh and look over when they hear Lane's mom talking to Emily. Lauren is standing between them watching back and forth as they both argue with eachother.

"That's mid-19th century. Four different kinds of wood." Mrs. Kim tells her.

"Is it missing an inlay?"

"No."

"I thought it was missing an inlay."

"Perfect condition!"

"How much?"

"$3,500 for the pair."

"You must be joking!"

"No, no joke."

"Well, they're nice, but not that nice."

"Not a better pair on the East Coast."

"$2,000"

"You're from Hartford."

"Yes. It hardly matters where I'm from. I know these prices are overpriced."

"Look on the bottom."

"They're not signed."

"Look on the bottom!"

"Are they signed?"

"Look on the bottom." Emily bends down and looks on the bottom. "They're signed."

"How do I know that's authentic?"

"You have my word."

"And a letter of authentication?"

"That, too."

"I won't take it."

"Then someone else will!"

"Eventually maybe."

"I can wait."

"So can I."

"It's my last offer."

"I'll think about it."

"I'll waive the tax."

"And throw in delivery."

"We appreciate your business."

Lauren looks at her sister and Lane with wide eyes. She had never experienced something like this, ever.

As they walk out of the store, Emily looks over at the girls with a wide grin. "I like that woman." She tells them. "And you know what? I like these shoes."

"You're becoming one of us, Grandma." Rory laughs.

At the Inn, Emily and the girls walk into the Inn.

"So, what do you think?" Rory asks.

Emily looks around. "Well, I think it's very nice." She tells them.

"Mom's office is right back there." Lauren points out.

"Oh, and you have to see the dining room. They got the chandeliers from one of Martha Washington's houses." Rory explains.

"Do you girls spend a lot of time here?"

"Yeah. We work here sometimes."

"I help Sookie in the kitchen." Lauren says, proudly.

"Just a couple afternoons a week and we help out with special occasions." Rory tells her. "They have a lot of weddings here."

"I wonder where Mom is." Lauren says, looking around.

"Oh, don't bother your mother. I'm sure she's busy."

Lauren starts walking to the front desk while Rory and Emily follow her. "No, she'd want to say hi." Rory tells her.

"Michel, where's Mom?" Lauren asks Michel, who is going through paperwork.

"Off with her boyfriend."

"What boyfriend?" Rory asks.

"Small, dark, wanted in four states."

"Okay, well, do you know when she's coming back cause my grandmother's here and we wanna says hi."

Michel looks in front of him only to see Emily looking back at him. "Your grandmother."

"Emily Gilmore." Emily says, putting her hand out.

Michel accepts it and kisses her hand. "Michel Girard."

They start speaking French to eachother surprising both Lauren and Rory. "Okay, well, we'd better go find Mom." Rory interrupts.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you." Emily tells him.

"The pleasure is all mine."

They begin to walk away. "What a charming man." Emily tells them.

"Oh, okay." Rory says, not knowing what else to say to that.

Lorelai walks out and Lauren is the first to see her. "Mom!" She says, running over to her.

"Hey, sweets." Lorelai says, gently kissing her daughter on her head. She looks up and sees her mom. "Mom, hi." She says walking over to them.

"Lorelai, it's quite a place you've got here." Emily tells her.

"Oh, well, it's not really my place. I just work here. So, I thought you were gonna go antiquing." Lorelai asks Rory.

"Yeah, we did." Rory tells her. "And then we had lunch."

"Oh, really? Where?"

"Teriyaki Joe's." Emily tells her.

Lorelai grins. "You're kidding."

"She picked." Lauren tells her mom.

"You did?"

"It looked festive."

"I can't picture you at Teriyaki Joe's." Lorelai laughs and then looks down and notices Emily's feet. "Or in jogging shoes. What's up, working girl?"

"Well, Rory decided that we should take the grand tour of the town, that meant walking. I hope you don't mind. I borrowed your socks also."

"Oh, I don't mind. I wish I had a camera, but I don't mind."

"We're gonna go show her the grounds." Rory tells her Mom.

"Oh, yeah, good. On the way back, show her the gym. Jump on the treadmill."

"See you later." Rory says, rolling her eyes playfully at her mother's joke.

"Make sure you stretch first." Lorelai tells Emily. She pats Lauren's butt playfully as she runs by, and Lorelai continues to walk to the front desk.

"I just love your mother!" Michel tells her, as Lorelai grimaces at him.

Outside, Rory and Lauren are showing Emily the land.

"The horses are up on that hill, and the tennis courts are back there." Lauren points out for her.

"It's certainly impressive." Emily says.

"And this is my favorite place." Rory says as she smiles when they walk closer to the shed.

Emily starts laughing. "The tool shed?" She asks.

"No, this is where we use to live."

"What?"

"Right when Mom and I moved here, this was our apartment." Rory says, running in.

"I didn't get to live here because Mom got the house right before I was born." Lauren tells Emily.

Emily stares at the place before following the girls in. "Lucky you." She mutters.

"I know it looks small, but it's really pretty." Rory says as Emily looks around. "See, we had our bed right over here." Rory points to the spot where there is now a table. "And Mom put up this really pretty curtain around the tub so that it looked like a real bathroom. And we would just sit outside at night when the Inn would have parties, and we'd just listen to the music, and feed the ducks..." Emily could stand to be in the shed any longer. She was horrified to learn that after her daughter left the house that she moved herself and her child into a tool shed.

"Grandma?" Lauren asks as they watch Emily back out the shed.

"Grandma, wait. What's the matter?" Rory asks as she and Lauren run after her.

"Nothing." Emily tells them.

"Did something happen? Are you sick? Is it the teriyaki?"

"I'm fine. It's just getting late. I have to go." Emily tells them as she runs off.

"Now that was weird, right?" Lauren asks her big sister.

Rory looks at Lauren then back at where Emily ran off. "Yeah, it was."

At the house, Rory and Lane are sitting in Rory's room doing homework and listening to music.

"I like this song." Rory says. "It makes me gloomy."

"Gloomy's good."

"Like really gloomy."

"Like, Joy Division gloomy? Nick Cave gloomy, Robert Smith gloomy?"

"Johnny Cash gloomy."

"Soo, kinda like a San Quin-tiney, 'it's a long road home, and my horse just got shot, but I still got my girl by my side,' gloomy?"

"You read my mind." Rory laughs.

"I'm deep in a Charlie Parker gloomy." Lane tells her, sadly.

"Henry still hasn't called?"

"No, he called."

Rory sits up in excitement. "He did? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, I didn't talk to him. He left a message. I listened to it eight and half times, but then my mom came home and I had to erase it. But I was so panicked that I broke it. Which is better because now all evidence that a boy called me is in the trash." Lane explains.

"Eight and half times." Rory repeats.

"Well, it was a good message, the first couple times. Then I started parsing it for subtext."

"What did he say?"

"He said, and I quote, 'Hey Lane, it's Henry.' Not a good start."

"How do you figure?"

"It's so gender-neutral. It's how you start a conversation with a bowling pal."

"He asked you bowling?"

"Then he said, 'It was fun meeting you the other night.'"

"What?" Rory asks, confused.

"He didn't say which night, like he didn't remember which night. Like he's mixing me up with another girl from another night. For all I know, he thought he was calling the hot blonde he met at the hopped-up night at Balthazar's."

"He's a sixteen year-old Korean boy." Rory reminds her.

"Or so he led me to believe."

"What's the bottom line here?"

"The bottom like is that he wants me to call him back. But if I do that, then he's probably gonna ask me out on a date. And if we go out on a date, then it could lead to another date. And then I'll have to introduce him to my parents. And once I do that they are gonna like him because he's Korean, and he's gonna be a doctor. And then, once that happens, that's it. It'll be over. He'll be hideous to me." Lane explains before sighing and leaning back on Rory's bed. "Now I'm a Lou Reed gloomy."

The phone starts ringing and Rory reaches over and picks it up. "Hello?"

"Rory, hello. Do you have a minute?" Emily asks from the other line.

"Um, sure."

"Okay, I know this probably seems silly but I was wondering what your favorite color is."

"Oh, I don't really have one. Blue, I guess."

"Okay. What are your favorite flowers? Do you like flowers?"

"Sure."

"Which would you say you like better: roses or lilies?"

"Um, sunflowers."

"Sunflowers it is. Now, would Lauren happen to be around you at this moment?" Emily asks.

"Um, let me check." Rory covers the speaker with her hand. "Lauren, are you around?" She yells out.

"Yeah!" Lauren yells back.

"Come here!" Rory yells.

Lauren runs into Rory's room. "What? I'm in the middle of writing a paper."

"Phone." Rory says, handing Lauren the phone.

"Hello?" Lauren asks.

"Lauren, dear, it's Grandma. I was asking your sisters some questions so I thought I'd get a few answers from you, too."

"Okay." Lauren says with confusion as she looks at Rory, who just shrugs her shoulders.

"What is your favorite music?" Emily asks. "N'sync or 98 Degrees?"

Lauren looks at the phone and then looks at Rory and Lane. "Uh, N'sync or 98 Degrees?" She repeats.

Rory and Lane glare at her. "What kind of sick joke is this?" Lane asks her.

"I don't think I could choose, Grandma." Lauren tells Emily.

"Well, what about that other group, The Backside Boys?"

"You mean The Backstree Boys?" Lauren laughs.

"Yes, that's it."

"Yeah, sure."

"Wonderful."

"Grandma, are you writing this down?"

"Maybe."

"Why?"

"You'll see. I'm looking forward to dinner on Friday. Thank Rory for me."

"Okay. Bye." Lauren hangs up the phone and tosses it on the bed. "Grandma is trippin." She says, turning back and running out of Rory's room.

"I gotta go." Lane says as she looks at her watch.

"Call him." Rory tells her.

"I already left him a message." Lane tells her while she puts on her shoes and packs her things. "He's probably parsing it right now.

Later that day, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are sitting in the small movie theater waiting for the movie to start and talking about Emily.

"So she actually asked if you like The Backstreet Boys?" Lorelai asks Lauren.

"Except she called them Backside Boys." Lauren laughs.

Lorelai starts laughing as well. "Ha! That is high comedy. What inspired that woman?"

"I don't know." Rory says, shaking her head. "It was weird."

"This sudden interest in pop music. I sat her down to listen to a Prince song once, and she looked like she was having a stroke." Lorelai tells them making them laugh. "Wait a minute. I know what she's doing."

"What?"

"She's trying to be your pal now. Oh, that sneak. You all spend one day together, and she wants to know all about you. She's picturing the three of you chatting about boys and painting eachother toenails..." Kirk starts clearing his throat, mainly at the girls. Lorelai turns around. "Oh, hey, Kirk. Are you getting a cold? You know, you should try that dyna-meda-chema-themytol." Rory and Lauren start laughing hysterically. "Knocks it right out. But don't drive your forklift, though cause it'll make you drowsy."

They see Luke and Rachel come into the theater. "Oh, wow. When's the last time you think Luke's been to a movie?" Lauren asks.

"I don't know, but I think the guy had to crank the projector by hand."

"Do you mind?" Kirk asks from the back of them.

"Kirk, the movie hasn't even started yet."

"I like to have silence in order to cleanse my mental palate. And achieve calm before enjoying a motion picture." He explains to her.

Lorelai grins at Kirk playfully. "Oh, you got that out of a book." She teases. Lorelai turns back around and watchs Luke whisper into Rachel's ear. "Luke looks happy, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he looks happy." Rory agrees.

"They seem really right together, don't they?"

"Just right."

"Good, good. He deserves it." Lorelai says, smiling at the two.

It was another Friday night dinner as the girls walk up to the door and ring the bell. Emily opens it with a bright wide smile.

"Hello, hello, hello!" She says, happily.

"Wow, Mom, Hi. Check the rubbing alcohol." Lorelai jokes to her kids.

"How was the drive?"

"Good."

"The foyer looks great." Lorelai says, trying to get Emily to move out of their way so they could go in.

"I have a surprise for you two." She tells Rory and Lauren.

"The rest of the house ran away?" Lorelai asks.

"No. Rory, Lauren, come with me." She says, taking their hands and dragging them away.

Lorelai walks in by herself. "Okay, so I'll follow you, then." She tells them as she closes the door.

Upstairs, Emily, Rory, and Lauren walk into a room. They start looking around the room once Emily turns the light on.

"Voila!" She yells.

"Oh, my." Rory says, stunned.

"Uh, Grandma, what is this?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai walks up. "This is Rory's room."

"What?" Rory asks.

"Since you've been spending so much time here lately, I thought you should have a special place, all your own."

"But you didn't have to do this."

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's beautiful."

"Lauren, I have one for you, too." Emily says, dragging Lauren out.

"Oh, god." Lauren says to herself.

Lorelai hurries after them as they go to the last door next to Lorelai's old room. "And this is all yours!" Emily tells her.

Lauren and Lorelai walk in. Lauren was speechless. All she could see was pink everywhere her eyes went. She hated pink. "Do you see The Backstreet Boys poster." Lorelai whispers to her.

"Thanks, Grandma." Lauren tells Emily with a fake smile on her face.

"You're welcome, sweetheart. Now, come on, let's go downstairs and see if dinner's ready." She says, ushering Lauren out of the room leaving Lorelai still standing in the middle of the room, looking around. Emily turns around. "You coming?"

"You bought them magazines." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, the young girls enjoy the articles."

"You bought boy-band posters and hello kitty notepads."

"A lovely young girl at the store helped me pick them out."

"You filled Rory's room with sunflowers and Lauren's with daisies."

"What is the matter, Lorelai?"

"Nothing. I don't know. It's just a little weird, that's all." She admits.

"Why is it weird to do something for my grand-daughters?"

"I don't know. I mean, it's not like you bought them a car. It's a room, and...you know, you're right. It's nice. I'm sorry. I'm just being silly."

"Maybe you don't like the fact that now they have a placy away from you." Emily smiles. "Someplace that's just their own."

"I said I was fine."

"Or maybe it's because it's so large and spacious and has four solid walls around the bathtub."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, it might not be exciting or behemian, but at least, it doesn't have shovels propped up against the sofa, either, now, does it?" Emily scolds.

"I'm sorry. I missed the checkered flag. When did the argument start?: Lorelai asks in confusion.

"Is it because it's not a shack in the woods? Or is it the proximity to that's making you so uncomfortable?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You hated us that much!?"

"What?"

"You had to take that little girl away. That was bad enough. But to that!? To live there in a shed like a hobo? And then while you were pregnant with Lauren you stayed there?" Lorelai closes her eyes and sighs. She knew exactly what her mother was talking about now. "That's no place for a four year-old or a pregnant woman!"

"Who uses the word 'hobo' anymore?"

"I saw it. I saw that horrible little pit you so proudly ran to. I saw waht you chose over your own family. You would've lived in a gutter, in the street, in a cardboard box, anywhere, as long as you didn't have to be near us. Isn't that true!?"

"Mom."

"Isn't that true, Lorelai!?"

"Mom, I was very young, and I was very unhappy." Lorelai says, calmly. "And I needed to be someplace that wasn't here."

"Excuse me." Emily says, rushing out of the room.

Lorelai sighs and follows her mother out of the room.

After dinner, the girls are walking down the street in the square.

"You're awfully quiet." Rory tells her mom.

"I am?"

"You hardly said anything at dinner."

"I was chewing."

"You didn't say anything on the ride home."

"I was concentrating."

"Are you mad about the rooms?" Lauren asks.

"No. Not at all." Lorelai assures her. "I just wish sometimes that certain things could be different."

"Like what?"

"Like, wouldn't it be great if once, just once, I could make my mother hear me? I mean, really hear me, even if it was just for one second."

"It's my fault." Rory says, sadly.

Lorelai gasps. "How is it your fault?"

"I shouldn't have taken her there."

"Oh, Rory."

"I just thought that if she saw how we lived and how pretty it was with the lake and the swans..."

"She'd do a happy dance?" Lorelai asks.

"That she'd feel included and then, maybe.."

"The whole 'me running away' thing wouldn't be such a big deal? Me running away from them is always gonne be a big deal. There is nothing you can do to change that."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, I would date Steven Tyler."

Lauren covers her face digusted at hearing that come out of her mother's mouth. "Can I ask a question whose answer wouldn't horrify me?" Rory tries again.

"Oh, go ahead." Lorelai says, trying not to laugh.

"Do you think you and Grandma will ever get to talk about all the thing you've gone through?"

"No."

"You didn't even consider it."

"Sorry. No."

"Why?"

"Because it would just end badly."

"It doesn't have to."

"Ah, it'd be like the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. But at least those got to be in France."

"You've never tried." Rory argues.

"Oh, no. That's not true. I have tried. I have tried my whole life. But my mother and I, we speak a different language. I talk, I think I'm being clear, and all she hears is 'blah, blah, ginger.'"

"But if you won't talk and she won't listen, then how is anything ever gonna change?"

"I don't know." Lorelai says, honestly. She looks over at Lauren and notices that she had been quiet for awhile. "Hey, you okay?"

"Um, yeah. I have to go do something real quick. Can I just meet you at Luke's?" Lauren asks.

"Yeah, sure. What do you have to do?"

"I have to save a friendship. I'll be right back!" Lauren says as she runs away.

Lauren runs up the porch of Elizabeth's house and knocks on her door knowing good and well her parents weren't home so she wouldn't be waking them up. Elizabeth turns on the porch light and opens the door. She looks at Lauren with a confused face because she was not someone she expecting to ever see on her porch again.

"Hey!" Lauren says, smiling.

"Hey.." Elizabeth says, a little unsure. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you. I need to tell you how stupid I was being. I overreacted over everything. I think I was just expecting you to understand what happened to me considering you're my best friend and all, but then I realized that maybe you just didn't get why I wasn't reacting the way I was suppose to because you didn't know much about it." Lauren explains quickly.

"What are you talking about, Lauren?"

"We are so young and I remember that my mom had me and my sister at such a young age that ever since we could talk and understand what she was talking about that she always taught us that sex wasn't something to just play around with. I wasn't happy with what Jake did because I knew it was wrong, and I wasn't expecting something to happen like that to me, at all. So, I pushed myself away from the situation and away from the ones who were trying to help me and talk to me about it. Elizabeth, you're my best friend and sometimes I forget that we don't live in the same world. I was reacting that way because I didn't want you to see how hurt I was. I didn't want to cry and breakdown in front of you. Just like I know you don't like doing the same thing with me when you are upset about your parents. I know it hurts you. I understand that now. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think we need to learn to be upfront with eachother. I want us to be able to talk to eachother about things instead of always getting in trouble with eachother." Lauren laughs. "You're my best friend and I don't want to lose you. I'm sorry for blowing up at you like that. And maybe tomorrow we can sit down and I can explain everything to you because it's still with me. It bothers me a lot. And I need my best friend."

Elizabeth is just staring at Lauren as she listens to her speak. She wasn't not expecting her night to end like this, but she was happy it was. She missed her best friend, too. Elizabeth reaches over and hugs Lauren tightly. "I didn't mean for it to come out like it did. I swear. I knew you were hurting, but I was just confused. I am so sorry, Lauren."

Lauren laughs and hugs her friend back. "It's okay. So, tomorrow?" Lauren asks.

Elizabeth pulls away and grins at her friend. "Sure thing."

"Great." Lauren hugs Elizabeth one more time before turning away and running back to Luke's.

The next day, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are sitting on blankets, on the ground, in front of the torn up Dragonfly Inn.

"So, what do you think?" Lorelai asks her girls.

"It's got a great view." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, and good highway access."

"I love that window back in the..." Lauren points.

"Library?" Lorelai asks. "Oh, no, lobby. No, bathroom?"

"I'd get that decided before you open." Lauren tells her making them laugh.

Sookie comes out onto the porch. "There's absolutely no kitchen space here!" She yells out to them. "How are we supposed to open a bed and breakfast when there's no place to cook breakfast? Then it's just a bed. We'll have to charge half price."

"We'll build a new kitchen, Sookie."

"I'll need plenty of ventilation and an area for an outdoor fireplace for barbeques." She tells her. "Plus storage. Where did these people put anything? And, oh, and a pantry and a canning room. And I'd love to smoke our own meats."

"Absolutely!" Lorelai yells.

"I don't know if this is gonna work." Sookie tells her. "I may have to do some floor plans. Where is that plumbing?" Sookie starts walking around the porch in a panic.

"Wow, your own Inn." Rory says in amazement as she looks back up at the building.

"Cool, huh?" Lorelai asks, smiling as she thinks about it herself.

"It's gonna be a really big job."

"Yeah."

"So how long do you think before you guys own this place?" Lauren asks her mom.

"Oh, sweeties, it's going to be a very, very, very, long time."

"Do you think it'll still be here?" Rory asks.

"Yeah." Lorelai says when they hear a noise coming from the front and they watch the screen door fall onto the porch. "I think we got a shot."


	20. Keep Your Head Up

At the diner, Lorelai and Rory are sitting together eating and drinking coffee while Lorelai is telling her a story about what had happened to her at the store, but Rory was not into it. Hence the yawning and the resting on her hands as she listened to her mom.

"So, then he starts ripping my $20.00 bill into like a million pieces and I'm thinking there was a store full of people watching why am I the one on the ling with the crazy magician?" Rory lets out a big yawn. "Okay, I'll cut to the end. So he couldn't put it back together again, and he had to pay me back in quarters."

"Very good story." Rory tells her.

Lorelai glares at Rory. "You look tired."

"I just haven't been sleeping very well." Rory tells her.

"How come?"

"I just have a lot on my mind.

"Anything I can do?"

Rory looks down at her mug that was almost empty and looks back her mom with a smile. "Flag down the coffee."

"Arm going up now." Lorelai says as she puts her hand up to get Luke's attention. Lorelai turns back to her daughter, who is once again yawning. "Honey, you gotta wake up."

Lauren runs in, out of breath, and over to her mom and Rory. "Okay, why didn't I get a wake up call?" Lauren asks, annoyed. She had woke up this morning to no one in her house, which was very unusual. Usually, Lorelai was jumping on her bed to get her up.

"Uh, I tried and you didn't budge. That is why I set up the two alarm clocks." Lorelai tells her.

Lauren rolls her eyes and take a sip of her mom's coffee. "Yeah, thanks for that."

"Were you up late?" Rory asks her.

"I was just catching up with Elizabeth on the phone."

"You've been talking to her again for a week now. What is there possibly to catch up on?" Lorelai asks confused.

"Just stuff." Lauren says, shruggin her shoulders. She did not want to get into details with her mom about what she and her best friend were dicussing because then she would have to talk about all of it again and she was not in the mood to do so. Lauren looks at her watch. "I gotta go."

"But school doesn't start for another hour?" Lorelai tells her.

"I know, but I have to meet Elizabeth. See ya!" Lauren kisses her mom on her cheek before dashing out of the diner.

"Maybe I just need to call her on the phone to get a decent conversation out of her." Lorelai says making Rory chuckle.

At the Inn, Lorelai is sitting a table near the front desk putting some papers together in folders. The phone rings and Michel picks it up.

"Independence Inn. Michel speaking."

"Yeah, is Miss. Gilmore there?" Max asks on the other line.

"I'm sorry, she's busy. How may I assist you?"

"Actually, I need to talk to Miss. Gilmore."

Michel walks towards Lorelai. "Is this business or personal?"

"Personal." Michel throws the phone on the table in front of Lorelai, nearing scaring her to death. "Is anybody there? Hello?"

Lorelai picks up the phone. "Yes, hello? Hi?"

"Lorelai?"

Lorelai smiles as she recognizes the voice on the other Inn. "Max!"

"Is this a bad time?"

"No such thing. Where are you?"

"I am in the teacher's lounge." He tells her.

"Mm, what are you wearing?" Lorelai teases.

"Nothing." He teases back.

"You must be very popular."

"And chilly."

"I thought we had a chat date tonight."

"We did. But, I was thinking about something and I wanted to run it by you."

Lorelai gets up with the folders in her hand and walks to the front desk. "Okay."

"So we've been having these very successful phone calls for a couple weeks now."

"Yes, we have."

"And I think that all the talking has done us a lot of good."

"Yes, it has."

"So I was thinking that maybe this weekend, instead of a phone call, we should have a date." Max suggests. "Let's have dinner."

Lorelai smirks at Max suggestion. "Hmm. In the same restaurant?"

"At the same table. I think it's time."

"You know what? So do I."

"Saturday night? Eight?" He asks.

"Okay. Wear some pants."

"I make no promises." Max scoffs, jokingly.

"Bye." Lorelai laughs and hangs up the phone.

Outside of the market, Rory is sitting down on the ledge, reading, when Lane walks up to her and throws down a bag of chips onto her book. Rory looks up and smiles at her best friend.

"Salt and vinegar." Lane tells her.

"Thank you." Rory says, gratefully. She stands up and she and Lane begin to walk away.

"Here's your gum, your soda, your New Yorker, and your dental floss." Lane says, handing the bag to Rory. "He wasn't in there."

"What?"

"Dean. He wasn't in there."

"Oh." Rory says. She was trying not to care about Dean's whereabouts anymore, but it was getting difficult since he was all she could think about.

"Incase you were wondering."

"I wasn't."

"Okay. Well, I just thought you might be. So I mentioned it."

"Well, I'm not."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"I just thought you might like to note for future reference that Dean is not in the store on Wednesdays. So you can mark it down on that list you're hiding from me that says where Dean is so that you can avoid him at anytime."

"I was not avoiding the market." Rory tells her.

"Okay. So, what are you doing tonight?"

"Well, homework, and then homework, and if I get all that done in time, some homework. You?" Rory jokes.

Lane laughs. "I have to meet my science partner."

"Fun."

"Yes, science is fun." Lane says, sarcastically.

"I'll call you later?"

"Okay."

Rory watches Lane walk away and then reaches down into her sweater pocket and takes out a little notepad and a pen. She looks around before writing down that Wednesdays Dean isn't there.

Lauren and Elizabeth run out of the school.

"Did you see Miss. Thompson's face?" Lauren asks, laughing.

Elizabeth is laughing right along with Lauren. "Oh, my gosh. She had no idea about that spider until she actually took a sip of her drink. It was worth sitting in class for an hour after school just to watch her freak."

"She literally yelled at every single one of us. For our senior prank, Michael is definitely going to be in charge." Lauren tells her.

"Definitely." Elizabeth agrees. "So, if your mom still going to take us shopping tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think so." Lauren says. "She has a phone date with Max, though, so I'm sure we'll be rushed like always." Lauren rolls her eyes at the thought of Max. She did like the guy, but he was taking her mom away from them during the weekends, and he wasn't even really there.

"Do you think they are ever going to date again? Like really date?"

"I don't know." Lauren says, honestly. "I wouldn't be surprised."

At Lane's, Dean opens the front door and starts looking around for Lane.

"Hello? Lane, are you here?" He yells. Mrs. Kim pops out from behind a shelf, scaring Dean. "Geez!"

"Who are you? Why you call Lane?" She asks him. Mrs. Kim was not pleased to see a teenage boy, who wasn't Korean, calling for her daughter.

"I, uh.."

"How you know, Lane? You date her?"

"No."

"You try to?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

"I.."

"Empty your pockets."

"Okay, I'm gonna go now." Dean says staring at the little angry woman who is looking up at him.

Lane runs into the room, stopping him. "Dean, wait. Wait!"

"Who's Dean?" Mrs. Kim asks.

"I'm Dean."

"How do you know Dean?"

"We go to school together." Lane tells her.

"You do?"

"Yeah, we're science partners." Dean explains.

"You don't talk!"

"Sorry."

"You are science partners?"

"Yes, Mom, I invited him over to work."

"Work?"

"On our science project."

"Reproduction?"

"Spores, molds, and fungus." Lane tells her.

"Science project?"

"Yes."

"You're not dating?"

"No, Mom."

"Okay. Follow me." Mrs. Kim says, looking right at Dean. They walks into the kitchen and go over to the table. "You, sit here!" She yells at Dean. "You, sit here!" She tells her daughter. "I'm going over there. When I come back over here, these chairs will be in the same place. No moving. Understand?"

"Yes, Mama."

"Not you, him!"

Dean hesitates. He was so scared right now of Lane's mom, he was nervous to say the wrong thing. "Uh, yes, I understand." He tells her. Mrs. Kim gives them both one last look and walks away. "So, that's your mom."

"That's my mom." Lane laughs.

"Has she seen Patton?"

"She just gets uptight about boys." Lane explains to him.

"I sensed something like that."

"It's nothing personal."

"I know. I'm sure once she gets to know me, she'll..."

"Oh, no, she'll hate you forever. It's just nothing personal."

"Uh, we should probably get started." Dean says, changing the subject back to school. He picks up his bag and starts taking his books out.

"Chapter 12?"

"Sounds good." Dean opens his book, but he has no interest in reading right now. He felt awkward. He sighs and looks back up at Lane. "Is this weird for you?" He asks.

Lane gives him a small smile. "A little."

"Me too. I didn't know, if maybe Rory told you to hate me or something."

"That's not Rory."

"Yeah, I know. How is she?"

"Good."

"Good."

"Goodish." Lane says again. "Less good than ish."

"Yeah?" Dean says, sadly. "How much less?"

"You know, we're breaking our agreement." Lane tells him.

"What agreement?"

"Our agreement not to talk about Rory."

"We didn't have an agreement not to talk about Rory."

"Oh, it was an unspoken agreement."

"Well, it was really unspoken cause nobody spoke it." Dean tells her.

"I just think if we have to study together, it'd be better if we didn't discuss Rory."

"Fine." Dean finally agrees.

"You know, she can't go into the market." Lane starts again about Rory.

Dean closes his book and looks at Lane with a surprised look. "Why not?"

"Because you're there."

"Not on Wednesday."

"Already noted."

"Can I ask you a really personal question?" Lane asks.

"You can ask. I might not answer."

"Do you think that you and Rory will ever get back together again?"

"Hey! I, uh, vote we go back to the no talking about Rory agreement." Dean says as he opens his book back up to ignore Lane's question.

"Look, I'm just saying that I..." Lane stops when she sees Rory walk up from the corner of her eye. Rory looks at both of them surprised to see them in Lane's kitchen working together.

"I should have called. I'm sorry." Rory tells them.

"Rory!" Lane yells, chasing after Rory. Rory walks out, slamming the door behind her, but Lane opens it back up as she runs after Rory. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"It doesn't matter." Rory tells her.

"I didn't think you'd want to know."

"I got it."

"Rory, stop." Rory speeds up her walk. "Okay, that's the opposite of stop."

Rory stops walking and turns around to face Lane. "Lane, forget it. You didn't tell me. Now I know. Life goes on."

"Don't be mad." Lane begs.

"I'm fine. I have to go." Rory says as she begins to walk away again.

The next morning, Rory is laying in bed when there is a knock on her bedroom door. She chooses to ignore it but soon regrets not locking it when her mother walks in.

"Time to get up." Lorelai tells her. Rory puts her pillow over her head to block out the sound. Lorelai jumps onto the bed and pulls the pillow out of the way. "Hey, I have a huge dilemma that I need your opinion on."

"What?"

"Am I more beautiful today than I was yesterday?" Lorelai jokes as she brushes her fingers through her own hair.

"Oh, boy." Rory says, annoyed, as she turns back around in her bed.

"I'm just not sure. I mean, at first I looked in the mirror and thought: well yes. Definitely a huge improvement."

"Can I have my pillow back?" Rory asks as she tries to grab her pillow from behind Lorelai.

"Then I thought maybe it's not that I'm more beautiful today. Maybe I was just as beautiful yesterday. Only I lacked the self-esteem to recognize it."

Rory sits up and throws the blankets off of her as she gets out of bed. "I'm gonna take a shower." She groans.

"Well, hurry up and I'll drive you to school. I'm taking Lauren."

"No, thanks."

Lorelai glares at her daughter in confusion as she watches Rory dig through her clothes to find her uniform. "Why so charming this morning?"

"I had an annoying visit from the Stars Hollow wake-up fairy." Rory tells her. "Where's my tie?"

"In your drawer."

"I'm looking in the drawer."

"Hmm, check the living room."

"Why would my tire be in the living room?"

Lorelai starts laughing. "Because it's been seeing the doily on the coffee table. I'm sorry I did not want you to find out this way." Lorelai jokes.

"Don't take this personally, but get out."

Lauren runs into Rory's room and straight into Rory's messy bed, next to Lorelai. "Okay, I'm ready." She looks at Rory who is glaring at the both of them. "Whoa. Why the beautiful face?" Lauren asks, smiling at her sister.

"Get out." Rory repeats.

"Okay, you're crabby." Lorelai says, smiling at her. "Do you know what the perfect cure for crabbiness is? A fabulous trip to the mall. Huh? What do you say? You and Lauren can blow off school and come with me. We can shop and go to the movies, maybe talk a little."

"No, thanks."

"Wait. I thought you were taking me and Elizabeth tomorrow to the mall." Lauren asks her mom.

Lorelai sighs and turns to her youngest. "Yeah, I know. I forgot to tell you that I'm not going to be able to. Max and I are going on our first official date, so I was thinking we just go today. So, come on, just this once. It might make Rory feel better."

"I feel fine, and I don't wanna shop." Rory tells her.

"Honey, I know you've been in a funk over Dean, but you have to try not to dwell on it all the time."

"I'm gonna be late for school." Rory tells her mom.

"Ookay. Then just meet me in town around four. We'll get some Indian food and spoil our dinner. What do you say to that?"

Rory begins to walk out her bedroom. "Whatever." She mumbles.

"Hey, love the enthusiasm." Lorelai yells out to her.

"I thought you and Max just talk on the phone?" Lauren asks her mom. She was still confused by the whole thing, and actually, she was a little annoyed that her mom was ditching her for a guy.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter. "We did. But we decided to switch things up a bit. We are going to try to start over and maybe things will work out for the best right now. I think it's time. So, what do you say? Let's skip school and go shopping."

Lauren looks at her mother. She could not believe she was forgetting that Elizabeth had to come with them. She had made a promise and now Lorelai was forgetting about them because of Max. "Elizabeth can't skip school, Mom, and I won't go without her."

"What is going on with you and Rory. Usually, you both are thrilled to skip school and spend a day with me."

"Well, we decided to switch things up a bit." Lauren says bitterly as she repeats what her mom had said to her. Lorelai glares at her daughter as she watches Lauren leave Rory's room.

Lauren decided to leave early instead of her mom taking her to school. She called Elizabeth before she left and met her outside of her house so that they could walk to school together.

"So, your mom really ditched us?" Elizabeth asks Lauren. She was still trying to believe it herself. "Your mom is usually so realiable."

Lauren shrugs. "Yeah, well, a guy is involved." Lauren was really disappointed in her mom. What did she say all her life? She would never put a guy first? Yeah, right.

"Well, it's okay. We'll figure something else to do. Hey, maybe my mom could take us."

"Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for shopping anymore." Lauren tells her as they make their way into school.

At Chilton, Rory is in English class and Max is explaining the work they were learning. Rory was in her own little world though. She wasn't exactly in the mood for school. Which was a first and a surprise to herself and everyone around her.

"If we read his works in order, we can see his progression from a narrative of clear simplicity to one of rich complexity." Max explains to the class. "Now, this is not homework. But I strongly urge you if you have not already read The Art of Fiction, read it. It's a remarkable manfesto that contains basic truths that still apply to fiction in any form." Paris looks over and sees Rory staring out of the classroom window. "Alright. So, Henry James, the man of the moment." Paris gets Louise and Madeline's attention and nods her head over to Rory so that they could see what she was looking at. They, two, thought it was a bit odd. "Pick your book, read it carefully. A full report on my desk one week from today. Any questions?" Max looks at Rory. She was still looking out the window, not paying attention to him. "Ms. Gilmore, any questions?"

Paris drops her book on the floor, on purpose, which makes Rory jump up in her chair. "Oops."

Rory turns her head back to Max. "Ms. Gilmore?"

"Yes?"

"Did you hear the assignment?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"Henry James. Pick you novel." Max repeats. "A report on my desk in one week. You got it?"

"Yes, I got it." Rory says just as the bell rings.

"See you tomorrow." He tells everyone.

Everyone gets up and starts grabbing their things to go to the next class. But as Rory stands up, Paris walk over to her looking very curious. "You didn't take one note. You resorting to the osmosis theory of learning?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. Just make an observation." Paris tells her.

"Great. We'll build a dome over you and jam a telescope in your hear." Rory smiles at Paris, sarcastically, before walking away, but Max stops her.

"Ms. Gilmore, can I talk to you for a minute?" Max asks.

"Okay."

"So, how are you?"

"Fine." Rory lies.

"You seemed a little distracted today."

"I didn't sleep well last night."

"But you've seemed to be distracted for quite a while now." Max tells her with concern.

"My grades are fine."

"I'm not concerned about grades. I'm concerned about you. Look, Rory, I know you've been going through kind of a tough time lately and I just want you to know, if you want to talk, I'm here."

Rory looks quizzily at Max. "Tough time? She wonders.

"Breakups are really hard. We've all been there."

"How do you know about that?" Rory asks, awkwardly.

"Your mom told me."

"She what!?"

"Please, don't be upset at her. It came out in one of our conversations. She's very concerned, frustrated."

"You've been talking to my mom about me?"

"Rory.."

Rory shakes her head, ignoring Max, and walks out of the classroom. She could not believe her mom had been talking about her to her teacher.

Back in Stars Hollow, Lane is waiting at the bus stop with two coffees in her hands. When the bus pulls up she stands up and waits for Rory to walk out.

"Hi." She says.

Rory looks at Lane. She was still upset with her friend for lying to her. "Hi."

"I thought you might like some coffee, since you always do." Lane tells her as she hands Rory the coffee.

"Thanks."

"So this is very awkward." Lane laughs, nervously.

"I'm a big girl, Lane. I don't need you to protect me from things."

"I just didn't want to make you any sadder than you are." Lane admits.

"How is you telling me Dean is your study partner gonna make me sadder?" Rory asks.

"I don't wanna bring his name up around you."

"That's crazy."

"Have you seen your face?" Lane asks.

"My face is fine."

"It's not fine. Your face is far from fine." Lane argues back.

"I'll get over it."

"You're not over it yet."

"Well, maybe I'd get over it quicker if everyone weren't so busy running around trying to protect me from all the bad, scary things in the world." Rory says in anger.

"Fine! I won't protect you anymore."

"Great. Glad to hear it."

"Nexe time we walk down the street and you're about to walk into traffic I'll just give you a push."

"Exactly what I'm talking about."

"And in the spirit of not protecting you anymore I was gonna tell you I couldn't study cause I had Bible class. But that's not true. I have to meet Dean."

"Great. Thanks for the honesty."

"And I'll probably have to see him again this weekend. The projects due on Monday."

"I don't care. I'll see you when I see you."

"Fine!"

"Fine."

"Bye!" Lane yells as she walks away from Rory.

Rory walks over to the trash can throws her coffee away. Lorelai runs up after her as Rory begins to storm away. "Hey, where's Lane going?"

"Away."

Lorelai sighs. "Okay, you've been in this mood for a week now and while I love the ups and downs of motherhood I gotta say, I'm tired of Goofus, and I'd like my Gallant back." Lorelai tells her as she catches up with her daughter.

"You can't just say a normal sentence, can you!?" Rory asks in frustration as she turns to Lorelai. "Just 'hey, let's talk' is too dull for you."

Lorelai grabs Rory's arm and make her face her. "Hey, let's talk."

"About what? Oh, wait, I know. How about you and Mr. Medina?"

"What?"

"I heard you've gotten back together again."

"Did you talk to Max?"

"He had me stay after class to talk about my breakup situation." Rory tells her.

"We are not dating. We are going on one date, and maybe start things up again." Lorelai explains. "You were so miserable about Dean. What was I suppose to do?"

Rory rolls her eyes and starts walking again. "You know, it doesn't matter about Max. You'll break up again anyway."

"Excuse me?"

"That's what you do best."

"Hey, stop right there!"

"You'll break up, cry, get back together, break up. It doesn't really matter. I'd rather not have to keep track. So tell me when you're down to the final inning." Rory spats.

Lorelai shakes her head. She could not believe her daughter was talking to her this way. "You know what? That is way too snotty a thing even for alternate-universe Rory to say. I'd like an apology."

"Fine, I apologize. Let's go home."

"Yeah. Let's go home and try that apology again." Lorelai says, before turning the opposite way of Rory. Rory turns around.

"What are you doing?"

"I have to pick up Lauren from Elizabeth's."

"Whatever. I'll meet you at home." Rory says, as she starts to walk away again.

At the house, Lorelai walks into the front door.

"Rory, I'm back for round two. Is Lauren here? Elizabeth said she had already left her house." Lorelai asks as she closes the door and walks towards the kitchen to Rory's room. "Lauren!?" She yells. Lorelai looks around the house, noticing it was very quiet. "Rory?" She checks Rory's room and sees that it's empty. "Where are you guys?" She asks, going back towards the living room. "Lauren, Rory? Answer, please." Lorelai stands in the middle of her living room, looking around, in the quiet.

At the Gilmore residence, Richard and Emily are getting ready to go out.

"This is the fourth ridiculous gathering you've dragged me to this week." Richard tells Emily, as she fixes his tie.

"I'm the President of the board. I have to be there." Emily tells him.

"Saving the Bowringenee pansy. Who's heard of such a thing?"

"It's a rare flower that's disappearing from the face of this Earth."

"Well, who cares?"

"As President of the Horticultural Society, I have to care."

Richard turns around and looks into the mirror to straighen up his tie. "The last thing I need is to spend four hours being bored out of my skull by the same people I'll be bored by tomorrow at the Symphony Fundraiser."

"Which reminds me. We need to get your tux back from the cleaner's tomorrow."

"No, I'll be dead tomorrow. I plan on flinging myself off the roof tonight right in the middle of Pitty Salenger's opening speech."

"Pitty is a dear friend, and you will be nice to her."

"Pitty Salenger's a dipsomaniac. I'm going to bring my newspaper" Richard says, walking away.

"You will do no such thing, Richard. Do you hear me?" Emily yells out at him when the doorbell rings. Emily walks over to it quickly and opens the door to find Lauren standing behind it. "Lauren?"

"Hi, Grandma."

"What are you doing here? Is your mother with you?" Emily asks as she looks behind Lauren.

Lauren shakes her head, nervously. "No, Grandma. I came by myself."

"Are you okay?" Emily asks, worried.

Lauren nods her head. "I'm fine. I just needed to get away from there for a bit. Is it okay that I'm here?"

"Oh, yes. It's fine, Lauren. You're always welcomed here. How did you get here?"

"The bus."

"Oh, dear." Emily ushers Lauren into the house just when a taxi pulls up. "Who on Earth is this?" She asks, confused.

She and Lauren watch the cab stop by the door and watch Rory get out of the car. "Rory!?" Lauren asks, surprised.

Rory gives her sister a strange look then looks at her Grandma. "Hi, Grandma."

"Rory, is everything okay?" Emily asks.

"Everything's fine."

"Richard, pay the cab!" Emily calls out.

"Cab? Who took a cab?" Richard asks as he walks over and sees both his grand-daughters. "Oh, Rory, Lauren."

"Hi." They both say.

"What are you two doing here?"

"I don't know what they're doing here. Pay the man, and I'll find out." Emily tells him. "Come inside." She tells Rory as Richard walks out.

"Now, tell me, what is going on with you both?" Emily asks, as she leads her grand-daughters out of the foyer.

"I had a fight with Mom." Rory tells them.

"You had a fight with your mother?" Emily asks. "What about you?" She asks Lauren.

Lauren looks at Rory. "I just couldn't be there anymore. I'm so mad at Mom, I.. I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to get out of there. Out of the town." Lauren tells them as they sit down in the living room.

"Yeah, well, me, too." Richard walks back in and goes straight to the drink tray. "You're all dressed up." Rory says, noticing their clothes.

"You were going out? I'm sorry!" Lauren says, suddenly feeling bad for barging in on them.

"Oh, please, don't be." Richard tells her.

"It doesn't matter, girls."

"No, please go out. I didn't mean to ruin your evening." Rory tells them. "I should have called."

"You calm down, right now. Both of you." Emily orders them. "You girls don't need to call before you come here. You are welcome any time."

"Tonight especially." Richard tells them.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Emily, don't pry."

"I'm not prying, Richard."

"The girls obviously need some peace."

"How do you know that?"

"I can tell."

"Oh, you're a mind reader now. How nice. We'll get you a turban and a booth by the train station." Emily says sarcastically.

"Would it be okay if we stay here tonight?" Rory asks.

Emily looks back surprised. "Oh, of course."

"You both can stay here as long as you want." Richard tells them.

"Thanks, Grandpa." Lauren says.

"Would you girls like some dinner?" Emily asks. "I can get Rosa to make you something."

"No, I'd just like to go to bed if that's okay." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, me, too."

"Of course. Whatever you like. Both of your rooms are ready. There are pajamas and a new toothbrushes in the bathroom."

"Thanks, Grandma!" Lauren says, hugging her. Rory does the same and they both go over to Richard and hug him also before heading upstairs together.

"Everything's going to be fine." Emily tells them.

"Emily, what is this all about?" Richard whispers.

Emily smiles. "They had a fight with Lorelai. And they came here."

Back at the house, Lorelai is pacing back and forth, on the phone. She was calling everyone she knew, the whole town, to find her daughters.

"Mrs. Kim, it's Lorelai. Is Lane there?" Lorelai asks over the phone. "Well, do you know where she is? That's unbelievable. You always know where she is. The one time I need you to be crazy prison guard lady you're all, 'hey, man, whatever.' You know what? I'll never be able to explain that to your satisfaction. So could you ask Lane to call me when she gets back? I'm looking for Rory and Lauren. No, I don't know where they are. Don't 'ha' me. You don't know where Lane is, either." Lorelai hangs up when Sookie comes into the door. "Anything?" She asks.

"Patty hasn't seen them, but she's been working all day. And I went check back over at Elizabeth's, but Lauren has not been there since they got off of school. They're not at the library and they're not at Luke's." Sookie tells her.

"Where are they!?" Lorelai asks in panic. "Why didn't they leave a note? Damn it!"

"Honey, calm down."

"But my kids don't take off. They know it'll make me crazy. They know it would make me worry. I'm crossing over into panic now. Lauren is only eleven. She has no way into getting anywhere without me."

"No, don't cross. Come back."

There's a knock on the door and Max lets himself in. "Hey." Lorelai says when she sees him.

"You find them?" He asks.

"No, nothing. No one's seen them."

"Okay. Um. What about that old boyfriend of Rory's?"

"Dean. Dean." Lorelai says, looking over at Sookie.

"I'm on my way." Sookie walks out leaving the two.

"Good suggestion. You get crisis points." Lorelai tells him. "Max, I'm freaking out."

"It's gonna be okay." He assures her. "Sookie's here. I'm here. We will find them."

The phone rings and Lorelai runs over to pick it up. "Rory, Lauen!?"

"I just want you to know that Rory and Lauren are here with us." Emily says on the other end.

"What?!"

"They arrives a few minutes ago."

"They're there? Are they okay?"

"They are both perfectly fine. They asked to spend the night."

"Okay, so they're there with you. How did they get there?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, Lauren showed up before Rory. She had taken the bus and Rory took a cab."

"Let me talk to them."

"They seem upset. Rory said you'd had a fight."

"We had a disagreement."

"She said a fight."

"Will you just put them on the phone, please, Mom? I don't care which one first." Lorelai begs.

"I think we should give them time to collect themselves."

"Thank you for your input. Can I please talk to my daughters?"

"They went to their rooms, Lorelai."

"Their rooms are here, Mom. I'm standing in front of Rory's room, and she's not in it."

"Lorelai, I did not come to your house and kidnap your children. They ran from you, and they came here. They are both tired, and upset. I think we should let them sleep and in the morning, we can argue about how to best handle the situation. Maybe a little time away from eachother will do you three some good."

Lorelai sighs in annoyance. "I'll pick them up in the morning."

"Well, how about you call before just to make sure they want to go. You don't want to haul them back home just to have them jump into a cab or a bus again."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Lorelai."

Lorelai hangs up the phone and walks back over to Max. "So?"

"They are with my parents in Hartford."

"Good."

"Good?" Lorelai asks him.

"Bad?" Max tries again.

"Bad. Very bad!" Lorelai yells.

"They're safe." Max reminds her.

"They're with my mother. No one is safe with my mother."

"They needed some space."

"No, that house is not safe. It's like The Amityville Horror without all the good times."

Max chuckles. "Well, itf it's that bad, you should get get them."

"No, they wanted to get away from me. They want to be alone. Lets give them their space." Lorelai was turns way and goes into the kitchen to start making coffee.

Max sighs and follows her. "At least they are together." He reminds her.

"But I can't believe they would leave me to go there." Lorelai says, still trying to wrap her head around all of it. "We used to always be able to work this out."

"What did you fight about?"

"Oh, you." Lorelai tells him.

"Me?"

"Well, it started with you and that I didn't tell Rory we were dating again but that was only part of it because she's been in such a bad place lately with this whole Dean thing. So I guess it was coming. And Lauren was upset with me because I changed our plans to go shopping tomorrow because I have a date with you. I was suppose to bring her and best friend. We were going to have a girls day, but I tired switching it to today but Lauren wasn't having it. I just wish they hadn't ran away." Lorelai says, sadly.

"They will be back, and you three will work everything out." Max tells her. He turns Lorelai to face him and looks into her eyes.

"You're good at the comforting thing." She tells him.

"Thank you." She reaches up and kisses him. "You want some coffee?"

"Sure." Lorelai turns back around and starts fixing their coffee. "Can I ask you a question?"

"I think you've earned it."

"Why did you tell Rory about us?" He asks.

Lorelai stands there for a second trying to figure out what to say. "Oh, she was so upset about Dean. I didn't think it was the best time to give her my happy news. I mean, I told Lauren and look how well that turn out."

"Okay. But you've told other people?" Max asks.

"What other people?"

"I don't know, friends, Sookie?"

"Uh, no actually, I haven't."

"Any reason?"

"Just hasn't come up." Lorelai walks to the dish rack to pick up the mugs.

"It hasn't?"

"No."

"You're no by any chance avoiding talking about it, are you?" Max asks.

"No, Max, come on."

"It just seems a little strange to me."

"Why is it strange?" She asks, walking back to him.

"Well, we've been talking for at least two weeks. I thought at some point it would've come up."

"You don't just say to people out of the blue, Max and I are talking again. I was just waiting for it to come up naturally." Lorelai explains. "I mean, my girls knew."

"Yes, but somehow, for me, it managed to come up naturally within two days three times."

"Well, your obviously a better people-person than I am." She says, smiling up at him.

"If there's a reason why you don't want people to know then we must talk about that."

"There's no reason." Lorelai assures him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Do you believe me?"

"If you said there's no reason, there's no reason."

"There's no reason."

"So you said."

"So I mean."

"Okay."

"Alright. That's fine." He says, as they smile at one another.

"I should page Sookie and tell her that the girls are okay."

"That's a good idea." Lorelai walks away from Max and picks up the phone. She started to wonder herself why she never mentioned talking to Max to anyone. It was starting to make her nervous.

At the Gilmores, Rory is laying down in bed, with the lights off. She had been having trouble sleeping and now after having that fight with her mom, that was all she could think about now. Rory was staring at the ceiling when she hears a light knock on her door. Lauren opens Rory's door, slowly, and peeks her head in.

"Are you sleeping?" She whispers. "It's scary in my room by myself in this big house."

Rory smirks at her little sister. "Come here." Lauren smiles and closes the door before running into the bed and laying down next to Rory. "So, do you care to explain why you're here?"

Lauren sighs. "I just needed to get away. Mom's been talking to Max a lot and now she was planning dates with him."

"I thought you liked Max."

"I do, but not when he is making mom ditch me for him. We were suppose to go shopping tomorrow, but she had to cancel because of him."

"You know, there will be other shopping trips." Rory tells her with a laugh.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I know this. But this one was different. Elizabeth and I are getting along again because of Mom. She wanted to take us out to celebrate. So, it's not like this whole thing was my idea. It was hers and she pulled out of it. It's not fair."

"Life's not fair."

"Already noted. So, what happened with you and Mom?"

Rory looks back up at the ceiling. "She was telling Max about my breakup and how I had been in a funky mood since."

"Well, it's true. You've been really mean, Rory."

"I'm sorry, Lauren, but that doesn't give Mom the right to talk to Max about me. And then to top it off Lane has been hiding the fact that she has been partnering with Dean for a project at school. She lied to me."

"Yeah, that sucks."

"I just needed to get away like you. But you do realize Mom is probably freaking out right now, right?" Rory asks.

Lauren shrugs her shoulders. "Serves her right." She says, not caring.

The next day, Rory and Lauren walk downstairs to the dining area where Emily and Richard are already sitting down and eating.

"Good morning." Lauren says, happily. She sits down in her mom's usual seat at the table while Rory seats in hers.

"Well, good morning girls. How did you sleep?" Emily asks.

"We slept pretty good." Rory tells her.

"Lauren, I walked into your room this morning to check on you and you weren't there. I'm assuming you ended up in your sister's room last night." Emily smiles.

Lauren looks at her Grandma with a grin of nervousness. "Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Nonsense. You have nothing to be sorry for. You needed your sister. That is quite alright." Emily assures her. "Now, we have eggs, fruit, toast, pancakes, and blintzes."

"Anything would be fine." Rory tells her.

"Well, what do you usually eat?"

"Mostly we just grab a Pop-tart." Lauren tells her.

"That sounds delicious. I'll have Rosa whipe one up for you."

Lauren and Rory start giggling. "No, eggs would be great." Rory tells her grandmother.

"I'll go tell her." Emily smiles as she gets up and walks away to the kitchen.

Rory looks over at Richard who is reading the paper. "So, Grandpa, what's new in the world today?"

"As usual, it's going to hell in a handbasket." Richard tells her.

"It's nice to have something you can always count on." Rory jokes.

"It is, at that." Richard laughs. "Would you like part of the paper?"

"Please."

Emily walks back in. "Your eggs will be right out."

"Thanks, Grandma." Lauren says.

Richard hands Rory part of the paper, then hands Lauren another part. "I talked to your mother last night." Emily tells them. Rory and Lauren look at eachother. "I told her you both are here and she said she'd call this afternoon.

"Was she mad?" Lauren asks.

"She was concerned."

Rory and Lauren look down, sadly, at the paper. They never wanted to upset their mom, they just wanted her to realize that she couldn't always hide and change things on them without discussing it. Rosa walks in and puts their plate of food in front of them. Lauren looks down at it and smiles. "This looks great."

"Good."

"Thanks again for letting us stay." Rory tells her grandparents.

"It was nice having you both here. You got your Grandma to put down his newspaper at breakfast. That's a first."

"Oh, now, Emily."

"Well, it is."

Richard puts up his paper again just to annoy Emily making Rory and Lauren laugh.

At Luke's, Lorelai walks in. She was not her chipper self in the morning so it concerned Luke when he sees her walk over to the counter and sits down.

"Geez, what happened to you?" Luke asks her.

"A happy how do you do to you, too." She says, sarcastically.

"Sorry. You just look bad." He tells her as he pours her some coffee.

"Well, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Why not?"

"Rory and Lauren are mad at me, and they ran away."

Luke drops the mug. "What!?" He yells. "Where? Did you.."

"They're fine." Lorelai tells him. "They're at my mother's."

"Aw, geez. Throw that in with the first part. You'll scare a person to death."

"Sorry. You know, I got in my car three times to go get them. I drove halfway there and drove back. I drove halfway there and drove back. I actually ran out of gas driving halway there and back."

"They'll cool off and come home." Luke tells her.

"I know. Just this breaking up with Dean has been so hard on Rory. And Lauren is becoming a teenage, so every little thing becomes a crisis, especially since everything happened with that Jake guy. I just hate that they're going through this. They are good kids. They're so nice to everyone and they care about everyone, and Rory is walking around in this unbelievable pain. There's nothing I can do about it. Rory won't tell me what happened."

"I'll tell you what happened. Dean's a jerk and he finally let her know it."

"I wish I could pinch his head off."

"I'll help."

"I warned him when I first met him if he hurt her... maybe I could key his car." Lorelai groans.

"Or better, you can key Taylor's car and say Dean did it."

"Yeah, that'd be good. Alright, I should go."

"Coffee's on the house."

"Thanks." She says, gratefully. Lorelai walks out of the diner and across the street. She looks into the window of Doose's and sees Dean stocking shelves. Lorelai begins to walk away again, but turns back around and goes into the market over to Dean. She taps him on the shoulder. "Got a minute?"

"Actually..."

"I just want to tell you that I think you are scum." She lashes out.

"Gee, thanks."

"You'll be hard-pressed to find another girl as fantastic as Rory. You know that? She is beautiful and smart and did not deserve to be treated that way by you."

"Treated what way!?"

"I thought you were a good guy. I thought you were going to make her happy. I'm such an idiot to have thought you were a good pick, but I was wrong, and I hate to be wrong."

"I am sick and tired of everyone blaming this thing on me." Dean fights back. "I mean, you and this stupid town looking at me like I'm a criminal. I say 'I love you,' and she just sits there, and I'm the jerk? I'm the bad guy?"

Lorelai stares up at Dean. She was confused. "What?"

"You know what? Think what you want. I don't care anymore. Just leave me alone." He says, turning away from Lorelai. Lorelai sighs and walks away.

At the Gilmore's, the doorbell rings and Emily walks over to answer it.

"Where are they?" Lorelai asks, as soon as the door opens.

"I thought you were gonna call." Emily says, as Loreali walks in.

"Where are they, Mom?"

"I haven't had any time to prepare them for this."

"Mom, where are they?"

"Upstairs in Rory's room." Lorelai walks away from Emily and goes straight upstairs, but Emily follows her up. "Lauren will not leave Rory's side. They've been in the room since breakfast. I made Rosa bring them up some snacks, but I haven't checked if they've eaten it. They had a decent breakfast this morning, but Rory seemed really tired. When I went to their bathroom I seen the aspirin bottle was out. So I assume she had a headache. I don't if it was last..." Lorelai stops at Rory's door and turns around, raising her hand up at her mother.

"Excuse me, Mr. Cosell, I appreciate the play-by-play but I just want to talk to my daughters now."

"Do you want me to go in there with you?" Emily asks.

"More than anything."

"Well, try and be nice."

"Thanks for the tip." Emily walks away and Lorelai walks through the door. "Hey." She tells her girls. Rory is laying down on her bed while Lauren is sitting up.

"Mom!" Lauren says, happily, when she sees her. She gets up and quickly makes her way over to her and hugs her tightly. "I am so sorry!"

Lorelai holds Lauren tight and closely to her. "It's okay. Just don't ever do it again. Do you hear me?"

Lauren nods her head. "I won't. I promise. I was just..."

"I know.."

"And I just..."

"I know." Lorelai tells her. She kisses Lauren on her forehead and looks up at Rory. "I thought when you said, I'll see you at home you meant our home. My mistake."

"I'm so sorry." Rory gets up and hugs her mom.

"It's okay." Lorelai pulls Rory away and looks at her. "So, that last time I saw you, you were headed home. Wanna fill in the blanks?"

Rory sighs and goes back over to her bed and sits down next to Lauren. "I don't know. I just snapped and I got sick of everything. I wanted to go anywhere."

"So you picked hell?"

"It was the first place that came to mind." Rory tells her.

"I respect that." Lorelai sits down next to Lauren. "The need to run is a feeling I am well acquainted with. But we have to be able to talk, always. No matter how mad or upset we get with eachother our particular special thing only works if we agree to that, get it?" Lorelai asks.

"I get it." Rory tells her.

Lorelai looks down at Lauren. "Yeah, I get it." Lauren tells her.

"Good." Lorelai sighs and looks at Rory. "Rory, tell me what happened with you and Dean."

Rory shakes her head. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I do."

"Why?"

"Because I had a little chat with him today." Lorelai confesses.

"What? Why?"

"Well, because I was upset and in the mood to do a little yelling."

"You didn't."

"I did."

"No." Rory whines.

"There he was, stacking cookies and I'm railing on him about what a great kid you are and how it sucked that he dumped you, and then he said he told you he loved you. And I started feeling a little stupid."

"He did tell me." Rory says, embarrassed.

"And you didn't say anything?"

"No."

"It must've been rough on him."

"He looked so hurt. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to hurt him. I just got scared and I sat there." Rory explains.

"I understand. You know, I'm still learning this stuff, too. Since I'm still learning I think I haven't thought enough about what I'm supposed to be teaching you girls."

"What are you talking about?" Lauren asks.

"I'm talking about my own personal lack of commitment skills. I mean, look, I love that you have my eyes.."

"Except for me." Lauren says, rolling her bright green ones.

"Yes, but I told you a million times it's because you're special." Lorelai tells her, earning herself another eye rolls from Lauren. "You both have my coffee addiction, my taste in music and movies. But when it comes to love and relationships I don't want you to necessarily become like me. I'd hate to think that I raised a kid who couldn't say 'I love you.'"

"Mom."

"I'm not talking specifically about Dean. I mean, just generally in life. For example, say you're Taylor Hanson."

"Taylor Hanson?" Lauren asks, with a weird look.

"Why am I dating Taylor Hanson?" Rory asks.

"It's a hypthetical scenario. Go with it. So, you and Taylor are seeing eachother regularly."

"How did I meet Taylor Hanson?"

"You went to his concert. You got backstage. Your eyes met across the crowd and you've been seeing eachother ever since."

"Hanson's still together?" Lauren asks her sister.

"They're the new Bee Gees." Lorelai tells them as she glares at them wanting them to stop talking.

"Why would you not stop me from going to a Hanson concert?"

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Hey, someone's trying to make a point here."

"Sorry. Go ahead."

"So, you and Taylor have been dating for awhile and things are great and you're happy. And you feel all those crazy mushy things that people feel when they're in love. I want you to be able to say to him: 'Taylor, I love you.'"

Rory and Lauren are looking up at Lorelai with a strange look. This whole Hanson thing was creeping them out. "Can we pick a new hypthetical, cause this one's wigging me out?"

Lorelai sits down in front of them in the chair next to the window. "My point is that it's scary to be in love. That much I know. But it's also wonderful and special. And if you can't say it or fully express it then you're never gonna be able to experience it." Lorelai explains. "I want you both to experience everything that's great because you're so great. Are you hearing me?" She asks Rory.

"Yeah, I'm hearing you."

"I'm not saying you say 'I love you' at the drop of a hat. It has to be right and real and it has to take a lot of thought. But someday, with someone, it will be right. I want you to be ready for that moment when it happens. And I want you to be ready for that moment when it happens in thirty years." Lorelai tells Lauren.

Lauren laughs. "Are you ready for that moment when it happens?" She asks her mom.

"I'm working on it. I do, however, know what dress I'll be wearing." She laughs. "And you, when you have a problem with me, I want you to come to me. I don't want you to throw my own words back into my face. You got it?"

Lauren walks over and sits on her mother's lap. "Just don't replace us." She tells her with seriousness in her eyes.

Lorelai looks at her daughter sadly. "I could never replace you." She tells her. "I promise I will never break a promise ever again."

"I don't believe you." Lauren laughs, shaking her head.

Lorelai gasps and looks at Rory. "Is she serious?"

"Yeah, I think she's serious." Rory tells her.

"I cannot believe my own daughter does not believe me. Well, fine, I guess next weekend I'll just take my favorite daughter since she is the only one who has faith in me." Lorelai jokes.

Lauren grabs her mom's face to make her look at her. "Don't you ever say those words ever again." She says, making her mom and sister laugh.

Downstairs at the front door, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are standing in front of Richard and Emily.

"Thank you guys so much for letting us stay here." Rory tells them.

"It was our pleasure." Emily tells them.

"What do I owe you for the cab?" Lorelai asks Richard.

"Don't worry about that." He tells her.

Lauren reaches over and hugs Richard as Rory does the same. "Thanks for sharing your paper." She tells him.

"Anytime."

"And thank you, Mom." Lorelai tells Emily.

"Of course. They are our grand-daughters."

"Alright. We'll see you tomorrow night."

On the drive back home, Lorelai are on their way back.

"Hey, drop me off here." Rory tells her.

Lorelai stops in front of Lane's house. "Okay."

"I'll meet you back at the house."

"Excuse me?" Lorelai asks, not believing that one again.

"I'll show up this time."

"I'll have the pizza waiting." Rory gets out and runs to the front door. Lauren jumps into the front seat and she and Lorelai watch Rory and Lane hug it out.

"Our little girl is growing up so fast." Lauren says.

Lorelai reaches over and nudges Lauren, playfully, before they drive off to the house.


	21. Cinema

Upstairs, Lorelai is sleeping soundly until a banging noise occurs and she jumps out of her sleep.

"Dear God Almighty Mr. Mirkle!" Lorelai yells. She jumps out of bed, while the banging is still going on, and runs out of her room and into Lauren's. She sees Lauren still sleeping. "I cannot believe this." She whispers to herself. Lorelai closes Lauren's bedroom door and makes her way downstairs into Rory's room. She sees Rory doing the same with no movement whatsoever. "Hey!" She yells, deciding to wake Rory up instead.

"What?" Rory asks, annoyed.

"You are not sleeping through this." Lorelai tells her.

"Through what?" Rory asks, still not hearing the noise.

Lorelai walks over and falls down on Rory's bed. "The freaking Blue Man Group is outside out house!"

"I was sleeping through it."

"It had to have woken you up."

"No, my insane mother, Margot Kidder Gilmore, woke me up." Rory grabs her pillow and puts it over her head.

Lorelai walks out of Rory's room and goes outside on the porch to find Luke working on her railings. "Hi." She says, tiredly.

"Hey." Luke says back.

"How are you today?"

"Good. How are you?"

"Good. Good. What are you doing?"

"Fixing your porch rail."

"That's right." Lorelai gleams. "You are. You're fixing my porch rail at 6:30 in the morning!" She yells.

"It was the only time I could do it."

"Why? Why!?"

"It was broken. I noticed last time I was here. It could hurt somebody." He tells her.

"Luke, we sleep around here, okay? We like it. It makes us pretty and keeps us from killing our crazy friends!"

"You're gonna wake the neighbors."

Lorelai groans loud. "Could you pound one more thing while you're out here?" She asks him. "Your head! And a 'for sale' sign on the lawn, because we're moving. So that's two things: the sign and your head. And in that order because otherwise you'll be too dizzy to do the sign thing!" Lorelai walks back over to her front door and tries to open it but it's locked. "Aw, shoot! Rory, Lauren!" She yells, banging on the door.

"You locked out?" Luke asks.

"You don't exist. Rory! Lauren!"

"You shouldn't have closed the door."

"Rory!"

"Lorelai, sugar!" Babette yells from her house. "You're waking up the entire neighborhood. Please!"

Rory opens the door when Lorelai is stepping back and is astounded by what Babette just told her. "Excuse me!"

"I am officially annoyed." Rory tells her mom.

"Well, don't blame me. Blame Luke." Lorelai turns around and Luke is no longer standing on the porch. "He was right here."

"Yeah, I know." Rory says, looking around, not believing her mom.

"Get back to bed, doll." Babette begs.

"He was banging on the..."

"I know." Rory says as she pulls Lorelai into the house.

"It was something on the porch. It was broken. I'm not crazy."

"I know."

"He was banging on something."

"I know."

At the house, on a different day, Lorelai is at the kitchen table, eating, and reading the paper, while Lauren digs in the box of cereal next to Lorelai.

"I had the weirdest dream last night." Lorelai tells her daughter. "We were in our house, but it wasn't our house. It was a Kentucky Fried Chicken."

"I'm hooked." Lauren tells her.

"I had to get dressed, but my clothes were in the back. And the guy manning the giant oil vat would not let me through."

"Oh, my god! That's so weird!" Lauren interrupts. "When you said "oil vat," that reminded me, I had this dream last night. We were swimming in a pool, only it wasn't water. It was like oil or honey or something."

"Hey."

"What?"

"You totally did the thing."

"What thing?"

"The thing. Where one person is describing their dream and it reminds the other about theirs and suddenly it's all about their dream. And the first person is standing there like, 'what about my dream?'"

"I'm sorry. The oil-vat guy was mean." Lauren repeats for her my mom to continue.

"Yes, and we knew him. He used to live in town. He was that guy who used to run the auto body shop before Maybin Hewes bought it. Remember him?"

"Of course you do. He was really skinny."

"Peter Stringbean?"

"No. That was the tall circus-freaky guy who worked with him. This was the owner guy. What was his name?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do. Come on. Ugh. It's gonna bug me all day. He was short and fat and his name was.."

Lauren laughs. "Johnny McShort-and-Fat?"

Lorelai glares at her daughter. "Don't mock." Lorelai stands up and walks to the back door and goes onto the porch. "Hey, who was the guy who used to run the auto body shop?" Lorelai asks Luke.

Luke looks down from the roof. "That Stretch Cunningham guy?"

"No, the Dick Tracy guy."

"Big, always had a half-smoked cigar in his mouth?"

"Yes, him. What was his name?"

Back inside Rory walks out of her room dressed in her school uniform. "Morning, Lauren. What is Mom babbling about this early?"

Lauren laughs. "She's telling me about her dream, but she can't think of the guy's name that was in it. It's bugging her so now she is bugging Luke about it."

Rory grabs a handful of cereal. "Of course. Hey, do you know if Mom put my coat in the hallway closet? I can't find it." She asks, as she walks towards the closet.

"I don't know. Maybe. She tends to just throw stuff in there." Lauren tells her.

Rory opens the closet and starts looking through the rack of clothes hanging in there. She looks down and notices a familiar box on the floor. Rory picks it up and sees that it's her Dean box. She walks out with it and goes into the kitchen. Lauren looks up and freezes when she sees Rory and the box. Together. "Oooh." She says, quietly just as Lorelai walks back into the kitchen .

"Jim Dunning." She tells her. "That's the Dick Trach guy." Lorelai looks at Rory and walks towards her. "Oh, the Dean box." Rory jus looks at her Mom. "Okay. I know I was supposed to throw it away but I couldn't. I mean you're young, and your head's all weird and you don't have any perspective because of that whole young, weird-headed thing. So please listen to me before you get mad." Lorelai sighs. "You're gonna want that stuff one day when you're old and married and looking back and thinking: I certainly had an interesting life. And then you can pull out all your old-boyfriend boxes, which is good because I threw away stuff I'd kill to have today. Look, I put it in with the Max box so they could chat and keep eachother company and commiserate about hoe they had a Gilmore girl and lost a Gilmore girl. Sorry."

Rory reaches over and kisses Lorelai on the cheek. "Thanks." She says, as she walks into her room. Lorelai turns around and smiles and Rory closes her bedroom door.

Outside, Lauren runs out the front door and over to their mailbox. She opens it and starts digging through the mail. There's an envelope address to her from Alex.

"Lauren, come on. You're going to be late for school!" Lorelai yells as she comes out of the house. "Bye, Luke." She says as she walks to her car and starts it. "Lauren, move it."

Lauren sighs and quickly folds up the envelope and stuffs it into her jacket pocket. She to the car. "Bye, Luke!"

"Bye, Lauren." Luke waves.

Lauren hopes into the car and hands Lorelai the rest of the mail. "I thought you were taking care of the bills this month." Lorelai jokes. Lauren just laughs and shakes her head as they pull out of the driveway.

At Chilton, Rory opens her locker to take out her books for the next class. Tristin walks up to her, holding two tickets.

"You know what these are?" He asks her as he leans against the other lockers.

"They look like tickets." Rory tells him.

"To P.J. Harvey."

"Wow. You have good taste. I'll give you that." Rory says, surprised.

"You're into P.J. Harvey, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I'm all-knowing." He tells her

Rory nods. "How godlike of you."

"One of these is for you."

Rory looks at the ticket Tristin is trying to give her. "Oh, I don't think we should go to a concert together."

"Reason?"

"It would seem like a date."

"Well, it would seem like a date because it would be a date." Tristin laughs.

"I can't date you, Tristin."

"I give you permission."

Rory rolls her eyes and slams her locker shut. "And on that humble note." She walks away and runs into Madeline, Louise, and Paris

"Oh, Rory, favor. Big one." Madeline begs.

"Sure. What?" Rory asks.

"Can I get your Biology notes from Tuesday? I was out."

"To lunch." Louise adds.

"Please."

"Sure. I have them at home. I can bring them later."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

"One more, and you're done." Paris tells her.

"Thank you." Madeline laughs and Rory walks away from them.

The girls walk over to Paris' locker which happens to be where Tristin is still standing and looking at the tickets in his hands.

"Hi." Paris says to him.

"Hey."

"What are those?" Madeline asks.

"P.J. Harvey tickets." Tristin tells them.

"Really?" Louise asks. "Who are you going with?"

"Rory."

"What?" Paris says. She looks up at Tristin with a surprised look.

"Rory's going out with you?" Louise asks him.

"Yes, she is." Tristin smiles and walks away.

"Wow. I didn't think she liked him." Madeline says, following Tristin with her eyes.

"Neither did I." Paris slams her locker shut and storms away. "Hm, do you think she's mad?" Louise asks Madeline.

Lorelai is walking through town when Rachel walks up to her.

"Lorelai!"

"Hey, Rachel."

"Hey, have you seen Luke around?" Rachel asks.

"He's probably at the diner."

"Nope. He was supposed to be at the diner, but he's not."

"Oh, uh, well.."

"We were supposed to meet for lunch, but didn't show."

"Ooh." Lorelai says, sadly.

"Again." Lorelai gasps. "I made tuna."

"Nice."

"Yeah. He usually comes back upstairs for a little break between lunch and dinner. But recently, he's been..." Rachel takes a deep breath. "other places, your place, actually."

"Oh, yeah. Rachel, he's just fixing some things."

"I know."

"The porch rail, a couple roof shingles, then the porch rail again after he fell off the roof onto the porch rail." Lorelai laughs.

"Yeah, he's been telling me."

"Good."

"Look, if you see him, could you tell him to just I don't know, check in?" Rachel asks.

"Yes. Will do." Lorelai promises."

"Thanks. Bye."

Lorelai sighs. She couldn't believe Luke was doing this to Rachel. Hiding out at her house? She had to get to the bottom of this.

At the house, Lorelai walks in with the mail from this morning. There's a banging happening somewhere in the house.

"Hello?" Lorelai calls out, but she doesn't get an answer. She goes back to the door and grabs an umbrella, then she walks slowly on the other side of the foyer opening. "Hold it right there! AH! AH!" She yells as Luke jumps back, frightened by the umbrella that almost came at him.

"It's only me!" He yells at her.

"You scared me half to death!"

"Who'd you think it was?"

Lorelai taps Luke with the umbrella. "Well, I don't know! I heard thudding upstairs and Lauren weighs, like, ten ounces." Lorelai says, walking back to the front door and dropping the umbrella back where she got it from while Luke follows her. "It either had to be an escaped elephant or some strange, large man who should not be in the house. How did you get in here?" She asks as they walk back into the living room.

"Through the back door."

"The back door's locked."

"No, that's why I came. The back door lock was broken."

Lorelai turns around and looks at Luke with confused face. "The back door lock is fine."

"The back door lock was cheap."

"The back door lock came with the house. It's been a very fine back door lock."

"It's the kind of lock burglars look for."

"Why do burglars look for it?"

"It's easy to break into. I proved that."

"You proved that by..."

"Breaking in."

Lorelai gasp. "Oh, my god!" She walks towards the kitchen to check the lock out.

"It's the only way I could get in." Luke argues.

"You have crossed over into the dark side, Luke."

"It's not that big a deal."

Lorelai gasp when she sees her door. "You broke into my house!"

"I'm gonna fix it." He says, walking to the door.

"Step away from that lock." Lorelai says, pushing Luke out of the way.

"What?"

"Get off. Come, sit down." Luke huffs and walks to the kitchen table and sits. "You have almost no free time with your work at the diner. And lately, every spare moment has been spent not with Rachel." Lorelai sits down next to him.

"That's not true."

"She was looking for you today, and she didn't know where you were."

"I'm not hiding from her."

"I didn't say that."

"You implying it."

"Someone's sensitive about the accusation." Lorelai laughs.

"I think I'm hiding." Luke admits.

"I think you are, too."

"It's just a little weird having her in my place."

"I thought that's what you wanted."

"It was...Is. I'm just..." Luke sighs. "I've just been living alone since...forever. Now I got used to putting the milk someplace in the fridge and finding it in the exact same spot, you know what I mean."

Lorelai chuckles and shakes her head. "We don't even keep milk in the house."

"Then, cookies."

"Cookie never make it out of the car."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. Well, maybe you can train Rachel to use a magic marker to makr the milk exactly where you left it."

"It's not just about milk. I'm not used to someone expecting me."

"Expecting you to..."

"Come home, do things, be with her." Luke explains.

"Aw. Most people would kill to have that in their lives."

"I know. But I'm different. I'm a loner."

"Oh, no, no. I don't want to hear about the romance of being a loner."

"Some guys are just naturally loners."

"Yes, lonely guys."

"Independent guys."

"Sad guys."

"Maverick guys."

"Lee Harvey Oswald."

"John Muir."

"The Unabomber."

"Henry David Thoreau."

"Every one of these, sad, and lonely guys." Lorelai tells him.

"It's just not what I thought it would be like having Rachel back. It's not the fantasy I was toting around all these years."

"Well, Luke, life is not a fantasy." Lorelai tells him. She gets up and grabs two glasses and sets them on the table and then walks to the refrigerator and grabs the lemonade. "Maybe you have to lower your expectation bar a little bit." Lorelai sits back down and starts pouring their drinks.

"So, you're saying that life is just settling for whatever comes along?"

"Wow. You think having Rachel is settling?"

"No, I didn't mean that. Rachel's great."

"And she's crazy about you. And if her worst trait is she's a milk whore, you have it pretty good." Lorelai jokes. "You just need to give this situation a fair chance. And that starts with ceasing work on the Winchester Mystery House here."

Luke nods his head and sighs as he looks at Lorelai. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

In town, Rory is standing in front of Dean's house just staring at it. She kept trying to get herself to go up, but her feet wouldn't move. Lauren sees her from across town and runs over to her.

"Whatcha doing?" She asks, scaring Rory.

"Geez, Lauren. What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way to Luke's and I seen you. This is Dean's house, isn't it?" Lauren asks.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Yes, it is. Isn't Mom waiting for you?"

"Yeah, but we can both go now. Why are you here?"

"It's a nice house."

"Oh, my gosh!" Lauren jumps up finally realizing it. "You are getting back together with Dean!"

"No, I'm not." Rory tells her.

"Yes, you are. Wow. Okay, so, are you going to go knock on the door?"

"You're really bugging me."

"Sorry. But I am way to curious to leave now. I can go ring the doorbell if you want." Lauren says, as she starts to walk but Rory grabs her quickly and pulls her back to her.

"I don't think so."

"Why not? It's not like you're moving."

Rory takes a deep breath and walks slowly towards the front door. Lauren runs up behind her. Rory glares at her and Lauren shrugs her shoulders and nods to the door. Rory starts knocking on the door.

Dean's little sister answers. "Hi."

"Oh, hi." Rory says. "How are you today?"

"Fine."

"Good." Rory says, awkwardly.

"Are you here to see my brother?"

"No, not at all." Lauren looks at her big sister with a confused look. That was the whole reason why they were here. "I'm with the Girl Scouts."

"I'm gonna be a Girl Scout someday. I'm a brownie now."

"Oh, good. That's an excellent stepping stone."

"Where's your uniform?" Dean's sister ask as she looks Rory up and down.

"Oh, we're not doing uniforms anymore."

"Yeah, we're trying to blend in, relate better to the average person." Lauren adds. Dean's sister looks at Lauren. "Hi, I'm her sister, Lauren."

"I think I've seen you around before." She tells her. "You go to the Junior High, right?"

Lauren smiles. "Uh, yes. I do. Do you?"

"No, I'm two grades below. Are you a girl scout, too?"

Lauren and Rory exchange glances. "Uh, yeah, my sister is just showing me the ropes."

She nods her head and looks back at Rory. "You look like someone."

"I do?" Rory asks.

"You're the girl in the pictures." She remembers.

"What pictures?"

"The ones Dean has in his room."

"Dean has pictures in his room?" Rory smiles at the thought.

"There's a funny one of your sticking out your tongue. He had a lot."

"Wait, has or had?"

"What?"

"You went from 'has' to 'had': a big difference." Rory tells her.

"It is?"

"Yeah." Rory bends down to get on her level. "What's your name?"

"Clara."

"You're a pretty girl, Clara."

"Thanks."

"Now, is it has or had?"

"I don't know."

"You do know, Clara. Had is past tense, has is present. Now think!" Rory says in frustration.

Lauren looks at her sister then back at Clara. She could tell Clara was getting upset and her sister was being insane right now. "I'm sorry, Clara. Rory is just a freak when it comes to English." Lauren laughs, nervously.

"Can you go to his room now?" Rory asks Clara.

"He doesn't like me in his room." She tells her.

"Sneak in, he'll never know."

Clara starts crying. "Oh, no, Clara, don't cry!" Lauren begs.

"I didn't mean to make you cry." Rory tells her.

"Way to go, Rory."

"I'm a nice person. I'm a Girl Scout."

"Clara." Dean's voice calls out for her sister.

Rory and Lauren both shoot their eyes up into the house. "Bye!" Rory says, taking Lauren's hand and they run, quickly, away from the house.

"What's the matter?" Dean asks Clara as he comes up behind her.

"They scared me."

"Who?"

"The Girl Scout."

Dean looks outside and sees Rory and Lauren running down the sidewalk. He pulls Clara back into the house and sighs before closing the door.

Later that night, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, and Max are walking to the town meeting with bags of food in their hands.

"Okay, we've got food, drinks, reading material, chocolate espresso beans. Have I left anything out?" Max asks them.

"I think that about covers it." Rory tells him.

"You're such a good provider." Lorelai says.

"I try my best."

"Are you sure you want to go to this thing?"

"You're always talking about these town meetings. I've got to see one for myself."

"Well, they're never dull."

"If you're lucky, you'll see a crazy lady throwing French fries at those she disagrees with like last time." Lauren tells him.

Max looks over at Lorelai. "So, were they cold?"

"No, I was just full."

"Oh, I forgot!" Max digs in the bag that is in his hand and pulls out a red ring pop. "One for you." He hands it to Lorelai. He then pulls out a purple one and hands it to Rory. Then he pulls out a green one and hands it to Lauren. "And one for you."

"What are these?" Rory asks as the girls look at their candy rings.

"Those are rings, and the diamonds are actually candy so you can eat it." Max tells them.

"Max, that's very sweet, but we're not eight." Lorelai laughs. Max walks ahead of them and the three of them huddle together. "What do you have?"

"Grape." Rory tells her.

"Green apple." Lauren tells them. "Yours?"

"Red."

"Trade you!"

"Yes!" Lorelai grabs Lauren's, then Lorelai grabs Rory's, giving Rory Lauren's ring. Max turns around and laughs at them.

In the meeting, everyone is arguing like usual when they walk in.

"Enough of this arguing!" Taylor yells. "It's time to put this to a vote." Everyone quiets down. "Alright, now, let's see a show of hands. All those in favor?" Everyone raises their hands.

"All rats. It started already." Lorelai tells them.

"All those opposed." Everyone raises their hands including Lorelai. "Lorelai, you don't even know what we're voting on."

"Yeah, but I'm agin it!"

"Alright, the nays have it. Let the record reflect it." Taylor says. Lauren nudges Rory. Rory glares at Lauren, clearly seeing Dean and his sister sitting in front of them. Lorelai points to four chairs that are open and they walk over to them. "Lorelai, I hope that's not food in those bags. Food is not allowed at town meetings."

"No, Taylor, it's diapers for the little ones." Lorelai jokes.

"The what?"

"Dorsal fins and Cucamonga."

"What did she say?" Taylor asks Patty.

"I confused him till he loses his train of though. Then he moves on." Lorelai explains to Max.

"Alright, I'd like to open the meeting up for miscellaneous issues." Taylor announces.

"I have an issue." One of the guys up front says as he stands up.

"Who are you?"

"The town troubadour."

"The what?"

"You've seen him, Taylor, with his guitar." Babette tells him.

"Right, the guitar." Taylor says, unpleased.

"He plays on all the street corners." Patty tells him.

"He loiters on street corners." Luke corrects her.

"We're two peas in a pod, Luke." Taylor says.

"Scary thought, Taylor."

"Go on, honey." Babette ushers the troubadour.

"Thank you. I've been the town troubadour for six months now and I think I've done a pretty good job. And then he shows up." He says, pointing to the long haired guy sitting up in the front. "And there's no room for a second troubadour in Stars Hollow."

"This is the silliest thing I have ever heard." Taylor tells him.

"Hear them out, Taylor. It can't hurt." Lorelai argues. Taylor looks sternly at Lorelai and the bags she has in her hands. "These are not fries. They are Fahrvenugen Soogan Dugan."

Rory peeks over behind her to look at Dean. "I opened the floor for issues of substance. This does not qualify."

"Don't be uncool, Taylor. Music is substance." Morey tells him.

"Watch out, Morey. After that anatomically explicit epithet your wife yelled at me earlier you're both on probation."

"All I'm asking is that the town troubadour laws be enforced."

"There are no town troubdour laws."

"There ought to be something." Patty says.

"I've got the town handbook right here." Kirk says, throwing his hand up.

"I don't get this, people. This man is practically a vagrant. I mean, where do you even live? What do you do for a living?"

"I don't want people to know those things." The troubadour groans.

"Why not?"

"Because that's part of being a troubadour."

"What is part of being a troubadour?"

"The mystique."

"Oh, this is absolutely ridiculous! Do you subscribe to this troubadour mystique?" Taylor asks the long haired guy.

"I run a Kinko's in Groton." He tells him.

"You see?" Troubadour asks as everyone shakes their heads in disapproval. "That proves it! He doesn't respect the code. You're not supposed to talk, you're not supposed to run a Kinko's. You are supposed to speak through your music. That's the whole point." Max looks over and starts laughing when he sees Lorelai and Lauren looping their arms together and sucking on their ring pop.

"What is your scam, buddy?" Taylor asks.

"My scam?"

"Because if you are using the fine people of Stars Hollow to make a quick buck..."

Patty shakes her head, smiling. "No, Taylor, he doesn't accept money. I know, I tried."

"He may not now, but he will. this troubadour act is a money-making scheme. Why else would he be doing it?"

Rory stands up. "Because sometimes you have something to say, but you can't because the word won't come out, or you get scared, or feel stupid." Dean looks up and watches Rory. "So, if you could write a song and sing it, then you could say what you need to say. It would be beautiful, and people would listen, and you wouldn't make a complete idiot out of yourself. But all of us can't be songwriters. So, some of us will never be able to say what we're thinking or what we want other to know we're thinking. So, we'll never get the chance to make things right again, ever." Rory looks around and see everyone staring at her. "So, give this guy a license." She says, patting the troubadour on his shoulder. Everyone starts clapping and Rory sits down, completely shocked about what she just did. Lauren is laughing hysterically as Lorelai puts her arm around Rory's shoulder.

"Well, I liked that little speech." She tells her daughter who was still sitting there mortified.

Clara looks up at her big brother. "That's the girl scout." She whispers.

"In the interest of not talking on this subject for another second I hereby designate mystique guy over here the official town troubadour." Taylor announces. "And no other troubadour may usurp his territory meaning this other guy."

Everyone starts picking up their things and start leaving. Lorelai tosses a fry at Luke. She bends over and puts of the bag of fries. "You want some fries? We have extra." She asks him.

Luke turns around. "No, Rachel's minding the store, so I should probably get going."

"Yeah, I agree." Lorelai laughs, as she rolls her eyes.

"I knew you would." He says, getting up and walking out.

At the diner, Luke walks in while Rachel is cleaning up behind the counter.

"You're back." She says.

"Yeah, there's nothing much pressing at the town meeting."

"Okay, well, the bread shipment's all put away and I sent Caesar home since it was pretty dead."

"Good call."

"Thanks." Rachel picks up the bags that she was hiding behind the counter, and walks over to Luke who is staring at them.

"So you're leaving, huh?" He asks. Luke walks behind the counter trying to act like it was no big deal.

"Yeah."

"Were you even gonna tell me?"

"I was waiting for you to get back, so I could say goodbye." Rachel says.

Luke nods his head. "Yeah, you at least always do that. So, go."

"Don't you even want to know why?"

"I know why."

"I don't think you do."

"It's just like all the other times, Rachel. You're the 'anywhere but here' girl. You're restless, you're bored. It is what it is."

"That's not it." Rachel says as she drops her bags.

"Then what is it? Is there another guy?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"It's another girl."

Luke stares blankly at Rachel. "What?" He asks. "You're telling me..."

"The other girl isn't for me, Luke, it's for you." She explains.

"Okay, now, that's crazy."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You feel you need a different excuse this time, to mix things up a little. Fine. But you are not leaving because of me."

"I'm sure you tried, Luke. But admit it. Your heat wasn't in it."

"My heart was in it. I was here. I didn't leave. I don't get this. What're you talking about? Another girl? What other girl?" Rachel just looks at him and Luke figures it out. "Oh, Rachel, no. You don't mean... She and I are just friend. I told you that a thousand times."

"No. You told it to me once. And you could barely get it out then."

Luke starts laughing. "This is crazy. You've got it wrong here. It's not.." Luke looks at Rachel. He was having a hard time saying it again. "She and I are..."

"I'm gonna go." Luke sighs. "I'll miss you." She says, reaching over and hugging Luke. "Stay in touch."

Rachel grabs her bags again and walks to the door. "Rachel, come on."

"So don't wait too long, okay?" Rachel asks him.

"To what?"

"To tell her." Rachel walks out leaving Luke standing alone, once again, in his diner.

The next day, Lauren is at school during lunch. She still had the letter she got from Alex just hanging out in her pocket. She wanted to open it, but all she could do was stare at it and it was bugging her to know what was inside. It had been a month since the incident happened and things were finally getting back to normal. She was happy again, and she and her mom and sister all had their relationships back in order. It was great. But now she had a letter lingering around her and she wasn't sure if she should open it, throw it away, or give it to her mom. So as Lauren is sitting at the lunch table, looking at the envelope in her hand, Elizabeth walks up to her and sits down.

"Hey, what is that?" She asks.

Lauren is still staring at it when she answers. "It's a letter I got in the mail the other day."

Elizabeth looks the envelope over. "You haven't even opened it. Who is it from?" Lauren shows her the envelope and Elizabeth reads it. "No way!" She yells. "Let me open it!"

Lauren takes the envelope away from her friend. "Shh. And, no, you are not opening it. I don't even know if I want to open it."

"Why not?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because he kidnapped me and let his stupid brother attack me." Lauren says, sarcastically.

Elizabeth rolls her eyes. "Okay, you're right, but he's not here anymore. Apparently, he's at some correctional facility."

"That's weird. It's not like he did anything to me to be put there." Lauren says. She looks back at the letter.

"Except for kidnapping you, but, yeah, we won't count that." Elizabeth laughs.

"Very funny." Elizabeth takes the letter from Lauren's hand and puts it up to the sky to try to read through the envelope. "What are you doing?"

"I'm to see if I can read anything inside of it without opening it. It's a really long letter."

Lauren snatches the letter from Elizabeth again. "Stop it. I'm probably not going to read it so it doesn't matter."

"Why don't you just give it to Lorelai."

"Because she'll read it, and I don't want to know what's in it and I probably don't want my mom to know what's in it either."

"Why did you do something dirty with Alex?" Elizabeth smirks.

Lauren glares at her friend. After everything that has happened, she couldn't believe Elizabeth really asked her that. "Okay, first off no. And second how old are you?"

"Sorry. I'm just asking."

"No, nothing happened. But I don't know Alex very well. He could just be turning everything on me."

"So, he wrote you the letter hoping you'd give it to someone to get yourself in trouble?" Elizabeth asks as little confused.

Lauren sighs. "Okay, that was stupid."

Elizabeth gasp and starts laughing. "Did Lauren Gilmore just have a stupid moment? No, it can't be!"

"I hate you." Lauren laughs.

"Just give it to your mom, Lauren. Whatever is in there can't be that bad."

Lauren sighs and looks back at the letter. She knew her friend was probably right, but something was still holding her back/

At Chilton, Rory is in the quad where she sees Madeline and Louise.

"Madeline!" She yells, walking faster to her. "I got the notes you wanted."

"No, thanks." Madeline says, without looking back.

"These are the ones you asked for." Rory reminds her. "The Biology notes from Tuesday."

"No thanks." Madeline repeats as she walks up ahead leaving Louise and Rory.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing's wrong with her, Mary." Louise says, using Rory's old nickname again.

"Mary?" Rory questions. "Oh, no, not this Virgin Mary thing again."

"Not virgin. Typhoid." Louise smirks while she walks into the building.

Paris walks up to Rory. "What?" She asks her as Paris stares at her.

"You know, when we met at the beginning of the year I didn't like you. I thought you were some rube from the sticks. And I have no patience for rubes."

"How enlightening."

"But then I discovered that you're not so dumb. You even seemed modestly interesting at times. That's when I made a very big mistake. I let my guard down. That won't happen again."

"What is this about?"

"It's about using people for your own ends." Paris tells her. "About making enemies where you should've made friends."

"How did I make you my enemy?"

"I think you know."

"Was it setting you up with Tristin? I'm sorry about that. I thought I was just being nice."

"Sure you did."

"I helped you get ready."

"Oh, my god. You're right. Hope Skippy didn't have her puppies on them. I'll check when I get home." Paris says sarcastically as they walk into the same building Louise went into.

"Tell me what I did." Rory says, sternly. "Paris!"

"Think about it at P.J. Harvey."

"Is that what this is about? I'm not going to P.J. Harvey."

"Tristin says you are."

"Then he lied."

"I saw the tickets."

"He bought them on his own."

"I'm over Tristin. Don't back out on my account."

"There's nothing to back out of."

"I don't have time for concerts anyway. I'm already lining up my extracurriculars for next year. By the way, are you still going out for the school paper?"

"You know, I am."

"You're going to need a faculty recommendation."

"I can swing it."

"And the student editor's support."

"I'm not worried."

"Worry. I just got the job." Paris says, smugly.

Rory looks surprised and sighs. "Oh. Congratulations."

"Thank you. And don't worry. You'll have some role. How's covering the new parking lot landscaping sound? Too bad I already filled the slot for music coverage. You know, record reviewing and such. You'd have been perfect for it. I gave the job to Louise, though."

"Louise has two cds."

"Yeah. Well, got to go." Paris smiles as she walks away. She, Louise, and Madeline are standing on the main stairs looking down at Rory. "Have a really good summer."

Rory watches them walk away. She could not believe Paris was doing this her all because of Tristin and she wasn't even going out with Tristin. Here's to another year of them hating her.

At the house, Lorelai is upstairs getting ready for her date with Max. Lauren was in her room looking down at the letter and decided that she had about enough of looking at it and wanted to do something with it. So, Lauren gets up and walks across the hall to her mom's room. She knocks lightly on the door.

"Come in." Lorelai yells from inside her closet.

Lauren walks in and sees her mom kneeling down in her closet, throwing things out one by one. "Need some help?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai peeks out. "No." She grabs her black heels. "Just looking for these." She says, as she stands up. "What's up?"

Lauren shrugs. "Just this." She says, showing her mom the envelope in her hand.

"What's that?" Lorelai asks, curiously, as she walks closer to her daughter.

Lauren sighs and sits on Lorelai's bed. "It's a letter I got in the mail the other day."

"Oh, from who?"

"Alex."

Lorelai stops what she is doing and looks at her daughter. "What? I didn't know you were still talking to him."

"I'm not! I'm not. I swear. But he apparently wants to talk to me. I haven't opened it. I'm a little scared about what may be inside." She tells her. Lorelai takes the letter and holds it up to the light making Lauren laugh a little. "That's exactly what Elizabeth did when I showed her the letter."

Lorelai puts it down and looks at her daughter with a small smile. "Do you want me to open it?"

Lauren looks at the letter in her mom's hands. "I don't know."

"Okay. Well, you know what?" Lorelai asks. Lauren raises her eyebrows for her mom to continue. "Let's just throw it away. Who needs to see it anyway? He sure as hell doesn't deserve your time. I'll throw it away."

Lauren thinks about it for a few seconds and then stands up. "Um, okay. Yeah. Yeah, do that."

"Alright, I will." Lorelai says, smiling at her daughter.

Lauren goes to walk away, but turns around with a smug look on her face. "Wait a minute."

"What?"

"You're not going to throw it away. I seen what you did to the Dean box. Hand it over." Lauren puts her hand out for her mom to put the letter in.

Lorelai gasps. "I cannot believe you don't trust me."

"Oh, I trust you, but not enough to believe that you'll actually throw it away."

Lorelai rolls her eyes and grabs Lauren's hand. She brings her over to her dresser where there is a candle lit. "How about this. We'll burn it."

"What?" Lauren laughs.

"We'll burn it. It'll disappear for good." Lorelai tells her.

"Good idea."

"Now are you sure you don't want to read it?" Lorelai asks Lauren one more time.

Lauren sighs and looks at the letter one last time before looking back up at Lorelai. "Definitely." She says. She had to get rid of Alex for good and getting rid of his letter was the last step.

"Alright." Lorelai puts the letter on the candle and they watch it slowly turn to ashes. She tosses it in her trash can and then pours a glass of water she has near her bed into the trash can when the letter fully disappears. "All gone."

"Thanks, Mom."

"Anytime, sweets." Lorelai says, lovingly, as she bends down and kisses her daughter on her forehead. The doorbell rings signaling that Max was here to take her out. "Ugh, it's early."

"Go ahead. I'll clean this up." Lauren tells her.

"Alright. Be good. I'll be back no later than twelve. I love you." Lorelai says as she rushes out of the room.

"Okay! I love you, too." Lauren yells back.

Lorelai comes downstairs. "You're annoyingly on time again!" She yells as she comes down. She runs to the door and opens it, but it's not Max. It's Luke. "Oh, hi." She says, surprised.

"Hey, you're all dressed up." He says, noticing her dress.

"I'm going out."

"Sorry. I forgot my toolbox, so I just thought I'd come pick it up."

"Oh, yeah. It's right over here." Lorelai chestures to the toolbox laying near the table in the foyer. Luke walks in and grabs it. "We couldn't lift it or we'd have brought it to you. Then we got used to having it here, so we named it Bert. We'd say goodnight, Bert, and it'd say, goodnight, girls. We spend too much time home alone." Lorelai tells him as he gives her weird look.

"Thanks for taking care of him." Luke laughs.

"Our pleasure."

Luke sets his toolbox on the table and turns back to Lorelai. "So, Rachel left."

"What?"

"Last night she left for good."

"Oh, no, Luke, I'm sorry." Lorelai says, sadly. "What happened?"

"It's hard to explain."

"I can't believe it. I thought she was in it for the long haul this time."

"Yeah, well, she had her reasons."

Lorelai couldn't believe it. "Really?" She asks shaking her head. "What?"

There's a knock on the door and Max walks in. "Hello. I tried to be late." He tells Lorelai.

Lorelai smiles and looks at her watch. "And an utter failure at one minute past." She jokes as she kisses him. "Uh, so, Max Medina, this is Luke Danes. Luke owns the diner. He has the greatest coffee."

"Oh, right. I saw you at the town meeting." Max tells him.

"I saw you, too."

"Nice to meet you." Luke just stands there looking at him. "So, we should be going."

"Yeah." Lorelai agrees.

"Yeah, I'm gonna get going." Luke tells them. "I just left my toolbox from when I was here earlier, fixing things. I do a lot of little things around here for Lorelai."

"Yeah, you're very handy. So, Luke, we'll talk later." Lorelai tells him. She was feeling awkward as they two men were standing in front of eachother.

"Yes, we will." Luke tells her.

"Although, probably not tonight. We won't be back until late." Max tells him.

"No, I meant not tonight."

"Oh, I misunderstood." Max says.

"I meant tomorrow. So, tomorrow." Lorelai says, as she smiles at Luke.

"Absolutely. We see eachother mostly everyday." Luke tells Max.

"Sure. You've got the coffee."

"And she needs the coffee. So, I'll see you tomorrow, same time as always."

"I'll count on a little later." Max tells him.

Luke shrugs. "It doesn't matter what time it is. I'll always be around." He turns and walks out the door leaving Lorelai and Max standing there awkwardly.

"So, are we going?" Max asks her.

"Uh, yeah. Just wanted to make sure the two of you were done swinging those things around. Someone's bound to lose an eye."

"What are you talking about?" Max chuckles.

"Nothing. I'll get my purse." Lorelai says as she walks into the living room.

Max follows her. "So, not to be blunt, but is that over?"

"Is what over?"

"Whatever I just walked in on."

"Oh, Max, come on, that's Luke." Lorelai tells him.

"I kinda picked something up there."

"Okay. Drope it back on the ground, kick it under the couch because there is no 'there' there."

"Hey, it's okay." Max assures her. "We were apart for quite a while. I never assumed you joined a convent."

Lorelai looks at her boyfriend with a confused face as she puts her sweater on. "Max."

"It's not like I didn't date while we were apart."

"You dated?" Lorelai asks him a bit surprised.

"A little."

"A little person?"

"No, I dated a little."

"Okay. I didn't expect you to join a manvent or whatever the male equivalent of that is called. Who did you date?"

"A monastery."

"You dated a monastery?"

"A monastery is a the male equivalent of a convent." He tells her.

"I'll make a note for the quiz on Friday." Lorelai says a bit annoyed.

"I didn't know if I'd ever see you again." Max explains to her.

"No, I get it. Yes, we were apart. And I didn't exaxctly remain inactive." She tells him.

"So you did date Luke?"

"No, I did not date Luke."

"You can tell me."

"I did not date Luke!" Lorelai repeats. She was getting really frustrated with this whole conversation.

"There was a vibe."

"There was no vibe. What's with the questioning? You won't tell me who you dated."

"Because it's no one you know."

"Okay, well, did you date casual, nothing-type dating or did you date get-dow, soul-train kind of dating?"

"I wouldn't phrase it that way, but to be honest, it was the latter."

"Good. Well, I like your honesty because you could've lied and left that part out to spare my feelings which would've been unnecessary. So, thank you. I slept with Rory and Lauren's dad." She says, quickly.

"Let's change the subject." Max says. He did not want to get into this with her.

"On my parents' balcony." She explains.

"I want to change the subject!"

"You started it." Lorelai laughs.

"I did not mean for this to become a who-slept-with-whom contest." He tells her.

"Well, how'd it get that way?"

"I don't know. Ugh. Why do we do this? Why do we let it get weird between us just when it's getting good again?" Max asks.

"I don't know."

"I don't like it."

"I don't either."

"And I'm sick of it."

"So am I."

"We can't keep getting close to have something derail us again. And frankly, there's only one thing I could think of that could solve it."

"Break up." Lorelai says. Max sighs and shakes his head. "Well, I'm not interested in a murder-suicide kind of thing."

"We should get married." Max blurts out. Lorelai freezes and stares a Max with her mouth open.

"Give me a clue as to whether you're kidding or not."

"I am not kidding."

Lorelai sighs. "Good clue."

"What do you say?" He asks again.

"Nothing. Max, you did not just propose to me." Lorelai says. She was suddenly feeling very uneasy right now.

"Yes, I did."

"No. A proposal has to be something more than the desperate desire to end a bickering match."

"It was more than that."

"It has to be planned. It should be magical. There should be music playing, and romantic lighting and a subtle buildup to the popping of the big question. There should be a thousand yellow daisies and candles and a horse. I don't know what a horse is doing there unless you're riding it, which is a little over the top. But it should be more than this."

Max shakes his head. He completely agreed. "You're right."

"I am right."

"And you should definitely not have the kid around either." Lauren says, from upstairs.

Max and Lorelai look up to find Lauren sitting at the top of the stairs looking down at her mom and Max. "Oh, god." Lorelai says.

"I'm sorry." Max tells her sincerely.

"It's okay." Lorelai assures him.

Max walks over and grabs Lorelai's hands. "Let's start the evening over."

Lorelai shakes her head. "Ding-dong." She says, trying not to laugh.

Max looks at his watch. "Now I'm five minutes late." He laughs.

"You're making good progress."

"Let's go."

Lorelai nods her head and follows Max, but she stops and looks at her daughter who is staring down at them. She could see the worry in Lauren's eyes and it scared her, but it was the same worry she was feeling right now also. She kisses her hand and waves it at Lauren. Lauren does the same and watches her mom and Max leave the house.

At Chilton, it's the last day of school and everyone is coming out. Tristin is waiting for Rory as she comes out with the rest of the school.

"I'm a little tired of this game." He tells her.

"What game?" She asks as they walk towards the front.

"Are we meeting there?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The concert's tonight." He reminds her.

"Well, I hope you and the empty seat have a lot of fun."

"I'm starting to get a little irritated."

"So am I." Rory says, annoyed.

"What are you mad about?"

"You're telling everyone I'm going with you." Rory tells him.

"Just a couple."

"You told Paris. Paris and I had just started getting along. Now she hates me again."

"If the damage is done, you might as well come with me."

"Never. I am never going anywhere with you, ever."

"These tickets cost me a fortune."

"They cost your daddy a fortune."

"I don't know anyone else who's into this stupid guy." Tristin yells.

"P.J. Harvey's a woman!" Rory tries to walk away, but Tristin grabs her books. "What are you doing?"

"You'll get them back when you agree."

"You're pathetic, Tristin. Keep the books. I'm leaving." Rory tells him as she walks away. She stops, though, we she sees Dean standing by his truck waiting for her. "Dean?" She says, surprised. Tristin walks up behind her and sees Dean. Dean shakes his head when he sees Tristin with Rory books and starts to get back into his truck, but Rory runs over to him. "Dean! What are you doing here?"

"I'm leaving."

"Don't go."

"I shouldn't have come." He says opening up his truck door.

Rory slams it shut again. "Wait!"

"I feel like an idiot."

"Why?"

"Because I come all the way out here, and I see you with him. It's just great."

Rory looks at Tristin. "No, Tristin was just.."

"I don't care. He's got your books."

"No, he took them. He wouldn't give them back. Please, just tell me why you're here." Rory begs him.

Dean huffs in frustration. "I don't even know."

"Yes, you do."

"Cause I thought you...forget it."

"No, say it."

"I thought you were trying to talk to me. You came to my house."

"That wasn't me." Rory lies.

"It was you and Lauren."

"It must've been someone that looked like us."

"My sister recognized you from the pictures in my box."

"In what box?"

"The box of stuff I have of us, pictures, and letters, and everything from you."

"You have a Rory box?" Rory asks him. She was feeling much better about her box now.

"And what was going on at the town meeting? All that stuff about writing a song?"

"I don't what I was saying." Rory was feeling embarrassed about everything now.

"That had nothing to do with me?" Rory just stands there. She wanted to speak, but nothing would come out. "Well, I must have imagined it all then." Dean looks back at Tristin who is watching them. "Your boyfriend's waiting."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Rory yells as Dean walks back to his truck. "I hate him."

"Whatever."

"Dean!"

"What?" He asks as he opens his truck door again.

"Stop!"

"Why?"

Rory takes a deep breath. "Because I love you, you idiot." Dean turns around and with no second thoughts he walks over kisses Rory passionately on her lips.

At the Inn, it was Lorelai's off day and she and Lauren were spending it together, but she got a call to come to the Inn. So, she and Lauren are running onto the porch of the Inn.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? Do you speak English?" Michel argues with Kirk. Lorelai and Lauren run over to Kirk and Michel. "What took you?"

"Sorry. I got here as quickly as I could. Hi, Kirk."

"Do not address him. He's a scoundrel."

"I'm just doing my job." Kirk tells them.

"What's going on?" Lorelai asks.

"Am I not the head man in charge of floral deliveries?" Michel asks her.

"Yes, and one of the few men who would proudly declare that."

"I'm just doing my job." Kirk says again.

"Stop saying that" Michel tells him in frustration.

"This has to do with flowers we ordered?" Lorelai asks.

"Flowers we did not order." Michel reminds her.

"I'm just doing my job."

"Say that once more and I'll punch your nose." Michel threatens him.

Lauren smiles, evily. "Oh, please, Kirk. Say it again."

"It must be a mistake." Lorelai says to Michel.

"No." Kirk says.

"I did not order these flowers." Michel tells him.

"It says that you have to be here to personally accept them." Kirk tells Lorelai.

"That I have to here?" Lorelai asks in confusion. Well, that's..." Lorelai stops what she is saying and thinks about it for a moment.

"I am head man in charge of flowers."

"I just do what I'm told." Kirk tells him.

"I warn you not to say that."

"Mom?" Lauren says as she looks at Lorelai's pale face. Lorelai turns around and goes into the Inn. When she walks in, she is hit with a thousand yellow daises that are set across the entire bottom floor of the Inn. Lauren follows Lorelai in and sees the daises. "No way!"

"You can say that again." Lorelai whispers as she stares at the flowers. Lauren looks up at her mom and could tell she was trying not to cry.

Michel and Kirk walk in. "Daisies, no less." He says with a snotty attitude. "As if I would order these pitiful little things. Foul things, these daises. Just a notch up from weeds. And look at how many of them. There must be at least..."

"A thousand of them." Lorelai interrupts. "A thought yellow daises."

"That's right." Kirk tells them. "The order states for exactly a thousand. Not 1,001, not 999, but a thousand. I don't question the orders. I merely fill them."

Lorelai walks down the steps and steps right in the middle of the daisies and looks around. She couldn't help but smile. Max had listened to her which meant he was serious about this. Very serious. Lorelai takes out her cell phone and begins dialing his number.

"I couldn't find a horse." He tells her as soon as he answers.

"You didn't have to..."

"Don't say anything. Please. You were right last night. I shouldn't have proposed to you like that. It was stupid. It was the wrong place and the wrong time. I kicked myself the entire night for doing it. But you were wrong about something, too. I didn't propose to you because we were fighting. I proposed because I love you." Lorelai couldn't help the tears that made their way down her face. Lauren walks over to her. "We're in a bad pattern, Lorelai, and we have to break it. And other than that murder-suicide thing, which would be illegal and messy. I can only think to be impetuous."

"Max.."

"No, listen. I woke this morning and I realized that I have studied and taught the great literature all my life. And those stories are replete with characters that let opportunities slip by. But what I teach is more than just literature. It's lessons in life. If I don't follow those tenets I'm not the man I thought I was, the man I want to be."

"God, you talk so good."

"I don't want an answer now. I've thought about this. I want you to do the same. I love you, Lorelai Gilmore. And I know this to be true." Lorelai smiles and brings Lauren into her lap, making her giggle. "I'll talk to you later." He says, hanging up.

Lorelai puts the phone and looks around the room once again. She squeezes Lauren, happily, and grabs a daisy. She hand the daisy to Lauren and they both sit there just looking around mesmerized by all the yellow daises around them.

_You are a cinema. I could watch you forever. _


	22. Hiding My Heart

It had been a week since Max proposed to Lorelai and a week since he bought a thousand yellow daises for her. Lorelai had yet to give Max and answer yet though. Rory and Lauren were bugging her nonstop and going through pro and con lists to find out reasons to not and to marry Max. But Lorelai just couldn't make up her mind just yet. So, instead, she filled the entire town up with her daisies. She gave them to stores and to the people to decorate as they pleased.

"You should get married in Italy." Rory tells her mom as they walk through town.

Lorelai was getting really annoyed with this wedding talk. "All the way home, the same topic. There's tons of stuff going on in the world. Big stuff."

"Like?"

"Balkans."

"That was ages ago. Read a paper."

"They make my hands black." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, you should walk down the aisle to Frank Sinatra." Lauren tells her. "And with a huge bouquet of something that smells really good."

"Pot roast."

"And you should wear a long veil with your hair up."

Lorelai shakes her head and starts laughing. "I'll take any other subject in the world for $200, Alex."

"Why don't you wanna think about this?" Rory asks.

"Because I haven't made my mind up about the 'yes' or 'no' part, so I don't want to start fantasizing about dressed and flowers or doves and tulle until I do. So please change the subject." Lorelai begs them.

"Okay, I think the bridemaids should pick their own dressed." Rory tells her, clearly ignoring her mom's plea to change the subject.

"I totally agree. It's not like we don't trust you or anything with choosing the dresses, but.." Lauren quickly says, but Lorelai interrupts her.

"You know how in All in the Family when Edith would be yapping about something and Archie would pretend to hand or shoot himself?"

"Yeah." Rory says, a little freaked out.

"Well, something about this moment made me think of that."

"Fine, we're done." Lauren says, sadly.

"I'm taking these to Lane." Rory holds up the daises in her hand. "Lauren, you want to come? We can leave Mom alone for a bit since we're annoying her." Rory says, as Lorelai gives her a little fake laugh.

"Sure." Lauren says as she and her sister walk away from Lorelai towards Lane's house.

"Meet me at Luke's." Lorelai tells him.

Up at Lane's, Lauren and Rory are walking through the gate when they hear Lane and her mom arguing over something.

"You sure we want to interrupt?" Lauren asks. She was little scared of Mrs. Kim.

"No, no more talking." They hear Mrs. Kim tell Lane.

"But, Mama, please." Lane begs.

"Come on." Rory whispers as she and Lauren walk onto the porch and peek in to find the two talking.

"Not for you to think about. All under control." Mrs. Kim tells Lane.

"Just give me a hint."

"Children will know what their parents think they can handle."

"I'm sorry, was that the hint?"

"Back to work." Mrs. Kim orders as she walks away.

Rory and Lauren walk into the house and over to Lane. "Hey, I came to bring you some of my mom's flowers." Rory says, as she hands Lane the flowers.

"Thanks."

"Is everything okay?" Lauren asks Lane.

"No. I'm not okay."

"What's wrong?" Rory asks. "Did she find your cd burner?"

"My mother and father are sending me to Korea for the summer to visit my cousins." Lane explains.

Rory and Lauren start shaking their heads, trying to understand what was so wrong with that. "So?" Rory asks.

"They won't tell me when I'm coming back."

"What do you mean they won't tell you?"

"I mean, they bought me a one-way ticket. One-way. The plane goes there and stops."

"Are you sure?"

"I called the airline to confirm it and my parents were in their room whispering all morning. When my mother came out, she looked very happy. She was humming." Lane starts walking away with the flowers as she explains. Rory and Lauren are right behind her. "I swear, they're planning on sending me to Korea for the rest of my life. It's like that Sally Field movie when her husband wouldn't let them return from Iran. Except, I won't have to keep my head covered."

"Okay, calm down."

"Are you listening?" Lane asks in panic mode. "I am being shipped off to Korea."

"I think you're freaking out a little prematurely."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, let's think about this. Maybe there's some deal with the airline and that's why the ticket's one way or maybe they haven't worked out the plans with your cousins yet or there's a weather consideration or a holiday you don't know about." Rory says. She was trying to make up excuses but suddenly she wasn't so sure herself about what was going on. "Wow. I'm really going to miss you."

"Lane, come here, please." Mrs. Kim calls out in a happy voice.

"I have to go." Lane tells them. "You've been a good friend." Rory and Lauren watch Lane walk away, sadly, over to her mother.

In town, Lorelai is walking to Luke's, but she passes the magazine stand and stops when she sees the wedding ones. Lorelai looks around to make sure no one is watching her and picks up one of the magazines. She starts reading through just as Rory and Lauren sneak up behind her.

"Whatcha reading?" Lauren asks, nearly scaring Lorelai to death.

Lorelai turns around and finds her girls smiling at her. "God. Do not sneak up on a person like that." Lorelai tells her as she shows the girls the magazine.

"InStyle Weddings." Rory reads. "Very interesting."

"No, not very interesting."

"Get any ideas?"

"Yes, we should have cake more often." Lorelai jokes.

Rory grabs the magazine out of her mom's hand. "Hey, Bootsy, I'll take this." She tells the guy that is sitting down by the stand.

"That's $6." He tells her.

Rory pays him and hands her mom the magazine back. Patty walks up to them. "Lorelai." She says, grinning from ear to ear. "So?"

"Hi, Patty."

Patty notices the magazine in Lorelai's hand. "InStyle Weddings! You said yes."

"No, not yet."

"She said 'yet!'" Patty says to Lauren in excitement.

Lauren smiles back at her. "I know."

"I'm right here." Lorelai makes herself noticed again.

"He's good man?" Patty asks.

"Yeah, he's a great man."

"I just love this. Have you told Luke?"

Lorelai looks at Patty with a confused look. "No, it just happened." Patty gives Lorelai a worried look. "Oh, Patty, stop it. I'll tell him. It's not a big deal if he just finds out."

"Whatever you say."

"Well, it just so happens we are on our way over there to have breakfast and I'll tell Luke then."

"Be gentle."

"Patty, Luke and I are..."

"Just friends." Patty finishes for her. "Yes, I know."

"It's true."

"Okay, let's go." Rory says, as she and Lauren push their mom away.

"It is."

"I know." Rory tells her.

A group of people start gathering behind them as they walk towards Luke. "What is with this place? Why will nobody believe me?"

"They believe you." Rory tells her.

"No, they don't."

"I promise they believe you."

Lorelai glares at Rory. "You are pacifying me."

"Just a little."

"Well, I don't like it."

Lauren turns around and sees everyone behind them. She looks forward quickly and taps her mom on her arm. "Uh, Mom."

Lorelai looks down at her daughter. "What?"

"Ummm." Lauren points to the back of her.

Lorelai turns around and sees everyone following them. Rory does the same and looks back at her mom and sister. They could not believe the town was following them to Luke's. What a nosey town they lived in. "I can't wait for the movie theater to reopen." She says, shaking her head as they head inside the diner. They girls sit at the usual corner table. "Let's see, what looks good." Lorelai says, grabbing a menu.

Rory and Lauren look out the window and watches as everyone gathers around them, waiting for Lorelai to talk to Luke. "Mom, go tell him." Lauren begs.

"I will."

"Now." Rory orders.

"Why?"

"Because in five minutes, someone's about to be pushed through that window." Rory says with worry.

Lorelai turns around and sees them looking at her. She gasps. "This is crazy. Why is everybody making such a big deal about this?"

"Because everyone knows that Luke has a thing for you." Lauren tells her.

"Luke does not have a thing for me."

"Mom, please, tell him."

"We can barely have a conversation without biting eachother's heads off."

"Tell him." Rory repeats.

"Everything about me repulses him, my coffee-drinking, my eating habits. Remember when I called him Ranger Bob last week? He hated that."

"Will you us some muffins when you're there?" Lauren asks, as she takes a menu from the table and tries to cover her face.

"Okay." Lorelai sighs. "Fine." Lorelai gets up, and Lauren quickly takes her mom's seat so that her back is facing the window. At the counter, Lorelai walks awkwardly towards Luke. "Hey." She smiles.

"Fresh coffee will be ready in a minute." He tells her. "Unless you want to just roll up a dollar bill and go nuts."

Lorelai laughs. "No, thanks, I can wait."

Luke looks up and sees everyone gathering behind the window outside. "What the hell is going on with them?"

Lorelai turns around and then back at Luke, acting like she had no idea. "I don't know."

"Crazy people. The whole town should be medicated and put in a rec room with Ping-Pong tables and hand puppets." Lorelai laughs softly as she looks down trying to avoid Luke, but Luke noticed. "What?"

"Nothing. I...well, I have something to tell you." Luke turns around and starts the coffee before turning back interested in what Lorelai had to say. "I have something to share with you, actually."

"Share with me?"

"Yes. Because when exciting things happen in your life and you wanna share them with the people in your life who you think will find them exciting which I think you will."

"What is it?"

"Well, it's um, it's very.."

"Exciting." Luke interrupts. "I heard. I'm prepared to jump up and down in necessary."

"Okay, then, here it is. Max asked me to marry him." She says, gently.

Luke stares at Lorelai and nods his head. "Yeah, I figured." He tells her.

"You did?"

"It was obvious. You two were getting kind of close, he was around a lot. Then the other night with that life-changing comment, I put two and two together and figured it out."

"Oh." Lorelai chuckles.

"Congratulations." He says, sincerely.

"Thank you."

"Have you set a date?"

"No, I haven't even answered him yet."

"You're going to say yes."

"How do you know?"

"You're making a big deal about telling me he proposed."

"Uh, I don't think I'm making a big deal."

"You wouldn't do that if you weren't going to say yes."

"Okay, I'm sharing something with you. It is not making a big deal. Sharing is a nice gesture like when you're kid and you have a Popsicle and you break it in two and offer half to another kid. That's sharing. That is what I'm doing." Lorelai explains.

"You offered me a popsicle?"

"Yes." Lorelai smiles. "Okay, so, now you know."

"Now I know."

They stand there are few minuts just smiling at eachother. "Uhh, I guess I'll just have three blueberry muffins and some coffee."

"Coming right up." Luke takes three muffins out of the container and puts it in the warmer. "You know I think it's good you're doing this." He tells her.

"You do?" Lorelai asks with hope. "Good. Me, too. I mean, not that I'm definitely doing it, but if I do, then it'll be good."

"Where are you going to live?"

Lorelai was taken back by the sudden question. "What?"

"Here? Hartford?" He asks.

"Here. I don't know. We haven't talked about it."

"Hartford's probably good, closer to Rory's school. But of course, Lauren goes to Stars Hollow and it's a little far from the Inn."

"Uh, yeah." Lorelai laughs.

"But who knows how long you'll work after you're married, and maybe Lauren will decide to go to Chilton afterall."

Lorelai glares at Luke. "Excuse me?"

"But you probably already talked about that?"

"Uh, no, but I think he and my father have come to an agreement on how many goats I'm worth." Lorelai says in a dissatisfied tone.

"I'm just talking here. It's great, really. You're going to have more kids?"

"Hi, personal!"

"I mean, he wants kids, right?" Luke asks.

"In the world? Yes. He wants kids."

"You haven't talked about that either." Luke assumes.

"Okay, you know what? We we have and haven't discussed is none of your business."

"Joint checking accounts? You know his last name, don't you?"

"I want my popsicle back."

"Fine, it's your business."

"Yes, it's my business."

Luke grabs the muffins out of the warmer. "Some people go their entire lives without these conversations." He tells her. "My parents didn't discuss a thing my entire childhood, worked fine for them. But, of course, when my mom died, she hadn't told Dad where the coupon drawer was. Took him ten years to find it. He used a coffee can the whole time." He hands Lorelai the muffins.

"Okay." Lorelai had about enough of hearing Luke's rants.

"I don't care what anyone says." He continues. "A coupon can is not as good as a coupon drawer. But, you know what? You might like a coupon can. You never know. And congratulations again."

"Thank you." Lorelai walks away and goes back to the table where Lauren and Rory are looking out the window. "Now what's going on?"

"Kirk passed out." Lauren tells her.

"How'd he take it?" Rory asks.

"Fine. He took it fine."

At the Grandparents, the girls pull up. Lorelai was nervous for some reason to come tonight so she had them running late and everything.

"What is wrong with you?" Rory asks, as they get out of the jeep.

"Nothing." Lorelai tells her.

"You got lost coming here." Lauren says.

"I took a wrong turn."

"Six times."

"Well, my self-preservational instincts at work, ladies and gentlemen."

"Mom."

"I've got stuff on my mind." She says in frustration.

"Max stuff?" Rory asks.

"No. Stuff stuff."

"You're lying." Lauren tells her.

"I'm being mysterious. That's what women do." She says as she turns Lauren away from her and towards the door.

"Mom." Rory whines.

"I'm ringing the doorbell." Lauren reaches over and rings the bell.

"You know you always make us tell you what we're thinking."

"Yes, and the lesson we've learned is you should never become a spy." Lorelai jokes.

Emily opens the door with excitement. "You're here. Richard, they're here! Come in."

Lorelai glares at her mother. "No." She tells her.

"Why?"

"Because you're scaring Lauren."

Emily starts laughing as she pulls the girls in. "Oh, stop that. Get in here. Scaring Lauren. You're so silly sometimes." Emily closes the door and ushers the girls towards the living room. "Let's get you a drink. Put your coat down. Are you hungry? I had Antonia make some Roquefort puffs. Antonia, bring the puffs!" Emily yells. "Come, sit down, sit down. Richard!"

"Say nothing until I get there." He yells back.

"Hurry up." She says, impatiently.

"Mom, what's going on?" Lorelai asks.

Emily ignores Lorelai and pushes the three girls over to the couch to sit down. "So, tell me what's new with you girls."

Lorelai looks at her daughters. "Uh, nothing."

"Hey, Grandma, what about you?" Rory asks. "Did something special happen?"

Emily smiles, eagerly. "Well, as a matter of fact...oh for goodness sakes. Richard, damn it!" She yells.

"Mom, why don't you just tell us what's happening now?"

"Oh, alright. I can't wait for your grandfather any longer. Well, you know I'm very good friends with Bitty Charleston, the headmaster's wife." Emily tells them. "Well, we have this little arrangement where she keeps me apprised of the goings on at Chilton. You know, she tells me all the gossip on the students and their parents and any piece of information I might find useful. Well, this afternoon, she called to tell me the class list just came out and Rory has finished in the top three percent!"

The girls just sit there, smiling, and staring at Emily. "I know." Lorelai says, nonchalantley.

"You do?" Emily asks, confused. "Who do you know at Chilton?"

"Um, Rory."

Emily looks over at Rory. "Oh."

"It wasn't definite, but I had a pretty good idea." Rory explains.

"Rory, wonderful news." Richard says as he walks into the living room. "You finished in the top three percent of your class."

"Oh, yeah, Dad, J. Edgar Hoover over here was just telling us." Lorelai says to him as she points to Emily.

"What?" He asks, surprised. "I told you not to say anything before I got here."

"Well, you took too long." Emily says.

"No, we already knew." Lorelai tells him.

"I am immensely proud of you, Rory." Richard tells her as he grabs a glass of wine.

"Yes, we knew you could do it." Emily says, proudly. "We have to celebrate. Next week, we will have a special dinner. We'll make all your favorite foods, and you can invite some of your friends." Lorelai looks down at her hands, as she tries to picture a ring on her finger. She just could not get the thought out of her head and those questions that Luke kept asking her earlier were bothering her. "There's an excellent chance that presents might be involved."

"You guys do not have to do this." Rory tells them.

"For the top three percent we most certainly do."

"So, is this just a Rory thing because I can totally find something else to do." Lauren tells them in hopes that she wouldn't have to come.

"Nonsense. Lauren, we are celebrating your big sister. You have to be there." Emily tells her. Lauren rolls her eyes and sighs.

"Dinner is ready." The maid announces.

"Thank you, Antonia. Shall we?" Emily asks them.

They all stand up. "Ah, ah, after the top three percent of her class." Richard says, gesturing for Rory to lead the way.

"Well, thank you very much." Rory says, as she walks to the dining room.

"And next is the top three percents sister. I'm starving." Lauren runs after her sister with Richard chuckling closely behind.

"Uh, just go ahead and start without me." Lorelai tells them. "I've got ot check in at the Inn." She takes out her cell phone. "Michel's there by himself. People could die."

"Well, hurry up." Emily says, as she walks to the dining area as well.

Lorelai sighs and dials the familiar number as she walks outside. "Hello?" Max answers.

"Where are we going to live?" She asks him immediately.

"Lorelai?"

"Where are we going to live?" She repeats in hysterics.

"Well, I.."

"Your house? My house?"

"I don't know."

"We have to figure this stuff out. I have a life and two kids, and they each require a house of some sort." Lorelai tells him.

"Okay, but.."

"I have stuff. I have a lot of stuff. You haven't seen my closet yet, but you would not believe the amount of stuff one person can accumulate. And I don't even know what this stuff is, but it's there and it's mine, and it needs a place to live."

"Well..."

"And I want to work."

"What?"

"And I like my bank."

Max still could not get a word in. "Okay, hold on.."

"The teller's name is Margie and she can't count. I think there's something poetic about banking in a place where the teller can't count."

"Lorelai."

"What?"

"Calm down. Talk to me."

"It's just.." Lorelai sighs and sits down on the ledge of the garden. "If I die, I want you to know where the coupon drawer is."

"I would like that, too. I think."

"Well, we need to figure these things out before.." Lorelai stops when she realizes what she is about to say.

"Before what?" Max asks. Lorelai stays quiet. "Are you saying yes?"

"What?"

"Are you saying yes?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Because you call me, out of the blue. You're panicked about where we're going to live and bank and coupon drawers and Margie."

"These are important things to discuss."

"I agree. They're extremely important things to discuss, especially if you're saying yes. Are you?"

In the dining room, they are all eating dinner while Lorelai is still outside on the phone.

"I am so thrilled about this. Will you get a certificate?" Emily asks Rory.

"I'm not sure." Rory tells her.

"They should give you a certificate or a plaque. I'll talk to Bitty about that tomorrow."

Lauren rolls her eyes at the Rory talk. "Where is Mom when I need her."

On que, Lorelai walks in while Richard and Emily are discussing how happy they were for Rory. She stares at her girls until they both turn to her. They don't say anything, but they could clearly read eachother's minds. Lauren and Rory exchange glances then they look back at Lorelai who smiles and nods her head excessively.

"Oh, my gosh!" They both scream as they stand up and run over to Lorelai.

"Goodness!" Richard exclaims. "I just spilled on my shirt."

Richard and Emily look over at Lauren and Rory who run straight into Lorelai's arms. They are laughing and screaming. "What are you doing?" Emily asks, as she watches them jump up and down.

"Sorry." Lauren squeals.

"Yeah, sorry." Rory tells them.

They all hug again. "What is going on?" Richard asks.

"Uh, I'm just really jazzed about this whole three-percent thing." Lorelai lies.

"Yeah, really, really jazzed." Rory repeats before they all scream once again, hugging and jumping in eachothers arms.

"Don't even try to understand, Richard. Antonia, please bring some club soda for Mr. Gilmore's shirt."

At the Inn in the kitchen, Sookie is cooking of course. She looks into one of her helpers pot.

"Oh, that looks good." She gleams. "Add a little pinch of oregano and I think we've got it." Sookie walks back over to her main table and sees Michel weighing his food. "Michel, I'm gonna need you to move."

"In a minute." He tells her.

"What are you doing?"

"I am weighing my turkey."

Sookie watches him, curiously. "Why?"

"A group of scientists did a study on rats where they cut their daily calories by thirty percent."

"And you felt left out?"

"No, the rats lived thirty percent longer. They scientists were so impressed that they cut their own calories just like the rats."

"It was a very nice display of solidarity." Sookie tells him.

"I have decided to do the same. I figure if stay alive long enough the scientists will be able to cure anything, including death therefore ensuring my indefinite existence." Michel explains.

"So, you're going to live forever? Like on Fame?" Sookie asks.

"Don't speak to me."

"Give me back my scale." She says, sternly as Lorelai walks in.

"Hey, um, I have an annoucement to make and it's big and it's fabulous and you are not going to believe it." Lorelai tells them with a big smile.

"Goodbye." Michel packs up his things and starts walking to the door.

"Wait. I got news."

"Oh, well, I'm sure it's very exciting. Excuse me." He says, sarcastically.

"But. Wait, what's with the turkey?"

"He thinks he's going to live forever." Sookie tells her.

"Like on Fame?"

"That's what I said."

"A hundred years from now, I'll sit around telling my fellow men of science about the two of you, and we will giggle like little girls at your ignorance. Now I have work to do." He says, bitterly as he walks out.

"Did he say little girls?" Lorelai asks.

Sookie waves him off. "Forget him. Tell me about your fabulous news."

Lorelai takes a deep breath and smiles. "I'm engaged."

"What?" Sookie asks as she stares Lorelai, dumbfounded.

"I'm getting married." Lorelai tries again.

"No!" Sookie says, happily.

"Yes!" Lorelai smiles widely at her friend's excitement for her.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"What?"

"No?"

"Sookie!"

Sookie's face drops for a second. "Oh, my god. This is amazing. I'm shaking!" She yells, as she jumps up and down over to Lorelai and they hug. "Max is a wonderful man. It is Max, right?"

"Yes, it is Max."

"Good. Oh, I knew it. I knew you'd get engaged."

"Really? God, I didn't."

"You're going to be a Sadie."

"A what?"

"A Sadie." Sookie repeats. "Sadie, Sadie, married lady. Meet a martgagee." She sings.

"Funny girl!" Lorelai laughs.

"Streisand!"

"Stop it." Lorelai laughs again.

"Who's catering?"

"Uh, Bobby Flay?"

"Not funny." Sookie says as she walks over to get a pad and pen. "I making the cake also."

"Absolutely." Lorelai agrees.

"I'll start the menu. Something light and romanctic to start with and something that will go wonderful with champagne." She says, as her voice starts cracking. "Truffles go wonderful with champagne. And scrambled eggs."

Lorelai notices the sudden voice change and looks at Sookie with worry. "Sookie? Honey?"

"I know scrambled eggs don't sound very festive, but when you put them in a little quail's eggshell with caviar on top, they're quite a crowd-pleaser." She says, as she starts to cry.

"Hey, what's with the waterworks, lady?"

"It's just..I don't know." Sookie says, taking a deep breath. "You raised those two little girls all alone and they are so great and you work your butt off here and you go to school and you put up with me. You just really deserve this."

Lorelai smiles at her friend, gratefully. No one had ever told her this before, but she should have figured it would come from Sookie. "Thank you." Lorelai says, reaching over and hugging her friend just as Jackson comes in carrying a box.

"Prepare yourself for the most gorgeous brussel sprouts ever." He tells them. The girls pull apart and Sookie sniffles and wipes her face with a towel. Jackson quickly took notice of the tears that were streaming down his girlfriend's face. "Sookie, are you okay? Are you hurt? Have you been making cutlets again?"

"Lorelai's getting married!" Sookie announces to him.

Jackson nods his head and smiles nervously. "Oh, that's great. Congratulations."

"Thanks, Jackson."

Jackson didn't know what else to say so he changes the subject. "Do you want to look at the brussel sprouts?" He asks Sookie.

"Yeah, I do." Sookie laughs as she walks over to where Jackson sets the box down. "Oh, what about some nice brussel sprouts with garlic olive oil for the wedding? That sounds like a 'till death do us part' kind of side dish, doesn't it?"

Jackson grimaces. "I wouldn't know."

"Well, what do you think is the most romantic vegetable?"

"You know, I'm the wrong guy to ask."

"You're the vegetable guy."

"Yeah, the normal vegetable guy, not the romantic vegetable guy." He tells her. "I mean, I wouldn't have no idea what an appropriate vegetable would be to serve at a wedding." Lorelai looks down at Sookie who is just rolling her eyes as Jackson rambles on. "I've never been to a wedding. One. My cousin Bonbon." Lorelai and Sookie give him a questioning look. "Yes, that's his real name. And I didn't stay long and I didn't notice the vegetables so I would not be the guy to ask about wedding vegetables. I'm not the wedding vegetable guy!" Jackson turns around and storms out of the kitchen.

"Jackson's got the 'panicked, my girlfriend wants to get married' face on." Lorelai laughs.

"Yeap. Hey, next time he's here, tell him that you're pregnant."

"With twins."

"Why not?" Sookie laughs.

In town, Lauren and Elizabeth are walking down the sidewalk.

"My mom is getting married." Lauren says.

Elizabeth smiles at her friend. "You realize that's like the sixth time you've said that since you've been with me, right?"

Lauren looks at Elizabeth. "Uh, I'm sorry. I guess I'm still trying to register it."

"But I thought you were excited about it?" Elizabeth questions her.

"I am. I mean, I think I am. I don't know what I am." Lauren sighs.

"But you like Max, right?"

"Yeah, I like Max. He's good to my mom. She's so happy."

"But?"

"But nothing. I think I'm just thinking too hard about it." Lauren says, trying to wave it off.

"No. You're not just going to ignore it now. You've made it an issue and now we are going to discuss it."

"Okay, Mom." Lauren jokes.

"I'm serious, Lauren. Are you or aren't you happy for your mom?"

"I am happy, Elizabeth. Maybe I'm just nervous." She confesses.

"About what?"

"About what happens after they get married. What if we move? What if my mom takes me out of school and I have no choice but to go to Chilton." Lauren says, suddenly feeling the pressure of all her thoughts.

"You don't know that will happen. Your mom still works here."

"But what if he tells her she doesn't have to work anymore."

Elizabeth starts laughing. "That's crazy. Your mom loves that Inn. I think she may even love it more than you and Rory." Lauren glares at her best friend. "I'm kidding. But seriously, I can't see Lorelai doing that to you and Rory. Your lives are here. She's not going to take you away from what you've always known." Lauren doesn't say anything. She knew her mom probably wouldn't do anything without asking her and her sister first, but then again Max was new to the picture and Lauren didn't know him well. She couldn't say what he would do and what he wouldn't do.

At the house, Rory is sitting on the phone with Lane.

"So, what's the latest?" She asks.

"I just got off the phone with American Consulate." Lane tells her. "Can you say 'Hyung Yung?'"

"No, and what is that?"

"My Korean name."

"There must be something you can do." Rory stresses.

"I'm a minor. I've been put in the custody of family by my parents. That's is. It's over." Lane says, dramatically.

"You have to at least try to talk to your family."

"I don't know." Lane groans.

"Dinner!" Lane's mom yells, happily, from downstairs.

"I have to go. Last meal."

"Call me later." Rory says before hanging up the phone.

Rory walks into the kitchen where Lorelai is attempting to heat stuff up and Lauren is sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine. "Do you want tater tots also?" Lorelai asks.

"That's a rhetorical question, right?" Lauren asks her mom.

"Right." Lorelai says as she begins to dump the tater tots onto the pan and she tosses it into the oven.

Rory sits down next to her sister and picks up the many wedding magazines they have on the table. "So, what kind of dress are you thinking of?"

"Um, the one Stephanie Seymour wore in the Guns N' Roses video." Lorelai jokes as she walks over and sits down on the other side of Rory.

"Did you pick your colors yet?"

"Yes."

"Really? What?"

"Spumoni." Lorelai jokes again.

"Okay, we are planning this wedding without you. You will have no say, and I may not even let you come."

The phone rings and Lauren picks it up. "Hello?" She answers.

"Lauren, good, it's Max. Is your sister by you?"

Lauren smiles and looks at her mom. "Oh, hey, Max. Yeah, Rory is right here."

Rory leans in, ear to ear, to hear Max. "Hey." She says into the phone.

"Hey, Rory. Look, I've been out ring shopping all day." He tells them.

"Ring shopping. Very interesting." She gleams as Lorelai scoots in closer to get a better hear.

"Now, I've narrowed it down to three different rings but I want to get her something she'll really like, not just something she tells me she likes, but she really hates. And you both know her taste in jewelry better than I do. So, I thought maybe you could give me advice."

"Okay, but anything with the word 'foxy' on it is a big crowd-pleaser." Lauren jokes, making Rory laugh and Lorelai reaches and playfully slaps Lauren. She couldn't believe her youngest just said that to the man she was going to marry.

"Maybe for our first anniversary." Max tells her.

"Alright, we're listening." Rory tells him.

"Okay. The first ring has a gold band and sort of a square diamond. It's simple, but very classic." Max explains as he looks at the picture.

"Gold band, square diamond, simple, classic." Rory repeats as she looks at Lorelai. Lorelai quickly shakes her head no. "I'm not sure that's really her."

"Okay. The next one is sort of an engagement band with small diamonds all around it, white gold and there's a wedding band that sort of fits into it, like a set."

"White gold engagement band, small diamonds around it with wedding band that fits into it." Lauren tells her mother. Lorelai sways her hands from side to side. "That's a possibility."

"What's the third one?" Rory asks.

"The third one is from the 20s."

"From the 20s?" Rory says, getting excited which quickly gets Lorelai's attention.

"Large diamond in the middle."

"Large diamond in the middle." Rory tells Lorelai.

"Diamond clusters on the sides."

"Diamond clusters on the sides."

"And it's a little deco."

"A little deco." Lorelai starts breathing and acting like a dog and squeals with excitement running through her. "That sounds great. Good going. She's going to be ecstatic."

"She's right there with, isn't she?"

"What?" Lauren says, trying to act surprised. "No."

"No, I thought I heard her bark."

"No, that's just a wild jackal that hangs out here sometimes." Lauren lies.

"Uh huh. Put Cujo on the phone, please."

"One sec." Rory hands Lorelai the phone. "Here, boy."

"Oh, hello, Max. What a pleasant surprise." Lorelai says over the phone. There's a knocking on the door and Rory gets up to go and answer it.

"Hi." She says, as Dean stands on the other side smiling at her.

"Am I late?" He asks.

"No, right on time." She tells him.

"Good." Rory stands there waiting for Dean to move, but he wasn't. "Are you coming in?"

"In a sec. Where's your mom?"

"In the kitchen, on the phone."

"Beginning, middle, or end of a conversation?"

"Well, it concerns jewelry, there may not be an end to the conversation."

"Good." Dean says. He pulls Rory out on the porch with him and starts kissing her. "I missed that."

Rory smiles up lovingly at her boyfriend. "Me, too."

"So, uh, this whole breaking up thing, we tried it." He says as they both walk into the house.

"Yeah, we did. Didn't really work for me."

"Me, either."

"Okay, good. So it's decided. Breaking up, not for us."

"I mean not that it's a bag thing. I'm sure some people like it." Dean tells her.

"Oh, sure. Cher, Greg Allman. I bet they give it a big thumbs-up."

Lauren walks into the foyer. "Oh, hi, Dean. Welcome back."

Dean smiles. "Thanks, Lauren. Glad to be back."

"Did Mom pick out her ring?"

"Yeah. He's going to surprise her tomorrow." Lauren tells her sister as they walk into the kitchen.

"Hey, Dean." Lorelai says as she checks the food in the oven.

"Hey." He smiles.

"When is dinner going to be ready?" Rory asks.

"Do I look like a timer?" Lorelai asks.

"I thought you'd set one."

"Silly rabbit."

"Timers are for kids."

"I say ten minutes and we're there."

"So, what's the movie for tonight?" Dean asks.

"A classic!" Lauren tells him.

"The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story. Starring..." Rory says.

"Joan and Melissa." Lauren finishes.

"A mother and daughter torn apart by tragedy." Lorelai says, dramatically.

"Suicide." Rory says.

"Not getting The Tonight Show."

"Mean boyfriends." Lauren adds.

"Identical noses."

"You'll laugh, you'll cry." Rory tells him.

"Because you're laughing so hard."

"It'll be an evening to remember. You'll never be the same." Rory says as she walks to the living room with paper plates and plastic forks in her hand.

Lorelai walks up to Dean. "So, it's nice to have you back."

"Thanks."

"We missed you."

"Yeah, we really really missed you." Lauren tells him.

"I missed you guys, too." Deans says.

"No, I mean, we really really really missed you." Lorelai tells him.

Dean knew exactly where this was going now. "You need the water bottle changed, don't you?"

"Desperately."

"Rag." Lauren tosses the rag to Dean and he walks out the back door.

Rory walks back in just as Lorelai is checking the food again. "Where's Dean?"

"Getting water." Lorelai tells her.

"You're shameless."

"He offered."

"Please." Rory was not believing her.

"The first thing he said to me was, 'Lorelai, can I change your water?' What can I do? The kid's a freak." Rory glares at both her mom and sister before she walks out the back door.

"Hey." He says when he sees Rory.

"Hey. I'm so sorry she's got you doing chores already."

"No, I don't mind." Dean says as he continues to wipe the water down.

"You will. She pulled out the mower this morning." She says, sitting down.

"Well, if that movie is anything like you described mowing might be a good alternative." Dean jokes.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"My grandparents are having this special dinner for me next week. It's nothing big, but they said I could invite someone and I thought you've never seen my grandparents house and I'd really like you to meet my grandpa." Dean looks down. "What?"

"Well, just the last time I met your grandma was the night of the dance, and you know how that turned out, so.."

"The dance was a long time ago. She's over it by now. I'm sure everything will be fine."

"You want me to go?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, I want you to go."

"Then I'll go." He smirks as he leans in and kisses Rory.

"Oh, my." Lorelai yells from inside the house. "The coffee can is just so high up there. Whatever will I do?"

"Don't climb on that chair, Mom. You will fall." Lauren warns her.

Rory and Dean pull apart and start laughing. "Coming." Dean yells.

At the Grandparents, the doorbell rings and Emily opens it up to find Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, and Dean, who is standing right behind them.

"Well, hello there." She says not too pleased to see Dean.

"Grandma, you remember Dean, right?" Rory asks.

"Yes, I do. Nice to see you again."

"Thanks. Your house is great. It's huge." He tells her. "I never seen a house this huge before." Lauren and Lorelai look at eachother trying to laugh.

"Thank you." Emily tells him. "So few people bother to notice the hugeness of the house anymore."

"Mom, it was so nice of you to tell Rory to invite a friend tonight." Lorelai says. "Seeing at this is her night. That was really nice of you." She repeats trying to get through to Emily to be nice to Dean.

Emily smiles and nods her head. "It was my pleasure."

"Good."

"Yeah, Grandma, I hope when something special happens to me I can bring my boyfriend." Lauren jokes, but Emily did not find it amusing.

"Don't just stand there. We have a celebration to attend. Come in." Emily says, as she puts on a happy face and ushers them all inside.

Lorelai steps aside and lets Dean and Rory in first. "You are not funny." Lorelai tells Lauren, sternly, while she was also trying not to laugh.

"I'm a little funny." Lauren says, smiling as she follows the gang into the living room.

"So, what would everyone like to drink?" Emily asks.

"Uh, I'll have a white wine, and Dean will have a beer." Lorelai tells her.

Dean looks at Lorelai quickly. "What?!"

"Corona, right?"

"No. I don't want a beer. I don't drink beer!" He says, freaking out. "I'll have a water or soda or anything. Or nothing. Not beer. Never beer. Beer's bad."

"Relax, Dean, that's just Lorelai's little sense of humor." Emily tells him. "You're very cruel." She hands Lorelai her drink.

"Yes, it keeps me young." Lorelai teases.

"I'm jus going to sit here and stare at my hands." Dean tells them.

"Soda, Dean?"

"Please."

"Lauren?"

"Soda." Lauren tells her.

"Oh, and I'll have a beer." Rory jokes making them all laugh while Dean sat there a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Dean. We're not laughing at you."

Richard walks in with a book in his hand. "Richard, there you are. Come join us." Emily says.

Richard notices Dean sitting next to Rory and his smile fades away. "Hey, Dad." Lorelai says.

"Hey, Grandpa." Lauren waves.

"Grandpa, hi. This is Dean." Rory introduces. "Dean, this is my grandpa."

"Hi." Dean stands up and walks over to Richard to shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Richard ignores Dean and walks passed him. "Does everyone have drinks?"

They could all feel the tension and look at eachother in confusion. "Yeah. We all have drinks. Thanks." Lorelai says.

Dean walks back to his spot next in the middle of Rory and Lauren and sits back down. "Should we do the beer thing again?" Dean whispers to Lauren.

Lauren smiles awkwardly at Dean and shakes her head. "No. Not at all."

At the dinner table, Richard had been quiet ever since he walked into the living room and found Dean there. He sat at the table just playing with his food as the rest of them tried to make conversation around him to make it less weird.

"Grandma, I can't believe you found a recipe for beefaroni." Lauren laughs.

"It wasn't easy." Emily tells her. "Antonia thought I'd gone insane."

"Well..." Lorelai starts.

"No one needs a comment from you." Emily interrupts Lorelai before she went any further.

"No, I was just going to say what's the secret?"

"Well, let's just say it's not beef."

They all stop eating and look at eachother. "Uh, I think I'm done." Lauren says as she pushes her plate away.

"Yeah, me, too." Rory does the same.

"Dean, would you like some more?" Emily asks him.

Dean hesitates as he looks at Richard who is staring at him with an angry look. "No." He smiles, nervously, at Emily. "I'm fine. Thanks."

"Then, I guess it must be present time." Emily stands up and grabs the present that is sitting on a cabinet by the dinner table.

"You didn't have to." Rory tells her.

"Unless you got something that'll fit me, too. If so, good going." Lorelai says.

"Here you go, Rory." Emily hands Rory the present. "Congratulations. We're so proud."

"Thanks, Grandma." Rory looks at Richard. "Thanks, Grandpa."

"Now, go on. Open it."

Rory opens the box to find pens. "Oh, pens." Lauren says.

"Yeah, all yours." Lorelai tells Rory.

"It's beautiful." Rory says as she looks at them.

"I think the top student deserves the top tools." Emily tells her.

"Thank you so much." Rory smiles. She looks at Richard who forces a smile onto his face. "Really."

Lorelai decides to jump in to break the awkwardness. "Well, pens are very nice, but I just bet there is a fabulous, fancy dessert just sitting out there in that kitchen."

"As a matter of fact, there is. Twinkies." Emily tells them.

"What?" Lauren giggles.

Rory looks at Dean then back at her mom and sister with a smile. "Well, Rory told me that was her favorite dessert." Emily says.

"Emily Gilmore, you are one classy broad." Lorelai jokes.

"Antonia, please bring out the Twinkies!" Emily yells.

Lorelai and Lauren both start laughing. "I can't believe I just heard you say those words."

"Well don't get use to it."

"So, Dean.." Everyone's heads whip towards Richard's direction. They were surprised to finally hear something come out of Richard's mouth. "where are you planning to go to college?"

"I don't know yet." Dean tells him.

"You don't?"

"No, not yet."

"Well, what kind of grades do you get?"

"Richard, please. Don't grill the boy." Emily begs.

"I'm not grilling the boy. It's an easy question. A's? B's? C's?"

"I get a mixture actually." Dean answers.

"A mixture?" Richard laughs. "What's the ratio?"

"Richard." Emily says, sternly.

"I'm just trying to get to know the boy, Emily." Rory looks at her mom, who looks back with a sad look. "After all, Rory bring home a young man to dinner. The least we could do is find out something about him."

"He changes a mean water bottle." Lorelai says.

"I get a couple of A's..a couple B's, a few C's." Dean tells him.

"Really?"

"I'm not great in Math."

"Yeah, I mean, who is really?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm not." Lauren tells them.

Lorelai points to Lauren. "Exactly. We use to stay up all night with Lauren and her math book." Lauren just sits there smiling and nodding her head. "How long does it take to open a box?" Lorelai asks Emily.

"She's making them." Emily tells her.

"She's making the Twinkies? You're kidding."

"Oh, Richard, wasn't there a book you wanted to give Rory?"

"In a minute, Emily. So, Dean..."

"Grandpa." Rory interrupts him.

"you know that Rory's going to an Ivy League school?" He says.

"I know." Dean tells him.

"Harvard, Princeton, Yale. You need top grades to get into a top school."

"Yeah, well, Rory's really smart."

"Yeah. She is really smart."

"Mom?" Rory pleads with Lorelai.

"Why don't we all go sit in the..."

"How are you planning to make a living once you graduate from this college you haven't thought anything about yet?" Richard asks.

"Grandpa, can we talk about something else?"

"I'm going to get that book." Emily gets up and walks away.

"I asked you a question." Richard tells Dean.

"I don't know what I want to do."

"You know, when I was ten years old I knew exactly where I wanted to work."

"That's because you were alway picked last for dodge ball." Lorelai tells him.

"I knew I wanted to go to Yale and put on a nice suit every day and be a very important man in a very powerful firm. And I knew I wanted to travel and see the world. I wanted to see La Traviata at the La Scala opera house. I wanted to walk the ruins of Pompeii. I wanted to travel the Far East."

"Or be a ballerina, or a fireman."

"Lorelai, this isn't funny."

"It's a little funny to think of a ten year old kid dreaming of the La Scala opera house. Lauren's eleven and she doesn't even think those things."

"But she wants to travel. They both have plans."

"My kid's are just special."

"Yes. Exactly. Lauren and Rory are special."

"How did I get brought into this?" Lauren asks, confused.

"I know that Rory's special." Dean tells him.

Emily walks back into the dining room with the book in her hand. "I've got it." She gleams.

"Dean is special, too, Grandpa. You don't even know him." Rory says as she defends her boyfriend.

"I know enough."

"No, you don't. Dean is incredible, and he's special to me. And I bring him here, and you attack him."

"I will not be spoken to like that in my house."

"Richard, here, give her the book." Emily puts the book down in front of him.

Lorelai closes her eyes and sighs. It felt like she was a teenager again, but now, it was her teenager that was fighting for her boyfriend to her grandparents. "This family has standards." Richard tells her. "You live up to them. You should expect that everyone you spend time with live up to them also." Richard yells at Rory. Rory couldn't believe what she was hearing right now. She wasn't expecting her grandfather to do this to her. To do this to Dean. But Lorelai should have expected it. After all, this did happen to her. "You are gifted girl with immense promise and you should learn very early that certain people can hold you back."

"Grandpa, stop it. You cannot treat Dean this way."

"I'm sorry. Excuse me." Richard stands up. "I have to work."

"Grandpa!" Rory yells as she watches Richard walk away. "Thank you for the dinner and the gift, Grandma, but I really think we should be going." Rory stands up and storms away.

Dean watches her and then turns back to Emily. "Thanks. I'm sorry." He says as he runs after her.

Emily sits down in Richard's chair. Lorelai looks at Lauren. "Am I crazy?" She asks her before turning back to Emily. "That's supposed to be us, right?"

At the house, everyone gets out of the jeep.

"See you later." Lorelai tells Dean. "Meet you inside." She says to Rory as she pushes Lauren towards the house.

"I don't even know what to say." Rory tells him.

"It's not big deal."

"I had no idea. I thought he would... I am so sorry, Dean."

"It's not your fault."

"None of those things he said were true. None of them mean anything. I don't know what made him act that way."

"Let's just forget it, all right?" Dean asks.

"Please dont be upset." Rory begs.

"I'm not."

"Dean.."

"I'm fine. I'm not upset. I have to go." Dean bends down and kisses Rory. "Call you tomorrow."

"Okay." She says as she watches Dean walk away.

Inside the house, Lorelai is unwrapping some Twinkies and putting them each on a plate when Rory walks in.

"That man is impossible." She says as she goes into her room to change.

"Twinkie?"

"He just attacks Dean out of nowhere and Dean is sitting there being perfectly nice, and then all of a sudden...God, I'm so mad. He's a snob!"

"Yes." Lorelai agrees.

"And he doesn't listen. He just wants to say horrible things and have you sit there and listen to him and then just agree with him. What is that all about?"

"That is about a hundred years' worth of inbreeding."

"I've never seen him be mean before, ever. Not like that. I don't know how I'll ever talk to him again." Rory walks back into the kitchen. "And Dean, he must be so upset right now. I hate that he did this to him."

"Yes, it was bad. My father was in fine form tonight. But.."

Rory looks up at Lorelai. "But? There's a 'but' from you?"

"Twinkie?" Lorelai hands her a twinkie as she sits down. "I don't think my father has ever loved anything in this world as much as he loves you and your sister. Now, that having been established, let's just consider that maybe this flip-out tonight actually came from somewhere that possibly has nothing to do with Dean and possibly has nothing to do with you."

"What are you talking about?"

"You are the great white hope of the Gilmore clan. You are their angel sent from up above. You are the daughter they didn't have."

"Mom.."

"No, it's not a feel sorry for me thing. It's just the truth. I mean, you're going to go to college. Hell, you're going to graduate from high school. They'll get to watch you walk down the aisle wearing your cap and gown and get your diploma and go to Harvard and be a Phi Beta bimbo and graduate with honors and just set the world on fire. Lauren will probably just literally set the world on fire." She jokes making Rory laugh a little. "But, I mean, that is the plan. Looks like it going to happen."

"It is going to happen. Except for that Phi Beta bimbo part."

"But then tonight, you walk in with this beautiful boy who likes you enough to brave going to your grandparents' house for dinner and Dad looks at you and sees you with him and all of a sudden, has a terrible Lorelai flashback. He sees it all going away, the college, the cap and gown."

"But I'm not going to get pregnant."

"I know that."

"He should know that."

"Yes. He should. But...you do have my eyes."

"You do realize you just spent ten minutes defending your dad?"

"I know. I'll have terrible nightmares all night long. But I'll tell you what, if you cute him a little slack I'll wear my porn star t-shirt to dinner next week."

"Deal."

"Good." Lorelai laughs.

The phone starts ringing and Rory gets up to answer it. "Hello?"

"I just thought you should know that my parents just brough in the suitcase that I'm supposed to take on my trip. And to paint you a picture, it could fit you, me, Lauren, your mom, and plus everything we own and still have enough room to do a little souvenir shopping." Lane tells her. "I am never coming back."

Up in Lauren's room, Lauren is laying down, already in her pj's, and is just staring at the other side of her room when Lorelai walks in.

"Hey."

Lauren looks up at her mom and gives her a small smile. "Hey."

Lorelai looks at her daughter in confusion and sits down on the edge of the bed facing her. "What's with the long face?"

"Nothing." Lauren says, trying to avoid Lorelai's eyes.

Lorelai glares at her. "Um, excuse me. What is the number one rule in this house?"

Lauren sighs. "We tell eachother everything."

"Thank you."

Lauren sits up and looks at her mom. "Are we moving?"

"What?" Lorelai asks a big surprised. "Why would you think that?"

"You're marrying Max, right?" Lauren asks. Lorelai nods her head, slowly. "He lives in Hartford and we live here. So, we have to move, right?"

"Wait a minute, lady. What makes you think we are going to be the ones that move?"

Lauren shrugs her shoulders. "Mom, I don't want to move. My life is here. My friends and my school are here. You're work is here. You can't quit your job! You love your job."

"Hold on a minute." Lorelai grabs Lauren's arms to calm her down. "I never said that we were moving. Just because Max lives in Hartford doesn't mean that we are going to live with him. I have the kids, baby, I have first choice." She says making Lauren laugh.

"You promise?"

"Absolutely." Lauren nods her head before slipping back down into bed. "Are you nervous about me getting married?"

"Aren't you?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai smiles. "I haven't really thought about it much. Not after everything that has been happening."

"I just don't want things to change." Lauren admits.

"It won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'll make sure of it." Lorelai promises. "Now, go to bed. We've all had a long day." Lauren nods her head as Lorelai reaches down and kisses Lauren on her cheeks. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Mom."

Lorelai turns off Lauren's lamp and walks to the door. She turns back around and looks at her baby girl one more time. She couldn't help but start questioning things in her head, too, now.

At the Gilmore house, Emily is sitting in the living room just has the phone rings. She walks up to it and answers it.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Mrs. Gilmore?" Sookie asks. "It's Sookie St. James, Lorelai's friend. I don't know if you'd remember me."

"Oh, yes, you're the Chef at the Inn." Emily says.

"That's right. I'm sorry to call so late, but I need to ask a question. I'm planning a surprise wedding shower for Lorelai and Max." Emily stops moving when she hears marriage and Lorelai in the same sentence. "It's going to be more like a big party. But I've cleared the date with everybody around here, so we're all set to go, but I wanted to make sure you guys would be around before I finalized everything. It's going to be Saturday the 21st."

Emily is still stunned. "I don't know. I'd have to check."

"Okay. You check, and then you call me at the Inn."

"Okay. I'll get back to you."

"Okay, thanks." Sookie hangs up and Emily walks into Richard's office where he is sitting at his desk drinking scotch.

"I want you to call Rory tomorrow and apologize." Emily tells him.

"What?"

"I want you to tell her you're sorry, that you weren't feeling well and you think Dean is a lovely boy and he's welcome anytime."

"Have you gone insane?" Richards asks her. "Under no circumstance..."

"Our daughter is getting married." Richard looks just as stunned as Emily looked earlier. "She's getting married, and she didn't tell us. Call her tomorrow." Emily says before turning away and walking out.

Outside the Gilmore girls' house, Max and Lorelai are sitting on the swing on the porch.

"It was awful." Lorelai tells him.

"It sounds awful."

"That's the family you want to marry into."

"I must be insane." Max laughs.

"You must be."

"Speaking of marrying into..."

"Yes?"

"I have a little something for you."

Lorelai smiles. "Let me guess. Is it gum? Becuase you know how much I like gum." Max puts the ring in front of her.

"You like?"

Lorelai looks at Max. "It's beautiful."

Max picks up Lorelai's hand and puts the ring on it. "It's too big." He sighs.

"No, it's not."

"Give it to me."

Lorelai pulls her hand back. "No, you can't have it back."

"It'll get it sized."

"No, it's okay."

"It's going to fall off."

"I'll wear it on my thumb."

"You won't do that."

"I'll eat a lot of salt and bloat up."

"Just let me get it sized, and I promise you'll never have to take it off again. In fact, I'm going to insist on it." Lorelai smiles and kisses Max.

He pulls back and goes to get the ring, but Lorelai pulls it away. "Just in a minute, okay?"

"Okay." Max smiles.

She leans into Max and stares at the ring with a smile on her face. "I'm getting married."


	23. Go Easy On Me

It was getting closer and closer to the wedding and Lorelai was finally feeling the tension of getting everything prepared, even though, Sookie and her girls were trying to take the pressure off of her, but she was the one that was going to be walking down the aisle and spending the rest of her life with this guy so she had every right to be nervous. Lorelai also couldn't stop thinking about what Lauren said. She knew her little girl was just nervous about having a man in the house because it had always been the three of them. So, she tried make Lauren feel better about everything that was about to change while she, herself, tried to get used to it, too.

In the living room, Rory and Lauren are sitting in the living room. Rory is reading and Lauren is working on her homework when their mom calls out to them.

"Rory! Lauren!" Lorelai yells.

"Living room!" Rory yells back.

Lorelai walks downstairs. "I need your advice on something." Rory and Lauren look up to see their mom with a newspaper veil on top of her head. She stands at the bottom step and looks at her girls with a smile. "What do you think? Not good?"

"Huh." Was all Rory could say as she and Lauren look at their mom with amusement.

"That's it?"

"I'm not sure. Have you tried the arts-and-leisure section?" Rory jokes.

"I need you to be serious."

"Mom, you've got a newspaper on your head." Lauren reminds her.

"I know."

"And you need us to be serious?" Rory questions.

Lorelai sighs and walks closer to her daughters. "I am trying to figure out veil length here."

"Sure."

Lauren hops onto the couch by her sister as Lorelai stands in front of them. "See, I kind of like this shoulder-length, semi-poofy thing like this. But there's also a longer one that may be interesting."

Rory bends her head to the side as she looks at the paper. Lauren noticed and started to smirk a little. "Longer, sure."

"And then there's a the full-on Diana."

"Right."

"Which is nice, but it just might be a little...you're reading me." Lorelai says when she notices Rory paying more attention to the paper than her.

"Wait, don't move." Rory orders her.

"Rory, stop it." Lorelai says, annoyed. "Is Lauren the only one that can be serious in this house when I need her to be?"

"This arms race thing is really getting crazy." Rory tells her.

"I am trying to have a serious conversation about my life's most important fashion decision."

"Why don't you go to a wedding dress place and try a real veil on?" Lauren asks her.

"No way." Lorelai says with a digusted look.

"Why?"

"Too much taffeta. Gives me cotillion flashbacks."

"Well, then could you bend over so I can see what the weather will be like tomorrow?" Rory asks.

Lorelai smiles and sits down on the coffee table. "Actually, I went in one of those places yesterday."

"You did!?" Lauren asks in a excitment.

"Which one?" Rory asks.

"Marry Meme's" Lorelai tells them.

"I see we're going top of the line."

"It was horrible! Apparently, you need to order your wedding dress the first day of junior high. And if you haven't, it's off the rack for you, missy. Which reminds me, we need to get on yours right away." Lorelai jokes as she points to Lauren.

"Nuh uh." Lauren laughs.

"I tried on three different dresses, one of which gave me a rash. And I gotta say, has anyone missed the bustle? I haven't."

"It was not that bad." Rory tells her.

"They all looked wrong." Lorelai says, sadly. "I'll be gross, and all the children will laugh. And Max will realize he's made a horrible mistake." Rory gets up and starts walking away. "And then people will walk away, exactly as you're doing now." Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand and they follow Rory into the kitchen.

"Let's go." Rory tells her.

"Where?"

"Wedding dress shopping."

"Ooh, you're reading."

"I'm done." Rory goes and puts her book in her room.

"Lauren has to finish her homework."

"I'm done." Lauren says as she smiles up at Lorelai. Lorelai rolls her eyes and pushes Lauren behind her.

"You're not helping. You need to see Dean." She tries again with Rory.

"He's playing softball." Rory says as she walks back out.

"Your cure for cancer is almost finished."

"We'll find the perfect thing for you to wear on your perfect wedding day where there will be no pointing, mocking, or walking out." She says as they all three walk to the front door.

"I didn't say pointing. Why did you say pointing?"

Rory hands her mom the keys. "Keys."

It's another Friday night as Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren pull into the grandparents. Lorelai and Lauren couldn't stop making fun of Rory who was going to spend most of her summer building a house for college credit.

"Mom, tomorrow I'm going to build a house." Lorelai laughs.

"Help build a house." Rory tells her.

"Did you tell them there's a light bulb in your closet that burned out in '97 you still haven't changed?" Lauren asks.

"It's for charity." Rory says as they all three get out of the jeep. "And Lauren is going to try to play soccer during the summer. Why aren't we laughing at her?"

"We are but her day is tomorrow." Lorelai tells her.

"Great." Lauren says as she rolls her eyes.

"Don't those people have enough problems without having you as a contractor?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm sure there will be real construction workers there. I will be assisting and helping out those less fortunate than myself." Rory explains as they walk to the door. "I will be getting college credit, and this is the end of this conversation."

"You're right, it's a good thing. Nice. Keeps your halo shiny." Rory turns to ring the bell but Lorelai stops her. "Wait." They watch Lorelai take off her ring and put it on another finger.

"When are you going to tell them?" Lauren asks.

"Soon."

"When is soon?" Rory asks.

"When the big hand hits the 'S' and the little hand 'oon.'

"You're getting married in three months. Tell them now."

"Ring the bell." Lorelai tells her. She did not want to here this lecture again from her oldest.

"The longer you wait, the harder it'll be."

"For the love of God, will you please ring the bell?"

"Tell them before dinner." Lauren tells her.

"I will tell them when I'm ready. You both have to accept that because I'm the mother and you're the daughters and in some cultures, that means you have to do what I say."

"If you don't tell them in two weeks, I will." Rory says as she turns back towards the door and rings the bell.

"Apparently not in this one." Lorelai rolls her eyes and pushes Lauren in front of her as they wait for the door to open.

Emily opens the door. "We'll have to eat quickly. Your father has an early flight tomorrow morning." She says quickly before walking away.

Lorelai and the girls continue to stand at the door. "Oh, I'm good. Yeah, and Rory's going to build a house tomorrow. I thought it was a little weird, too, but then I heard Lauren is going to play soccer and then I knew for sure the world was definitely going to end."

"Walk as you babble, please." Emily yells.

"Somebody must have scratched the silver." Lorelai jokes as she ushers her daughters inside the house.

They walk into the dining area where Emily is talking to the maid and setting up the plates. "Bring the bread out, too. And pour the wine, please. Come on, hurry up." She rushes the girls.

"Yeah, because we don't want our salad to get cold." Lorelai says as they takes their seats.

"Richard, dinner!"

"Mom."

"Eat." Emily orders.

"Shouldn't we wait for Dad?"

"Don't worry about him."

"He's the one with the early plane. We don't have to go anywhere." Lorelai reminds her. "We can stay all night, have a party..do some Jell-O shots, play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board." They look at Emily who has already started eating and ignoring her daughter. "Alright, pass the bread."

Lauren grabs the bread. "Grandma, would you like..."

"Yes, please."

Richard walks in slowly and looks confused. "You've started."

"You have a six 'o clock flight." Emily tells him.

"Six 'o clock? Are you sure?" Richard asks.

"What do you mean? Of course I'm sure. I double checked it three times with your secretary, because I know she's an idiot and all three times she told me six. I wrote it down. I have your ticket right out on the..." Emily looks up and sees Richard smiling at her. "You're teasing me."

"Very possible." Richard gleams.

"I don't find that amusing, Richard."

"Exactly the point of teasing, Emily. Hello, Lorelai."

"Hello, Father."

"Lauren, Rory."

"What's up, Grandpa?" Lauren smiles at him.

"Grandpa." Rory says.

"Rory, may I speak with you for a moment, please?" Richard asks.

"Okay." Rory puts her napkin down and follows her Grandpa out into the backyard.

"Hm. I wonder what that is all about." Lorelai says as she and Lauren look at Emily who is still continuously eating like her food is going somewhere. "I guess we'll find out later, right?" Lauren kicks Lorelai under the table and Lorelai glares at her youngest who just gives her a stern look back. Lorelai slumps further and looks at Emily.

"I just thought we should touch base, you and I, after that unfortunate incident last week." Richard says as they walk outside.

"Grandpa, you already called me about that."

"Oh, yes, I know, but I thought taking a moment to once again say it to you in person how..."

"I know." Rory interrupts. "And I appreciate it."

"We never had a fight." Richard says a little unhappy with himself.

"No."

"This was our first one."

"Yes, it was."

"And I must say, I didn't care for it."

"Neither did I."

"Well, alright. We should go back inside. We're fine now, right?"

Rory smiles. "We're fine." She says as she reaches up and hugs her grandfather around his neck.

They walk back inside and Richard suddenly remembers something. "Oh, wait. I wanted to give you something."

"What?"

"Oh, come on."

Lorelai sees them pass. "Hey, where are you guys going?" She yells nervously.

"We'll be right there." Richard tells her.

"Well, hurry, you're missing one hell of a conversation."

"This salad dressing is really good, Grandma." Lauren tells her.

"I'm glad." Emily says without looking up.

"Lemony?"

"Yes."

"Nothing like a nice salad with lemony goodness." Lorelai looks over at Lauren who is just staring at her mom to hurry up and do it already. Lorelai takes a deep breath and looks at her finger with the engagement ring on it. She takes it off and puts it back on the right finger. "Mom?"

"Hm?"

"I have something to tell you."

Lauren sits up straight and puts her fork down as she watches what is about to happen in front of her. "Yes?" Emily asks.

"Well, it's like this." Lorelai goes to begin but sees that Emily is still eating. "Could you put down your fork for a second?" Emily looks up for the first time that night and gently sets her fork down. "Thank you." Lorelai looks at Lauren who is smiling and nodding at her mom to continue. "Okay. You know Max?"

"No, I don't."

"Okay, I know you don't know him know him, but you know of him, right?"

"I've heard rumblings."

"Max and I have been serious for quite a while now. And he asked me to marry him and I said yes. I'm getting married." Lorelai smiles and shows Emily the ring, but Emily had no reaction.

"Well, I think that's very nice." Emily tells her. "I certainly hope we'll be in town for it, but if not, we'll send a nice gift. Now excuse me. I'm going to go check on the roast." Emily stands up and walks out of the dining room leaving Lorelai a little surprised, but not really, at what just happened. Lorelai looks at Lauren who is giving a sad look. Her Grandma was just mean.

In town, the girls are walking down the sidewalk.

"Are you okay?" Rory asks her mother.

"I'm perfect." Lorelai lies.

"Really?"

"I have hit a level of perfection that's rarely seen outside the Victoria's Secret catalog."

"I'm really sorry." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai puts her arm around Lauren. "Oh, do not be sorry. What happened tonight was inevitable. I should have known not to tell Mom."

"You were trying to be nice." Rory says.

"Telling her I was getting married to a wonderful guy who will love me and make me happy. That, and giving her my address when I moved out. Two worst moves I ever made."

"Maybe she'll think about it and call you and say she's sorry." Lauren says a little too hopeful.

Lorelai chuckles. "'Mom, I'm getting married.' I'm an idiot. And as my mouth was opening my mind was screaming, 'Don't do it. I mean it. You'll regret it.' But did my mouth listen?"

"No." Rory answers.

"No. And it opened, and the words came out, and Emily was Emily and my mouth was stunned, and my mind said, 'I told you so.' And then my mouth got mad cause no mouth likes to have its nose rubbed in it. Now my mind and mouth aren't talking. It'll take weeks to get them together again." Lorelai rambles.

They walk up to Luke's. "Your mouth has a nose?" Rory asks after all of that was said. Lorelai glares at her daughter as they walk into the diner.

"God, I'm crabby."

"You're hungry." Rory tells her.

"No, I'm not."

Lauren leads them over to the table in the middle. "Well, you didn't eat any of your dinner."

"Yeah, well, by the time I got my jaw off the ground, Speed Racer had taken my plate."

"Luke will cheer you up, won't you?" Lauren asks Luke who is wiping down some tables.

"Oh, sure, I'm great at spreading the joy. What will you have?" He asks them.

"We'll have two coffees and a rant meal. Extra cheese." Rory tells him.

"No." Lorelai says.

"Why?"

"I'm through ranting. I'll have an acceptance meal and a side of fries."

"Please, you have not accepted this."

"I'm a grown woman. I do not need my mother's blessing to be happy."

"Must have been a good Oprah today." Luke says.

"Just a little family drama. No biggie." Lorelai tells him.

"It's a little big." Lauren says.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Luke asks.

"I told my mother about me getting married and it was slightly ugly."

Luke takes a deep breath. "Yep!"

"Yep what?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"There's nothing like a wedding to screw up a family."

"Actually, in my case, there's nothing like a family to screw up a family."

"Something that's supposed to start nice. Two people promising each other: 'I love you forever. I want to die when you die. My life meant nothing until you used my toothbrush.'" The girls take glances at eachother as Luke rambles. "And then it starts."

"That's not exactly..."

"Who do you invite?" Luke interrupts. "Who sits where? Open bar? Yes or no?"

"Luke?"

"Auntie Juny doesn't eat chicken. Uncle Momo's off his meds."

"Juny and Momo?" Lorelai laughs.

"Just an example."

"Of a retired circus couple?"

"And then after all that planning, the reception will still be a disaster because no matter how carefully you plan halfway through one of those Bette Midler ballads someone's getting drunk, or with someone's wife, and a chicken Kiev lands on the cake."

"You know, The Gettysburg Address was only one page long, and that was about a war."

"I just call them like I see them."

"I've officially changed my order. I'll have the Luke's-giving-Lorelai-a-migraine meal."

"Blue cheese or ranch?"

"Both."

"Coming right up."

The next day it was the official start of summer. Rory is getting ready to leave to go build a house, Lauren is getting ready for her first soccer practice, and Lorelai had to head into work. Rory walks out of her room and into the kitchen where Lorelai is pouring some coffee.

"Time?" Rory asks.

"8:30." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm late." Rory grabs her booksack and starts to run out.

"Hold on. Coffee." Rory runs back into the kitchen and goes to the coffee.

"Thanks. I'll see you tonight."

"Wait. One sec." Lorelai runs out the kitchen.

"Mom, I have to be there in twenty minutes." Rory tells her as she closes the lid of the canister.

"I made you something really cool." Lorelai yells from the living room.

"Can it wait till tonight?"

"It won't be cool tonight."

Rory sighs and grabs her things and starts walking to the door. "What do you mean? What loses its cool factor in 12 hours?" She walks over to Lorelai who has a big smile on her face.

"This." She holds out a decorated hammer from behind her.

"What is that?" Rory asks as she stares a little frightened at the hammer.

"A hammer."

"It has feathers on it. Why?"

"So the rhinestones and bows won't feel lonely."

"What do I do with it?"

"Build a pretty house."

"How long is it going to take me to talk you out of giving it to me?"

"Forty minutes, an hour tops."

Rory grabs the hammer. "Hand it over." She puts the hammer in her booksack just to make sure no one else sees it on her way there.

"Call me when you get home. Be careful."

"I will."

"I mean it, Timmy. No falling down the well."

"Bye."

"Bye." Lorelai walks away.

"Bye, Lauren. Have fun at practice!"

"Bye. Have fun nailing stuff!" Lauren yells back from upstairs.

Rory walks out and Lauren comes running downstairs into the kitchen where Lorelai is cleaning up. "Mom, is this good to practice in?" Lauren asks as she looks down at what she is wearing. Lorelai looks up from her coffee and smiles at her youngest daughter as she shakes her head. Lauren looks up and sees the weird look on her mom's face. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You're smiling and shaking your head. Why are you smiling and shaking your head?"

Lorelai walks closer to her and smiles even bigger. "I just can't believe that my daughter, MY daughter is going to be playing soccer. You realize you are like the first Gilmore ever to play a sport." Lorelai tells her.

"Grandpa golfs and Rory played golf that one time, too." Lauren reminds her.

"But this is different, Lauren. You are on a actual field, having actual practices, and soon you will be having your very first actual game."

Lauren looks up at Lorelai nervously. "What if this is a bad idea? What if I'm not any good at all. What am I doing!?"

Lorelai puts her coffee down and takes Lauren by her shoulders to calm her. "Hey, hey. You're going to be fine. Just calm down, okay?"

"Mom, I never played anything in my life."

"Well, it's a first time for everything."

"But what if I really suck? Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

"I think you are going to be awesome."

"You don't know that." Lauren tells her.

"No, I do. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because you're a Gilmore, and Gilmores never give up."

"You let Rory give up ballet."

Lorelai sighs at the thought of Rory prancing around the living room, horribly. "Yeah, because Rory was just really really bad. Lauren, you are going to do great. If you weren't then I'm pretty sure the coach wouldn't have asked you to join in the first place."

"The coach is a quack." Lauren tells her as she plops down on the kitchen chair.

Lorelai laughs. "So is half our family."

Lauren looks down at herself one more time before looking back at her mom. "So you really think I can do this?" She asks.

Lorelai turns around and smiles at her daughter. "I think you can. Who has practice early in the morning anyway?" She asks as she goes back to cleaning up the counter.

"No one. Practice isn't until noon."

Lorelai turns and glares at her daughter. "Did you seriously get up early to get dressed for practice?"

Lauren shrugs. "I didn't want to wear the wrong thing and being late sucks."

"Whatever you say." Lorelai laughs. Lauren was definitely her daughter. "So how do you think Rory is going to do today?"

Lauren shrugs. "She may come back missing a finger." Lorelai quickly looks at Lauren with a horrified look on her face. "I'm kidding." Lauren laughs.

At the construction site, Rory walks up to the main boss who is sawing some wood.

"Excuse me." She says as she taps the man on his shoulder causing him to jump.

"Hey, you're touching a man with a saw. You don't touch a man with a saw. What are you thinking?"

"I'm sorry."

"I could have hurt myself. I could have hurt you. A ton of hurt almost happened here."

"I really am sorry. I've never been on a job site before. It's nice." Rory smiles.

"Okay, where are you from?"

"Chilton. My name..."

"Come on, Chilton." The guy starts walking as Rory follows.

"No, it's Rory. Chilton's my school."

"You got a hammer?"

"Oh, yes, sir." Rory says quickly as she open her bookbag.

"Where is it?"

Rory pulls out the very pink and feathery hammer and hands it to the guy who is staring at it. "It's a real hammer underneath."

"That's a hammer?"

"It's just dressed up a little."

"You dressed up a hammer?"

"No, my mother did. She does that. She, um, she takes things that aren't pretty, and makes them pretty..like a hammer. You know, one time, she made individual outfits for my Liquid Paper bottles: a clown, a cowboy, a newscaster. She's not insane. She just sounds it." Rory explains.

"Okay. Work here. Wear these." He puts a hard hat on her head and hands Rory safety glasses. "Don't look up, and pay attention to your surroundings. The words 'duck' or 'run' mean duck or run. Wear sunscreen, drink water, get a button on the way out." He tells her as he walks away.

"That's it? That's the instructions?" Rory follows.

"Yep."

"But I've never done this before."

"Tomorrow you won't be able to say that."

"But people have to actually live in these houses. They may have kids, pets, or breakables."

"You have trouble, ask the person next to you."

"Look out!" Some guy yells as a piece of wood falls from the sky. Rory jumps to the side.

"Hey, you learn fast. I didn't even mention that one."

The guy walks away leaving Rory on her own. So she puts her bookbag down and walks over to the nail box. She picks one up and goes to a piece of wood to start hammering it in. When she goes to hit it, Paris jumps out scaring Rory. "This is my wall." Paris tells her.

"What?"

"I've been working here. I put together this entire wall. Go someplace else."

"You put together this wall?" Rory asks amazed.

"Go help with cement."

"That's very impressive."

"I've done it lots of times. No big deal. Louise, what did I tell you? You use a grub ax for that!" She yells across the yard.

"Bite me." Louise yells back.

"Funny. I never pictured you as a Bob Vila kind of girl." Rory jokes.

"Rebuilding Together is a prestigious and respected organization. I've been volunteering for them for years."

"Really? You just love the overalls?" Rory asks.

"I don't. Harvard does."

"What does that mean?"

"When you apply to an Ivy League school, you need more than good grades and test scores to get in." Paris tells her. "Every person who applies to Harvard has a perfect GPA and great test scores. It's the extras that put you over the top: the clubs, charities, volunteering. You know."

"Oh, yeah, I know." Rory lies.

"I started volunteering in fourth grade. I handed out cookies at the local children's hospital. By ten, I was leading my first study group. The youngest person in the group was twelve. I've been a camp counselor, organized a senior literacy program, I worked a suicide hot line, I manned a runaway center. I adopted dolphins, taught sign language, trained Seeing Eye dogs."

"But when did you have time for a life?"

"I'll have a life after I graduate from Harvard. Now, if you'll excuse me, the drainage on the south side of this place sucks." Paris walks away leaving Rory with her thoughts. All this time she had been having a life and only worrying about school when she needed to be, but now she felt way behind than ever.

At Lauren's first soccer practice, she walks up and sees all the girls forming a line in the field. She was feeling really nervous right now and kept replaying what her mom said to her, but some how she couldn't get rid of how nervous she was feeling. Lauren wanted to turn away, and as she was about to, her coach yells out her name.

"Gilmore!" She yells.

Lauren turns back around with a fake smile on her face. "Coach Mae."

The coach walks over to Lauren and puts her arm around Lauren's shoulders. "I'm glad you came. The girls are excited to have you play on their team."

Lauren looks up at her confused. "Why? They don't even know if I'm good."

"Oh, you're going to be good. I'm coaching you. Now get your skinny butt out there and kick some balls!" She yells as she pushes Lauren forward. Lauren turns around and gives her coach a questioning look. "You know what I mean. Go! Go!" Lauren takes off running and joins the other girls.

After an hour, Lauren was really getting used to everything and she was also having fun in the process. All the girls were really nice and they were all playing really well together. It wouldn't surpise them if they actually won every game this year. Lauren surprised herself a few times when she kicked the ball and actually made it into the goal. She was never this good at something.

Coach blows her whistle. "Alright, girls, it's time for a one minute game!"

"What's a one minute game?" Lauren asks.

"I'm glad you asked, Gilmore. A one minute game is when the team splits up into two and play against eachother. The first team that makes it into the goal in one minute wins. Alright, so split!" Coach yells again. Lauren follows her new friends and joins their team. She looks up in the stands and sees her mom walking up to sit down and watch. Lorelai smiles and waves over to her. Lauren smiles and waves back. She was so happy her mom made it to her practice to actually see how good she was. "Alright, when I blow my whistle that's when the minute starts." Coach blows her whistle and all the girls start to run for the ball.

Lorelai flinches when she sees one of the girls push Lauren away, but Lauren stood her ground and kept running. The girl on Lauren's team ends up with the ball and starts kicking it towards the goal. The other team goes after her and a girl ends up knocking the other girl to the ground and stealing the ball away. Lorelai stands up, nervously, as she watches Lauren run after the girl with the ball. She jumps in front of her and trips her. Lauren steals the ball and begins to run back to their goal. She runs and halfway to it she kicks the ball and it makes it easily into the goal. All the girls on Lauren's team jump up and run over to her to congratulate her. Lauren hugs her teammates but really wanted to make her way to her mom. So, she pushed through and ran towards Lorelai who was now waiting on the field. "Did you see it!?" Lauren yells, happily.

"Yeah, kid, I saw everything. You were amazing!" Lorelai tells her just as Lauren runs up and tackles her mom with a hug.

"Thank you!"

"For what?" Lorelai asks as she pulls away and looks her daughter.

"For everything." Lauren smiles as she hugs her mom again.

Lorelai couldn't be any prouder at this moment. She was a mother of two beautiful girls. Both who were very stubborn, strong-headed, and determined. Much like herself. But she was so happy to be able to see them succeed in what they want to do and be happy while they are doing it. Of course she couldn't always be there when Rory was doing something spectacular at school, but to be able to see this moment. Lauren running down the soccer field like she owned the place. It was perfect. She didn't have a athletic bone in her body and neither did Rory, but somehow something slipped over to Lauren to make her amazing at whatever she put her mind to. Her little girl was growing up fast. It was scary. But it was happening. Lorelai had to make sure she was making every good decision when it concerned her girls and herself as they grew up. No regrets.

In town, the bus pulls up to the bus stop. Dean is sitting there reading a book as he waits for Rory. Rory is the first one out. She looked exhausted with dirt and sweat covering her body.

"You look good in dirt." Dean tells her as soon as she's out.

Rory was really not in the mood to talk. "Dean, hi." She starts to walk and Dean quickly gets up to follow her.

"So how was it?"

"It was a long day. Long long day." Rory tells him.

"The day is over. Let's talk about the night. There's a seven thirty showing of Barbarella. I thought you can bring your mom's purse, you know the one with that monkey face, and we'll sneak in some burgers..." Rory stops walking. Dean turns around and looks at her with a confused look. "What?"

"I can't." She tells him.

"Get your mom's purse?"

"I can't do anything."

"Why not?"

"Because I have a lot of planning to do."

"What planning?"

Rory starts walking again and Dean is following her with a shocked, but hurt look on his face. "I'm like ten years behind on my extracurriculars." She tells him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Paris has been accumulating them since she could walk. I mean, she has a list of good deeds to bump Mother Teresa off the Harvard list."

"Okay, I'm lost."

"I've been studying my butt off my whole life and I really thought that was enough. But then Paris tells me that everyone makes good grades. And it's the extras that put you over the top. And I thought she was messing with me like she always does, but she's right. It makes total sense." Rory was definitely in the middle of a freak out.

"What does?"

"Good grades aren't enough. I need to do things. I need to volunteer, work for charity, help the blind, the orphans. I don't know, I just need to do something."

Dean laughs. "Fine. But what does this have to do with tonight?"

"I need to start now."

"Now? You have to help the blind and the orphans now?" Dean asks.

"Didn't I tell you I was ten years behind?"

"Well you can't make up for ten years in one night, Rory."

"I know. I just need to get organized."

"But, Rory, it's summer. Summer's the time to hang out and kick back."

"I can't hang out or kick back." Rory yells. "I need to find a retarted kid and teach him how to play softball! Oh, God! Listen to me. I am under-qualified and horrible."

"Wait a minute. I thought we were going to spend some time together."

"We will."

"When?"

"I don't know. Tomorrow, maybe?"

"You were busy today, so we made plans for tonight. Now you're blowing me off again."

"I'm not doing that."

"You're going to summer school three days a week."

"You knew about that."

"Yes, but we've been apart for a while. I figured you wanted time with me."

"Dean, this is about Harvard!"

"Oh, well, excuse me! It's about Harvard. I forgot." He says sarcastically. "Okay, fine!" Dean storms off, but Rory follows him.

"You're mad because I want to be sure that I get into a good college?!"

Dean turns around. "No, I'm mad because my girlfriend doesn't have time for me."

"Dean, stop it. This is important."

"And it can't wait for one night?"

"No."

"Fine."

"Why are you acting like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like you're two!"

"Hey, I'm not going to Harvard. I couldn't care less about Harvard. I just wanted to hang with you. But relax apparently since I'm two, maybe I'll just grow out of it."

Rory rolls her eyes at how immature Dean was acting and they both split ways.

At Luke's, Lauren runs in with Lorelai trailing behind her. She jumps up on a stool in front the counter with a huge smile on her face. Lorelai sits down next to her just as Luke walks up.

"What is up with all the dirt on your face?" Luke asks as he looks at Lauren.

"I played soccer today!" Lauren tells him with excitement.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter while Luke just laughs. "No way." He tells her.

"Yes, way, Luke. I'm on a soccer team now."

Luke looks at Lorelai for confirmation. "It's true. I was there. She's really good at it."

Luke's surprised face turns into a big smile as he looks back at Lauren. "Well I be damned. A Gilmore playing a sport. Good for you, Lauren!"

"Thanks, Luke."

"Okay, Luke, I promised her the biggest milkshake ever and I was hoping you could help me with that." Lorelai laughs.

Luke smirks. "Absolutely. Ceasar, make the biggest milkshake you can. We have a soccer player in the building."

"Kay, Luke." Ceasar says from the back.

Luke leans against the counter just smiling at Lauren. Lorelai couldn't help but see the spark in Luke's eyes as he looked down at Lauren. Luke was more of a father figured to her girls than their own dad so it didn't surprise her when Luke was the first person she wanted to tell about her day. "So, when is your first game?" Luke asks Lauren.

Lauren gasps. "You're going to come!?"

"Of course I'm going. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"I don't know yet. We just had our first practice today, but when I do, I'll let you know."

"Great."

"Luke, Lauren made the winning touchdown, or score, or something like that today."

Lauren starts laughing at her mom. "Touchdown?"

"You know what I mean."

"Did you really?"

Lauren nods her head. "Yeah. It was so awesome. Coach said she sees a lot of potential in me. I never had potential in anything before besides school!"

Ceasar brings out the biggest milkshake he could make. "Alright, here you go." He says as he put the shake in front of Lauren.

"Whoa! Thanks, Caesar!" Lauren starts sucking the straw that was bigger than her head as Luke and Lorelai exchange smiles.

At the house, Lorelai was finishing getting dressed for her date out with Max tonight while Rory is in the kitchen working on her plans. Lorelai comes in slowly.

"I am officially way too tired to go out tonight, so I won't trust my accessorizing instincts. Tell me what you think." She asks as she puts up her purse for Rory to look at.

"I have no wilderness skills." Rory blurts out, surprising Lorelai a little.

"You hate the purse?"

"How am I suppose to get into Harvard if I have no wilderness skills?"

"I don't know, honey. Myabe you'll have to give up your dream of majoring in logging." Lorelai jokes, but she was so confused right now.

"I called the Fireflies. Do they need troop leaders? Yes." Lorelai decides to sit down on that note. "Good. I'll be a troop leader. The only catch is it's summer, camping season. I need wilderness skill. Why did you never take me camping?"

"Camping? Are you kidding? I couldn't get you to stop on wet grass until you were three." Lorelai tells her.

"If you'd taken me camping, I'd have wilderness skills."

"Well, I'll tell you what. I'll take you upstairs and throw you out the window. If you manage to grab the tree, I'll be your witness."

"I called the Sunnyside Home. Do they need volunteers? And believe it or not, they don't, but they do need an accordion player for their Friday night polka party."

"How come I never forced you to learn the accordion?" Lorelai asks.

"The library was closed. They only have twelve books, so I'm not counting on that. If the tutoring program at Chilton is still taking names, I can do that."

"Honey, calm down."

"I'm not prepared. I will never catch up."

"You will catch up, but not in one night. You've made your lists and calls. Why don't you relax, call Dean to come over?"

"We're in a fight." Rory says, defeated.

"Why?"

"Because you never took me camping."

"Oh, boy, I'm really sucking tonight."

"We were supposed to hang out, I told him I couldn't." Rory tells her. "He got made at me, and we're in a fight."

"Well, listen, why don't I cancel on Max tonight? And I'll hang out here with you girls and we can make popcorn and reminisce about how I never forced you to become a missionary."

"No, go. I'm fine. I just need to focus on this."

"I can help."

"No, I need to do this alone."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay. I'm not going to be home late. Listen, I would reconsider calling Dean." Lorelai says as she stands up. "It's not his fault that you're so fabulous he can't think about anything else."

"Bye, Mom." Rory says sadly as she starts looking through her stuff, but Lorelai just keeps talking anyway.

"He just sits in his room, eating Froot Loops out of the box saying your name over and over."

"Time is ticking." Rory tells her.

Lorelai starts walking slowly to the door, but contiues to talk as she annoys Rory in the process. "Rory, I love you. I will not be ignored." She says in her best Dean accent.

"Leave."

"Alright. I'll be home early. Bye."

Lauren walks into the kitchen when Lorelai walks out and goes to the fridge to take out a bottle of water. "Hey, Lauren, does your coach need an assistant?" Rory asks. Lauren just shuts the fridge door and glares at her sister. Rory throws down her papers and bangs her head on the table. No one needed her help!

At dinner, Max is watching Lorelai pick at her food.

"You hate your dinner." He tells her.

"No, I don't."

"You've hardly touched it."

"Well, when somebody takes trouble to make your entree look like a hat you hate to mess it up." Lorelai tells him.

"Is something wrong?"

"No." Lorelai sighs.

"You can tell me. That's what I'm here for."

Lorelai smiles at her fiance. "I thought it was just for eye candy."

"That, too." Max jokes.

"I'm fine. It's just stuff. Rory's freaking out about not having enough extracurricular things to impress Harvard with. Lauren is playing soccer and making me nervous that she'll break a bone or something."

"I can help Rory with that."

"I'm sure she'd greatly appreciate it."

"But I just can't help Lauren not break any bones while she plays soccer."

"Well, then I guess I'll just have to suffer." She laughs.

"Is tat all that's wrong?"

"Yeah." Lorelai lies. "It's just a lot of stuff to think about for the wedding."

Max nearly spits out his drink as he remembers something. "I forgot to tell you. I saw my parents today. They just wanted me to tell you how thrilled they are. My mother cried twice. She said you don't have to call her 'Mom.' But you're welcome to if you want."

"Really?" She asks a little surprised.

"Then my father gave me a long talk about marriage and the many ways of making a wife happy."

"Dirty talk." Lorelai grins.

"Then they gave me this." He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a check.

"No, they did not." Lorelai says as she looks at the check.

"Yes, they did, too."

"Oh. Did you tell them that we're paying for everything ourselves?"

"I did."

"Sookie's doing the cake, the ceremony's at my house, Patty's supplying chairs..." Lorelai looks at the check. "$35.00?"

"It's the first of four installments, so we can't spend it all in one place."

"Oh, that is so cute." Lorelai laughs.

"They just want to be involved."

"That's really sweet. Can I.." She says asks the waiter for another drink. "Thanks." This was all becoming so much so fast for Lorelai and there she goes again thinking about her talk with her daughter.

"My mother even offered you her wedding dress. But since three of you could fit into that dress, I took the liberty of declining it."

"I hope she wasn't insulted."

"No, I just told her you were wearing your mother's dress."

"AH!"

"It doesn't matter whether you are or not. She just wanted to offer something."

"Let's get dessert." Lorelai says desperately wanting to change the subject.

"Are you okay?"

"I just think it's great. It's great that your parents are so happy and into everything. That must be nice to have that." She says thinking back on how her mom reacted.

"Well, think of it this way: now they're your parents, too. You'll have that, also."

Lorelai nods her head. "Yes, I will think of it like that." She lies. "That is exactly how I will think of it."

The waiter puts another drink in front of her. "Good."

"Because otherwise, I'd have to look at it like, 'Max has parents who love him and care about him, and I have parents.'"

"I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset. I just can't get that one moment out of my mind. 'That's nice. I hope we're in town.' Who reacts like that? I mean what sort of mind forms that reaction to: 'Hey, Mom, I'm getting married.'?"

"From everything you've told me about your parents there's so much baggage between you guys"

"You figure out a different way." Lorelai argues. "You tap into compassion or family obligation. You don't react like that."

"I agree. It's wrong. But you can't change who they are. You won't get anywhere trying to."

"I don't want to talk about my parents anymore." Lorelai was getting angry about all of this and it was kinda feeling like Max was taking their side. "I don't want to speculate about them or analyze them or think about them. We should go."

"Come on, it's still early. We'll go someplace else. Talk a little bit more?"

"Yes. Absolutely. Sounds good."

In the car, Max is driving and Lorelai is staring straight ahead. "Hey, I'm sorry tonight brought up these bad feelings for you."

"That's okay. Make a right."

Max does as he's told. "But I bet this was harder for your mother than you think it is."

"Uh, huh."

"I mean, look what's happened to her over the last year. She's just getting back into your life and suddenly everything changes on her."

"Yeah, that's got to suck. Go right." Lorelai tells him again.

"Maybe once we get married, things will settle down. You two will be able to work it out. You never know I might be able to help the situation. Act as a buffer or so."

"That's a good thought. Good thought. Pull in here."

They pull up into Emily and Richard's driveway and Lorelai jumps out the car. Max hurries to unbuckle himself and follows her. "Lorelai, hold on. Hold on. I know what's going on. I got to tell you, it's not a good idea."

"This will just take a second." Lorelai reaches over and presses the doorbell and doesn't stop.

"Maybe you should wait until tomorrow. Calm down a little." Max begs her. "Maybe you'll be more objective."

"You are not asleep. Come on." Lorelai yells.

"You are way too emotional for this."

"No, I'm just emotional enough. If you like, you can wait in the car because I really don't plan on being here that long." Lorelai tells him just as the door opens.

Emily looks at Lorelai and Max like they are absolutely insane. "What on earth-"

"Hi, Mom. Do you have a sec to chat? Super." Lorelai lets herself in leaving Max at the door until Emily turns her back on him and he follows but stands by the closed door watching mother and daughter.

"Lorelai, what is this?" Emily asks.

"I just wanted to see how you were."

"I'm fine."

"You are? Good. I'm glad that you're fine. I, however, am not fine."

Emily looks at her daughter and then at Max. She was confused by all of this. "Your father and I were about to go to bed. We can do this in the morning."

"Actually, Mom, no. We can't do this in the morning. We need to do it now." Lorelai tells in in frustration.

"Are you drunk?"

"No, I'm not drunk. I'm confused."

"About what?"

"About you."

"And what about me confused you, Lorelai?"

"So many things. For example, why can't you keep a maid in this house? I mean there must have been a thousand women that have gone through here in the thirty-two years that I've been alive. Not one of them could stick it out."

"And this is what we need to discuss now?" Emily asks.

"These are women from countries having dictatorships, civil wars, death squads. And all of that they survived but five minutes working for Emily Gilmore, and people are begging for Castro."

"I'm going to bed now." Emily had enough and starts walking away from Lorelai, but Lorelai is following closely behind her.

"And why is that when your only daughter tells you she is getting married you can't muster up even a little enthusiasm?" Lorelai asks just as Emily stops and looks back at her daughter. "Even a little fake enthusiasm? Why don't you pretend that you care? I mean, this is the biggest thing to happen to me, possibly for the rest of my life. And you dismissed it, like I said: 'hey, I'm thinking of getting a Honda. What do you think?'"

"You're obviously hysterical."

"Why don't you care?" Lorelai asks desperately. "Why have you never cared? No matter what happened to me my entire life you've never been happy for me. And that hurts, Mom. It really hurts." Lorelai was beginning to cry but Emily was in no mood to fight her daughter about this.

"I'm not discussing this."

"Do you know how it felt for me to tell you that I was getting married and to have you just brush it off like that?" Lorelai asks her. "Do you know?"

"No, I don't know!" Emily yells back. "Possibly similiar to finding out from a complete stranger that my only daughter was getting married and had told everyone else in the world before she bothered to tell her mother! Possibly it felt something like that. Now if you excuse me, it is late and I am going to bed." Emily walks quickly back to the front door and opens it signalling for Lorelai and Max to leave. Lorelai slumps down and walks out of the house leaving Max still inside. He looks outside at Lorelai then back at Emily.

"Uh, my parents would really like to have lunch with you and Mr. Gilmore sometime soon. Nice meeting you." He says before leaving.

Emily just closes the door behind him and starts to cry.

At the Inn, Sookie is at the front desk pestering Michel about cookies for the party.

"I don't care." Michel tells her.

"I just need a quick opinion." Sookie begs him.

"It took me two seconds to tell you that I don't care. That's as quick as I get."

"This is Lorelai's engagement party. It's a once-in-a-lifetime event and I want it to be perfect."

"I am working."

"Just pick a cookie!"

"I don't want to."

"Michel, for the rest of their lives Lorelai and Max will think back on their engagement party and they're going to talk about three things: the friends who came, the special song they danced to, and the cookies that they ate."

"Their world is very small, isn't it?"

"Macaroons or chocolate praline?" Sookie asks again as she holds up the cookies.

"Go back to the cooking room."

"Not until you eat these and tell me what you think!"

"Sookie! I only eat 1,500 calories at day. If I eat that, I cannot have my Boca Burger later."

Lorelai walks in and smiles at the two. "Hey, Sookie." Sookie puts the cookies down quickly. "Is there any coffee left? I had a really lousy night."

"Oh, sorry. I've been so busy, I didn't even think about it." Sookie tells her.

"Oh, that's okay. I'll make some myself." Lorelai tells her as she starts walking to the kitchen.

Sookie throws the cookies at Michel and runs towards Lorelai. "No, I'll make it! I want to make it! Let me do it. I'll make the coffee." She says as she jumps in front of Lorelai.

"Relax. You're busy."

"No, I'm not. Go back to the counter. Michel's stealing." Sookie says as Lorelai still pushes her way into the kitchen. She stops when she sees what's happening. There's cake, cupcakes, and cookies everywhere.

"Oh, my God." She says, smiling. "What is this?"

"The dinner special." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai walks closer. "The dinner special is a heart-shaped pastry with Max and Lorelai written on it?"

"I couldn't find any good salmon."

Lorelai laughs. "Oh, Sookie, you're throwing me a wedding shower, aren't you?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise."

"Oh, my god! This is amazing, Sookie, even for you!"

"Wait till you see the ice sculptures."

"When is it?" Lorelai asks as she walks around.

"Tonight."

"So your yen to hit the bingo parlor in Enfield was-"

"A vicious vicious lie." Sookie finishes for her.

"This is incredible. This is really really incredible. My, God, is there any pink icing left on the planet?"

"The whole town is in on it. It's going to be quite the affair. You'll be impressed with the amount of people that want to celebrate with you."

"Michel?"

"No."

"Right. I just can't get over this." Lorelai says still amazed. "Hey, you didn't by any chance invite my parents, did you?"

"Actually, I did. At friend, I was really torn, because I know you have issues. But it is your wedding, and I assumed you wanted them to be there." Sooke explains. "Oh, no. Your mother told you." She says when she sees the somber look on Lorelai's face.

"Sort of."

"Damn. I thought I mentioned that it was a surprise. Maybe I didn't. That would be so typical of me. The cat's already out of the bag. And I'm stuffing imported chocolate squares down my shirt so you don't seem me walk into the kitchen with them. Hey, did your mother mention if they were coming? She never got back to me."

Lorelai looks down sadly remembering last night. "Oh, no, she's got a thing tonight."

"Too bad. Hey, we can save her a piece of cake."

"That would be nice." Lorelai smiles at her friend.

Later that day, everyone is out in the middle of the square eating, laughing, and dancing. Lorelai and Max have a place set up with just the two of them front and center. Rory and Lauren walk up to Lane who is standing behind the Dj booth.

"Hey, Mr. DJ, put a record on." Rory jokes as she hands Lane a cd.

"How's it sound?" Lane asks.

"Great."

"I'm trying to find a blend between not too cliche-sounding traditional tunes with outer-left-field, should be standards."

"Well, the Sinatra medley was great. And skip anything else by The Damned."

"What time is it?"

Lauren looks at her watch. "Eight."

"What time do you leave?" Rory asks.

Lane grimaces. "I have a 10:00 flight."

"Have I told you how much I'm going to miss you?"

"Write me, constantly."

"Every day." Rory promises.

"Cards and letters, full of hope and 'see you soon.'"

"I'll be tying yellow ribbons around the old oak trees."

"I will be back for the wedding." Lane tells her.

"You better be."

"Just don't let her change the date."

"Not going to happen."

"Max is teaching a summer course at the University of Toronto." Lauren tells her. "So, if you're back by the end of the summer, it will be fine."

"Don't say 'if.'" Rory says.

"Right."

Over by Lorelai and Max, they are opening their presents. Max pulls out a Hello Kitty waffle iron.

"I don't know if you realize that every gift so far has been for you." Max tells her as Lorelai laughs.

"Yes, well, in this town, I am the Queen. You are simply my jester."

"A position I happily accept."

Lorelai groans. "Come on. How can you stand to leave all this for two months? You think Toronot will make you into an ice sculpture? I don't think so."

"I wish you'd come with me."

"I have to work, and I have kids."

"Two months is a long time." Max tells her.

"I know."

"Will you still want me when I get back?"

"I think there's a very good possibility that I will be just a infatuated with you then as I am now." She promises him.

"Maybe more."

"Maybe more." Lorelai repeats before leaning in as she and Max being to kiss.

Lauren pops up behind them. "Ew, gross. Get a room." She teases.

Lorelai and Max pull apart and look up at Lauren with smiles. "Hi, Lauren." Max says.

Lauren squeezes in and sits herself on her mom's lap. "You know, Max, if you don't come back in two months I may have to find you and kick a soccer ball at your face. I'm pretty good at it." She jokes.

Max looks at Lorelai who just simply shrugs. "I have to agree. She is really good."

Max shakes his head and turns back to Lauren. "Well, Lauren, you don't have to worry about me not coming back. I will be here as soon as I step off the plane."

Lauren looks at her mom, who just kisses her gently on her arm, then back at Max. "Good to know."

Rory is watching the dancers up on the gazebo when Dean walks up to her.

"Hey." She says nervously.

"This is quite a party." Dean tells her as he looks around.

"Elegant and understated, just like my mother." Rory tells him.

"So, how are you?" He asks as they begin to walk.

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"Me? I'm an idiot."

"No, you're not."

"I'm so sorry, Rory."

"I'm sorry, too."

"I don't even know what happened."

"We had a fight, that's all." Rory tells him.

"I mean, I've just missed you and..."

"I missed you, too."

"I got...I don't know, I got jealous of Harvard, which is crazy cause I love the fact that you're going to Harvard. And that you have to do something that's going to help you get there. I don't even really understand it myself." Dean says in frustration as he sits on the nearest bench.

Rory sits down next to him. "I didn't help. I was all wigged out when I got home."

"You had all the right to be."

"It's just that when it comes to Harvard, sometimes I get a little tunnel vision." She explains. "And it's getting closer..."

"You do not have to explain." He says, stopping her.

"But I don't want you to feel unimportant, because you're not."

"I'm glad."

"I mean it. The only way you could be more important to me is if you had a Kit Kat growing out of your head."

"I can't make promises, but I'll give it a try." He laughs.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I mean, I'm not going to a fancy school. I don't have that kind of pressure. I can't even imagine what that must feel like."

"You could go to a fancy school if you wanted to." Rory assures him.

Dean rolls his eyes at the thought. "I don't think so."

"Why not? You're smart."

"No, you're smart."

"You are, too."

"Rory.."

"I could help you organize your extracurricular activities because I'm now an expert at it. How are your wilderness skills?"

"Hey."

"What?"

"Do you accept my apology?"

"Yeah, I accept your apology." That's all Dean needed to hear before leaning in and kissing his girlfriend gently on the lips.

Back up front, Lorelai and Max are holding hands as they look around at the party. Lorelai looks to the side and sees that Luke's lights are still on at the diner.

"You okay?" Max asks.

"Yeah." She looks back at the diner. 'Hey, you know, I'll be right back." She tells him. "Lauren, save my seat. Make sure no one tries to sit with Max."

"Got it!" Lauren runs up to the small stage and takes her mom's seat next to Max.

Lorelai walks into the diner where Luke is standing on the other side of the counter filling ketchup bottles.

"Hey." She says as she walks in.

Luke looks up and smiles. "Why aren't you at your party?" He asks.

"Oh, that's funny, I was about to ask you the same thing." She says as she walks closer to him.

"Oh, well, I just got kind of busy here." He says, pointing to the ketchup.

"Yes, I can see that. Boy, they keep making that ketchup slowler and slower."

"It's the Heinz family's little joke." Luke says making Lorelai laugh a little.

"It's really pretty crazy out there."

"Oh, I can imagine."

"Lots of people all having fun. Just the kind of thing you'd hate."

"Sounds awful."

"You would be miserable."

"Yes, I would."

"In spite of all that, I was thinking, and you don't have to that maybe you could pull yourself away for a second. You know, finish the ketchup tonight, but leave the Worcestershire sauce for tomorrow."

Luke sighs. "I'll see how it goes." He says a bit uneasy.

"Okay. I mean, it's a big night for me tonight, and it feels like you should be there." Luke just stands there looking at her making Lorelai suddenly feel awkward for even saying that. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to your ketchup." Lorelai turns away and walks out of the diner back to the party as Luke watches.

At food table, Sookie and Jackson are fixing everything as they make their plates, too.

"The macaroons are going like hot cakes." Sookie says happily.

"Yeah, everything's big success." Jackson tells her.

"Look at all this. Isn't it beautiful? I know it's cliched, but it is so romantic. It makes you giddy in a sappy kind of way, doesn't it?"

"Uh, sure, I guess."

"I hope they're happy. Ugh! What am I saying? How could they not be happy? They're in love. They have eachother. Everything's perfect!"

"Okay, I get it!" Jackson yells at her.

"Jackson, what are you-"

"You think I need a piano to fall on my head?"

"Well, I don't think anyone needs a piano to fall on their head." Sooke chuckles.

"All the marriage talk and the 'Oh, Jackson, you should see Lorelai's ring. It's so beautiful.'"

"Well, it is."

"I understand. I'm hip, okay? We've hit that point in our relationship where the hints are starting that will be followed by the where-are-we-going talk. And that'll only end in an ultimatum. Suddenly all hell breaks loose!"

"Okay, no more sugar for you."

"So, I think I need to say this right now." Jackson says with a sigh. "I'm not ready for marriage."

"Okay."

"However, I'd be willing to move in."

"Move in where?"

"Move in with you."

Sookie starts to laugh hysterically. "Jackson, you're hilarious!"

"I am?" He asks, confused.

"'I'll move in with you.' What a riot!" She says as she continues to laugh.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Your face. God, you're good!"

"I wasn't joking."

"Come on, let's go get some punch." She laughs.

"Sookie, I'm serious. I'm moving in."

"Jackson, stop. You're going to give me a cramp!" Sookie grabs on to her waist as she walks away.

"Sookie, get back here." Jackson begs. He was still confused by everything as he follows her.

Rory is laying her head on Dean's chest as he wraps his arm around her. They are enjoying the music and eachother's company when Rory sees across the street Lane getting into her mom's car. Lane turns around and gives Rory a small wave and Rory does the same. She watches Lane leave for what she was hoping was just for the summer.

Max and Lorelai are dancing in the middle of everyone when she sees from the corner of her eye Luke walking up. She gives him a small wave as he does the same and sits down on the bench and watches. Lauren looks at her mom and Max then she looks at where her mom is looking at Luke. She smirks and runs over to Luke. Lauren grabs Luke's hand forces him up. Lorelai watches Luke try to tell Lauren that he was fine, but being the Gilmore that Lauren is she wouldn't take no for an answer. Luke finally gives in and instead of just taking Lauren's hand, he tricks her by picking her up and making her laugh loudly as he hangs her upside down. Lorelai loved seeing Luke's playful side and she couldn't help but smile at how close he was to her girls.

The next day at the Grandparents, Emily is in the sitting area working on some stuff when the doorbell rings.

"Marina, the door, please." Emily tells the maid.

The maid opens the door and Lorelai walks in. "Hey, Mom." She says as she walks up to Emily. She is holding two veils in her hands. "I was in the neighborhood because there's that wedding dress place on Willow. Elizabeth Taylor bought one of her dressed there. Anyhow, I was trying to make a decision about a veil. And I thought maybe you might have an opinion about which one would look best on me cause well you know me." Lorelai says as she holds them both up for Emily to see. "So I thought I'd stop by and ask you which one you thought would be good. On me. Which one?"

Emily looks back down. "You're quite capable of choosing that yourself, Lorelai."

Lorelai sighs. "I'm sorry." She says sincerely.

"All right, you're sorry."

"I don't know how to tell you things, Mom." Lorelai sits down. "I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but we don't communicate very well. When something good happens to me I'm just afriad you're going to make me feel bad about it. When something bad happens to me I'm always afraid you'll say, 'I told you so.' I'm not sure if that's always fair. And I'm sure I share part of the blame for this circle we get into. But you think your words don't have any effect on me, but they do." Lorelai tells her sadly. "And I just didn't want to feel bad about this. So I waited. And I really didn't mean to hurt you." Emily doesn't say anything. She just sits there queitly looking down at what she is writing. "Alright then. I will just let you get back to that letter there." Lorelai gets up just as Emily begins to speak.

"Your head is much too big for a veil." Emily tells her. Lorelai turns back around a little surprised. "You might consider a tiara."

"A tiara?" Lorelai questions her mom with a smile.

Emily looks at her daughter. "That's what I wore."

"Okay." Lorelai says. "I'll think about that."

Emily nods her head. Lorelai was just grateful to finally get something out of her mother that was meaningful. It felt good. It made her feel good. Finally, communication.


	24. Anything Could Happen

The wedding was drawing closer and all Lorelai could think about now was getting everything ready for the big day. Even though Sookie is making the wedding cake, Lorelai still insisted that she and girls go out and try some cake. That's what weddings were for, right?

At the bakery, Rory, Lauren, and Lorelai are trying all kinds of different cakes. "Okay, our house is burning down and you can save the cake or me and Lauren. What do you choose?" Rory asks Lorelai.

"Well, that's not fair. The cake doesn't have legs." Lorelai tells her.

"So, how are we coming here?" Fran asks them.

"Fran, so good. This cake is amazing."

"Beyond amazing." Rory tells her.

"Well, I sure hope so. We've been doing this for 112 years."

"Huh, you don't look a day over 106." Lorelai jokes.

"No, I meant my family's been doing it for that long." Fran says not getting Lorelai's joke.

"Right. Okay. I'm glad we got that cleared up." Lorelai laughs as Lauren jumps up and down.

"The raspberries!" Lauren tells them excitingly as she points to the cake making Fran smile.

"So, when is the big day again?" She asks.

"Two weeks from tomorrow." Lorelai answers.

"Have you picked a flavor?"

"I don't know. They're all so good."

"Well, you have to try them again."

Lorelai tries to act like she doesn't want to as she shakes her head towards her girls who are looking at her as they smile and nod their heads agreeing with Fran. "No, I've already eaten so many." She says, dramatically.

"This is a very crucial decision, young lady." Fran says, sternly. "Cake is the glue of the wedding so you will stand here and eat until you decide."

"Okay, if you insist." Lorelai laughs.

"I do. After all, what's more important than you wedding day? So, let me just go and see if there's anything else in the back."

"Thanks." Lorelai says as she takes another piece of the cake as Fran walks away.

"How was it seeing Max last night?" Rory asks her mom. "No gory details."

"Like I've ever shared that part of my relationship with you."

"You've alluded, you've insinuated, you have tiptoed to the brink of impropriety." Rory tells her.

Lauren is ignoring her sister as she put another piece of cake into Lorelai's mouth. "Hm, that Chilton has taught you some big words." Lorelai says with a mouthful.

"That's kinda of the point."

"It was really great. I'm glad he's back."

"And he's on board with the small wedding thing?"

"Oh, yeah. We want fun, we want simple, we want fast. We've been completely in sync, with that slightly gay, boy-band affiliation."

"Oh, I printed up some sample invitations for you." Rory walks over to the other side of the counter and picks some up as Lorelai steps up. "All you have to do it pick out a quote for the front page and I'll print them up."

"Okay." Lorelai says as she reads the first one. "Um, 'What is love? It is the morning and the evening star.' Ugh."

"Sinclair Lewis."

"Sinclair 'Sappy' Lewis."

"Fine, next." Rory says as she turns to the next one.

"'An all went merry as a marriage bell. But hush! Hark! A deep sound strikes like a rising knell!'" Lorelai looks over and grimaces at Rory. "What is with poetry?"

"Lord Byron."

"Byron and Lewis, together again."

"Okay, last one." Rory turns to the next one.

"'We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty.'" Lorelai reads. "Perfect!"

"Mussolini it is." Rory says happily. She puts the papers down and they walks back to the cakes. "Can I ask you an ethical question?"

"Hm?"

"Is it right to be sampling wedding cakes when Sookie's making yours for free?"

"What is right, anyway?" Lorelai asks her. "Who defines right? And if eating cake is wrong, I don't want to be right."

"I'm bringing out a Mocha Crunch Creme!" Fran yells from the back.

"So, ethics?"

"High subjective and completely overrated." Rory says proudly.

"That's my girl." Lorelai smiles. "Now, let's eat before Lauren eats them all." They look over at Lauren who is stuffying her face with each kind of cake, barely swallowing when she puts another piece in.

Later that day, Dean and Rory are walking hand in hand in the square.

"So, what are we doing tonight?" Dean asks her.

"I'll do whatever."

"Well, what movies haven't we seen?"

"Just about all of them."

"They all stink this year."

"They definitely do underestimate our intelligence."

"Plus they stink."

"There are at least five featuring someone doing something disgusting with a cow." Rory tells him.

"Yeah, they should at least do something disgusting with a different animal."

"We could watch Holy Grail on tape again."

"Okay, but I am not talking in an English accent all evening." Dean tells her.

Rory laughs. "If Lauren is around she may beg you to. You know you are sucker when it comes to her pout."

Dean sighs. "Yes, because only it reminds me so much of yours. I swear you Gilmores."

"So, tomorrow night Max is sleeping over."

"Really?" Dean says, surprised.

"First time. And to kind of celebrate, he and Mom wanted to go on a double date. Well, sorta, Lauren is going to be there."

"But tomorrow's our anniversary."

"No, it's not. It's on the 24th.

"That was our old anniversary." Dean reminds her. "We broke up, and got back together on the 6th, so using the 24th wouldn't be an accurate count of how long we've been together."

"Unless you consider our time apart as temporary moratorium on our relationship. You know, like the time passing, and we were on a sabbatical."

"Yeah, it's complicated."

"Very." Rory says defeated.

Dean takes a deep breath. "So, a double date? With adults and your sister?"

"No, just with Mom and Max, and Lauren." Rory tells him.

"What will it be? Like, dinner and dancing?" He asks, sarcastically.

"Yes, and then we'll enjoy brandy and cigars." They laughs. "No, we'll just probably grab a bite."

"Alright, we could do that."

"Hey, let's have two anniversaries. We can celebrate twice a month. They're well spread apart, the 6th and the 24th."

"We can't do that."

"Who's gonna stop us?"

Dean thinks about it for a second. "Twice a month?"

"Dare to be different."

Dean puts his arm around Rory. "Twice a month it is." He says as they continue to walk.

At the house, Lorelai is sitting at the table as she watches Max cut up some carrots.

"Why won't you let me help?" She asks him.

"Because you're a danger to the process."

"That's not true."

"I've got numerous scars."

"I cut you that one, two times..." Lorelai argues "And I've helped you tons of times."

"You've helped me twice and both times you cut me."

"Well, I do like watching you cook." Lorelai says, smiling up at him.

"I like you watching me cook." He says as he walks over to over just as the front door closes.

Lauren runs in, in her soccer gear with Rory following behind her. "What's that weird smell?" Lauren asks when she reaches the kitchen table.

"It's food." Lorelai tells her.

"It smells weird." Lauren says as she sniffs the air.

"No, just weird for this house. It smells great." Rory says as she looks at what Max is doing.

Max puts some stuff on the table. "Rory, can you get that?"

The girls look at eachother confused. "Get what?" She asks while she looks at the oven that Max pointed at.

"Right down there, with the shiny handle." He tells her.

Rory bends down and opens the bottom of the oven. Lorelai gasp as she stands up near Rory and Lauren staring down at the oven. "Did you know we had that?" She asks them.

"Not a clue." Rory answers.

Max looks at them in shock. "Oh, come on." He bends down and puts the bread in it.

"Hey, it's on fire!" Lorelai tells him.

"It's the broiler."

"Wow." Lauren says as she bends down as well looking into it.

"What fallout shelter have you guys been living in?" Max asks as he stands back up.

"He has much knowledge." Lauren says to her mom.

"We shall form a cult around him." Lorelai says looking at Max.

"Build a statue many stories high." Rory says amused.

"We shall grow our hair long and stop bathing."

"Please don't." Max begs.

"Are we eating at the table?" Lauren asks.

"Wherever."

"I'll get a tape." Rory says as she runs off to the living room.

"And I'll go wash up." Lauren says, following her sister.

"Can I at least grab some dishes?" Lorelai asks Max as she reaches over to grab them.

"Far away from me." He jokes.

In the living room, the girls and Max are watching a movie except the girls are sitting on the floor and Max has the couch.

_"You don't learn very fast, Injun."_

"How fast do you learn, Billy Jack?" Lauren asks making them laugh.

"_Fash enough."_

"Billy Jack, I'm gonna kill you if it's the last thing I do." Rory recites with the movie.

"He so jinxed himself with that one." Lorelai says.

"Yeah, he should've said, 'Billy Jack, I'm gonna kill you or buy myself a lovely chenille sweater."

"Oh, yeah, either way, he wins." Lorelai agrees.

Max starts laughing. "How many times have you seen this movie?" He asks them.

"I'm out of digits."

"You can't see a Billy Jack movie too many times." Lauren tells him.

"Who's the guy Billy Jack-"

"Shh!" Lorelai says raising her hand for Max to stop talking.

_"Alright, you cats, very slowly now."_

"Let's do some jumping jacks." Lorelai chuckles as she watches the guy on tv raise both his arms.

_"Spread out."_

"One."

"Oh, it's the counting part." Lauren says.

"_He means it, Daniel."_

"Two."

"Oh, here comes my favorite and my least favorite line.." Lorelai says as they wait for it.

_"I'm gonna cut your bowels out."_

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren all groan out with disgust as Max laughs at them. _"Three."_

"Comeuppance time."

A gun fires and they all jump up, eyes still on the t.v. "You guys talked throughout the whole movie." Max tells them. "And when I say something you shush me."

"That's because you're talking through parts we talked through last time." Lorelai says. "So, we haven't seen those parts in a while."

"Now it's clear." Max says with an eye roll.

The phone starts ringing and they all three look at Max. "Max?" Lorelai says.

Max looks at the phone then back the girls. "What? The phone?" He asks.

"Whoever's closest answers." Rory tells him.

"House rule." Lauren says.

"You three are closer." He says as she sits up to look at them.

"Yeah, but I'd have to walk farther around the coffee table." Lorelai explains.

"And my foot's asleep." Rory adds.

"Plus you're taller."

"With longer legs." Lauren tells him.

"Even if we all left for the phone at exactly the same time-"

Max sets his cup on the table and stands up. He was finally giving up. "I got it." He says as he walks towards the phone.

Lorelai looks over her daughters and smiles. "I'm gonna like having him around."

Late that night, upstairs Max is sleeping peacefully next to Lorelai in her bed while Lorelai layed there staring up at the ceiling. This was all too weird for her. She had enough of the thinking and decided to get up.

Lorelai walks into Rory's room where she find Rory and Lauren both sleeping soundly in Rory's bed. She sits down on the edge and pokes at both of them. "Hey."

Rory turns over and looks at her mom. "What is it?"

"Nothing. What are you doing?"

"Taking back Poland."

"Good luck with that."

Lorelai tries to take the blankets off of Rory. "Mom."

"I have a boy in my room." Lorelai tells her.

"So?"

"So I have a boy in my room."

"It's Max."

"I know."

"You like Max." Rory reminds her.

"No. Yes, I do, but it's weird. What's Lauren doing here?" Lorelai asks as she looks at Lauren who hadn't budged.

"You have a boy in your room." Lauren says, quietly.

Lorelai gasps. "We never had a man in the house before."

"Mom, all you need to do is to adjust." Rory tells her. "It's like that time you got the green stripes in your hair."

"I hated those green stripes."

"Well, I'm tired. I can think of a better example tomorrow." Rory says turning over and trying to go back to sleep.

"No! Wake up." Lorelai says as she scoots in closer to Lauren making them sit up.

"Mom." Lauren whines.

"We've not properly talked about this." Lorelai tells them.

"About what?" Rory asks.

"About having Max in the house. The effect on you girls. Don't cover up anything."

"I don't have anything to cover up. I like Max."

"Me, too." Lauren agrees.

"Oh, really? Is that why you are in here sleeping with your sister instead on in your own room?" Lorelai asks Lauren.

Lauren sighs. "You have a boy in your room." She repeats from earlier.

"Okay, but you two know that once we are married nothing will be the same again."

"We know." Rory tells her sadly.

"It won't just be the 'our secret club, no-boys allowed thing' anymore."

"It'll be different."

"Not just different. Our lives as we know them will be over."

"Mom, we're not dying." Lauren tells her.

"No, we're not dying. But the life we had is gonna morph into this mutation that we could never possibly have conceived."

"Like the giant ants in Them!?" Lauren says, a little scared.

"Yes, and I don't want it to be like giant ants so that's why I'm talking about it now."

"I am in now way anticipating being attacked by giant, man-eating ants because Max is living here." Rory tells her.

"Good. Good."

"Weirdo." Rory and Lauren try to settle back in bed just as Lorelai does the same, but with them.

"You know, Lauren, you can't walk around in the buff anymore."

"I don't remember ever walking around in the buff." Lauren tells her mom.

"I know one time you did."

"Was I three?"

"Somewhere around there."

Rory tries to get comfortable, but Lorelai was smushing Lauren so close to her that she couldn't. "Does he hog the bed?" Rory asks.

"No. He's a very stay-on-his-side kind of guy." Lorelai says, smiling.

"Good."

"He's cute. He wear pajama bottoms."

"Stop there." Rory says sternly.

"Not funny ones. I hate funny bottoms."

Lauren starts laughing. "I'm gonna call you Funny Bottoms from now on."

"Nuh uh." Lorelai laughs as she snuggles closer to her.

"Aren't you happy?" Rory asks as she turns back towards her mom.

"Yes. I'm happy."

"Then it'll be fine. You'll get used to it, having Max there."

"I know. You're right. I will. I will get used to it." Lorelai closes her eyes.

"Mom? You're falling asleep." Rory says when she notices that her mom was staying with them.

"So?"

"You need to be a big girl and go to your own room."

"But Lauren is here."

"Yes, but Lauren doesn't move and she was here before you."

"Plus, I had a very comfortable position happening before you came along and ruined it." Lauren adds in.

"Okay." Lorelai sighs. She tries to get up but pretends that she can't move.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Fine, ten more minutes."

"Thank you." Lorelai says happily as she turns over and wraps her arms around her daughters.

The next morning, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk into Luke's diner. Luke walks over to them and points to a clear table set for three people.

"Over there." He tells them.

Lorelai looks around and sees one with four chairs. "Can you clear that one off?" She asks him.

"Why?"

"Because it's bigger. We're four today."

"Four?"

"Yes, Max is with us."

"Max? So when did Max become invisible to the human eye?" Luke asks her.

"He's on a paper hunt." Lorelai says as she and the girls walk over to the table.

"Max likes his three papers in the morning." Rory explains to Luke. "The Hartford Courant, The New York Times, and The Wall Stree Journal."

"Three papers?"

"He likes to be well-informed." Lorelai says proudly.

"Yeah, well, reading three papers all reporting the same news is a terrific use of trees."

"You be nice, Luke. I mean it."

Luke turns away and stops when Max walks in. "Hey, there." Max says to him.

"Max, buddy. Top of the morning to you. You look good today. Brown is your color, my friend." Luke says a little over dramatically causing Lorelai to shake her head displeased.

"Thanks." Max says awkwardly before he joins the girls.

"So?" Lorelai asks.

"I got two out of three."

"Not bad." Rory says.

"No one has The Wall Street Journal."

"This isn't a very financially-oriented town." Lauren tells him.

"Yes, it's more oriented to coffee." Lorelai says as she puts the mug in the air to show Luke.

Luke walks over with the coffee. "I've got blueberry pancakes this morning."

"Bring them."

"Bring them twice." Rory tells him.

"Bring them three times." Lauren adds.

"And you?" Luke asks Max, who is looking at the menu.

"I'm gonna need a minute."

The girls and Luke all look at eachother with a little surprise. They never waited before so it was kinda weird. "Well, then hold off." Lorelai tells Luke.

"Same here." Rory tells him.

"Me, too." Lauren adds.

"I might run out of the pancakes." Luke tells them.

"Go ahead, order." Max says. "I'll just be a minute."

"It's okay. we'll wait." Lorelai assures him.

"I'm almost out and I can't make more."

"Set some aside."

"First come, first served."

"We'll take our chances." Rory tells him.

"Yea, we'll wait."

"Whatever." Luke sighs and walks off.

"You didn't need to do that." Max says to Lorelai.

"We're happy to." Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren just sit there watching Max look at the menu numerous times, flipping it over and opening it again and again.

"Yeah, yeah, that's still eggs and your basic breakfast stuff there." Lorelai tells him.

"Just order."

"We're fine."

"I want you guys to go at your normal pace. My rhythm might not necessarily be your rhythm." Luke walks up and hands Max another menu. "What's this?"

"The lunch menu. I stop serving breakfast in an hour."

"Luke." Lorelai says not approving of his behavior.

"I'll have poached eggs." Max tells him.

"Blueberry pancakes!"

"Did we make it?" Lauren asks quickly.

"I already set them aside."

"Love you." Lorelai jokes.

"Hey, Luke!" Lauren yells before Luke walks off. "My games."

"Oh, right!" Luke says remembering Lauren was going to get back with him about her soccer games. "Your games."

"Saturday. 10 a.m. Don't be late!" Lauren says sternly making Luke smile.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." He says before turning back around and walking to the kitchen.

Max looks over at Lauren who is smiling happily as she talks to her mom. "Soccer game?" Max asks her.

Lorelai and Lauren both look at him. "Yeah. Lauren has a soccer game Saturday." Lorelai hesitates for a moment figuring that whole thing with Luke must have been weird. "Do you want to go? I wasn't sure if you'd be free or not."

"Yeah. I'd love to go. I mean, I'm going to be around more so I might as well, right? I'd love to see Lauren play."

Lorelai looks at Lauren. "That would be nice if Max came, huh, Lauren?"

Lauren nods her head and gives Max a smile that looked so much like Lorelai's. "Yeah. Of course. I'm sure the whole town will be there anyway." She jokes.

Max smiles back at her. "Great." He says as she looks back at his newspapers while Rory and Lauren exchange looks at eachother. Lauren just figured Max would show up considering he was with her mom, but she'd never expected that he'd really wanted to go. It was weird. It was kinda weird for all of them.

Later that night the girls walking through town with Max and Dean. They had just got done with dinner and were entirely too full for their liking. As the couples were holding hands, Lauren is walking a little in front of them.

"Oh, I can barely walk." Max complains.

"Bad shoes?" Lorelai asks him.

"I ate a cow."

"You had a steak." Lorelai laughs.

"Plus the sides. Five people, seven baked potatoes."

"You boys exaggerate."

"Am I exaggerating?" Max asks Dean.

"Nope."

"Oh, ice cream!" Lauren yells as she runs towards the store.

"I'm right behind you." Lorelai yells.

"Me too!" Rory says.

The boys watch the girls run towards the ice cream shop. Max couldn't believe they were really wanting to eat more. "How could they possibly eat more?"

"I'm kind of surprised." Dean says as she watches them.

"I know. They're bottomless pits."

Dean chuckles. "I mean at you." He says as she sits down on the bench in front of the shop. Max gives Dean a confused look as he sits next to him. "You've known them long enough to not be so confused."

"I'm not confused. I'm just.. What do you mean?"

"Their eating habits are just the start of what you have to get used to." Dean tells him. "There's tons of stuff you should be aware of."

"Really?" Max says nervously.

"Oh, yeah. Like, don't ever use the last of the Parmesan cheese. And never get into a heavy discussion late at night cause that's when they're at their crankiest. Oh, and go with their bits."

"Their bits?"

"Yeah, like, if you're eating pizza with them, and Lorelai decides that the pepperoni is angry at the mushrooms because they have an attitude and then she holds up a pepperoni and it asks for you opinion don't just laugh. Answer the pepperoni."

"Answer the pepperoni." Max says with a smile.

"And don't let them near puppies, they'll want every one, especially Lauren, and then she'll try the puppy dog eyes, but don't give in."

"Well, that one I knew." Max says.

"Oh, and uh, here's a big one. If you ever think that they're doing something crazy, they're not. See, after awhile, their thinking becomes clear, but by the time it's clear they've already done two other crazy things that you can't figure out. So there's no catching up."

Max shakes his head as he tries to suck everything up that Dean had just told him. "You have much knowledge."

"You got that from Lauren." Dean tells him with a laugh.

"Oh, and hey does Lorelai know what kind of ice cream you like?"

"Yeah, chocolate chip. I already told her-"

Lorelai walks over to them and holds up an ice cream cone in front of Max. "Chocolate chip!"

"Thanks." Max says, grabbing the ice cream as Dean smiles at him.

They walk up to the house, everyone was tired and so full. Lorelai walks up the steps holding Lauren's hand because Lauren could barely make it up the steps without falling down.

"Oh, I'm so full." Lorelai groans at Max. "Why did you let me eat so much?" Max stands there bewildered as Lorelai leads Lauren into the house.

"Yeah. They'll blame you." Dean whispers to him.

Max laughs and walks to the door, but he stops when he sees that Dean and Rory weren't following him in. "It's past eleven, guys."

"Okay." Rory tells him.

Max decides not to argue and he walks back into the house.

Upstairs, Lorelai is laying down on the bed with her eyes closed when Max walks in. He bends down and kisses her gently on her shoulder.

"How're you doing?" He asks.

"I'm stable."

"You're a lovely shade of puce."

"Don't say puce. It sounds like another word I don't want to hear now."

Max gives her another kiss on her cheek as he laughs. "Sorry." He walks over to the window and takes a peek down below. "You know, they're still outside."

Lorelai sits up. "Who?"

"Rory and Dean. How long do you think they'll be out there?"

"I don't know."

"So there's no time limit?"

"Yes. When they both get tired of saying, 'No, you're prettier' to eachother, the night's over." Lorelai jokes.

"Lorelai, come on."

"What?"

"Well, I'm going to be living here soon."

"I know that."

"So, I just thought I should know what the procedure is when stuff like this comes up."

"Stuff like what?"

"Say you're not here, I come home, there's Rory and Dean in the dark all alone, after eleven. How do I handle stuff like that?" He asks her.

"Oh, Max, Rory is very low maintenance. Kinda like that robot kid in AI. Only way less mother-obsessed. My God, that kid was annoying." She says as she begins to take off her shoes. "I would have pushed him out of the car while it was moving."

"Well, what if I catch them one night making out on the couch?"

"Umm, turn off the light?"

"You're not being serious."

"Max, they're teenagers. They can kiss a little bit."

"Okay, what do I do if Lauren comes home drunk?"

Lorelai starts laughing. "My eleven year old kid is getting drunk? Come on!"

"It happens."

"Not to Lauren it wouldn't. Not even to Rory."

"I know, but theoretically, just in a make-believe world if they did, what would I do?"

Lorelai stands up. "Nothing." She tells him as she starts taking off her jewelry.

"Excuse me?" Max says surprised.

"You would do nothing. I would handle it."

"So basically, I have no role in Rory and Lauren's life."

"Max, Rory's done. She's brought up. She's Rory. You don't need a role. I would say differently if they were still five years old, but they are teenagers."

"Fine."

"I don't see the problem here."

"Clearly. So I should do nothing around here, ever."

"No, not nothing ever."

"What, then?"

"Making the garlic bread the other night was really good."

"So other than making the garlic bread and answering the phone what else is my role around here? It seems like the diner guy has more of a role in your children's lives than me."

"Luke?" Lorelai laughs. "No. Luke has just been around since Lauren was a baby. They know Luke and Luke knows them. Lauren has always had a relationship with Luke that I will probably never understand. But, Max, you're my fellow. You're my guy, my old man." She says as she walks closer to him.

"And what does that entail?"

"All things dirty."

Max sighs. "I'm not joking here. We're getting married."

"I know."

"Well, that means we'll take two separate lives and meld them together. How do you think that's gonna work?"

"I don't know."

"Well, have you given it any thought at all?"

"Not really." Max shakes his head not believing it. He walks to the other side of the room. "But I will. I'll start now!" Lorelai begs.

"How would you feel if I told you, 'I haven't thought about our future at all?'"

"Terrible. I would feel terrible. I'm sorry." Lorelai says, sincerely. "I mean it. I'm sorry. Please come here." Lorelai walks over and takes Max's hands into her own. "Remember, it's all those little annoying quirks that make me the fascinating woman you fell in love with." Lorelai forces a kiss onto Max and then pulls away as Max tries to get more.

"Really not fair." He tells her.

"I've got a lingerie drawer full of not fair, mister."

"Okay. We didn't need to get into this tonight. I definitely broke Dean's late-night cranky rule." He says as he starts to walk away.

Lorelai stands there confused. "Whose what?"

"Nothing." Max says as he continues out of the room.

At a bar a couple days later, Lorelai is having her bachlorette party and she, Rory, Sookie, Michel, and Miss. Patty are all standing in line to get in.

"They'll never let me in." Rory tells her mother.

"They will let you in."

"This is a felony, you know, corrupting a minor." Michel says. "We'll all end up in the pokey."

"He's right. We're all going to the pokey." Rory repeats.

"Don't say pokey. It's creepy."

"Just try to look older." Sookie tells her.

"How?"

"Look like you're thinking about retirement, 401(k)s."

"Yes, you should've brought your fake beard and mustache." Michel tells her ruining the mood.

"Who invited Mr. Snicklefritz?" Lorelai asks.

Sookie glares at Michel. "He heard us planning and wanted to come."

"I did not know the evening included baby-sitting." He tells them.

"She's going to get in." Lorelai argues.

"Where's Lauren tonight?" Miss. Patty asks them. "I'm sure she was upset she couldn't come."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Was she ever? You know Lauren and her parties, but I told her I'd make it up to her. She has a birthday coming around so I'll try to recite everything that happened tonight on her birthday, kinda." She says thinking about what could happen. Her cell phone starts ringing. "Sorry." She digs in her purse and answers it. "Hey."

"So my bachelor party's come to a screeching halt." Max tells her on the other line.

"What? Why?" Lorelai asks with concern.

"There's been an accident. I'm fine, but we're at the hospital."

"Oh, my God, what happened?"

"We were coming out of the restaurant, going to our next stop when my brother decides to leapfrog over a parking meter."

"Why did he do that?"

"Middle child."

"Poor Jan." Lorelai says, sadly.

"Anyway, he didn't make it."

"Oh, ouch. How drunk was he?"

"He claims he wasn't drunk that the parking meters in Hartford are taller than the parking meters in Duluth, so he miscalculated." Max explains just as his brother walks up to him.

"I've got a concussion. I'm good." His brother tells him. "Let's drink!"

"Hold on a second." He tells Lorelai. "You got a concussion?"

"A little one, though."

"What is he saying?" Lorelai asks.

"It's a mild concussion. We're taking him home."

"Take him home, then go hit a strip club." Lorelai orders him.

"Excuse me?"

"I am telling you, this is your last chance to look at a nother woman's breastage."

"Point well taken. I'll call you tomorrow."

Lorelai hangs up her phone. "Okay, new rule for the evening. No call to fiances or boyfriends or anything else like that. It's girls' night out! Plus Michel." Sookie tells them.

The walk up to the bouncer. "It's $12. And it's 18 and over." He tells them.

"Oh, she's 18." Sookie tells him.

"That's right, last week." Lorelai looks at her daughter with a surprised look. "So, it's a new 18, but it's 18." Rory says nervously.

"You got some ID?"

"Hey, sir, make way for Rory. That's her name and her only name." Lorelai says. "Rory. Single name, she's that important. Internationally known international supermodel and sometimes spokesperson for international products."

"She's very big in Germany." Sookie adds.

"Ja, with the Lederhosen and such." Lorelai says in her best German accent.

"$12." The guy tells her.

"Thank you."

Inside the club, there's men dressed as women celebrites. "This is a drag club." Michel tells them.

"It's called the Queen Victoria. What did you expect? Tea and crumpets?" Sookie asks.

Lorelai looks around and sees no empty seats. "Oh, guys, I guess we're going to have to stand."

"Wait, that one looks open." Sookie points out. When they walk up to the table they see Emily sitting at the end already drinking. "Oh, God."

Lorelai jumps back. "What in Lucifer's reach is my mother doing here?" She asks in a horrified voice.

Michel looks over and smiles at her. "Oh, I invited her."

"You what!?"

"Just a little surprise for you. I thought it would be a kick."

Lorelai rolls her eyes and takes Rory's hand and leads her to the table. "Excuse me, sir, you look just like my mother." Lorelai jokes.

"Hi, Grandma. Come here often?"

"I should say not." Emily laughs. "How did you get in?"

"Apparently, I'm an internationally known supermodel." Rory says as she sits next to her mom.

"Happy bachlorette party, Lorelai."

"Thank you, Mother."

"I'm surprised you didn't drag Lauren in, too."

"Well, she's too short. Next year." Lorelai jokes.

"And in the future, when you plan something and tell a person to show up at eight it is considered good manners for you to also show up at eight."

"Well, I didn't actually invite you, Mother. Michel did."

"Oh, well, I feel much better now."

"Let's drink!" Lorelai says as she tries to avoid an arguement.

"Looks like Emily's gotten a head start. What are you drinking?" Patty asks her.

"Manhattan. Good, too. Not too sweet. I ordered it from that nice chap dressed at Joan Crawford."

"So is there no dancing here? I was hoping there'd be dancing." Michel says sadly.

"You need to strut, Tony Manero?" Sookie says.

"Ah, it is a weekend, and on the weekends, I like to move. And the ladies, they like it, too."

"Especially when you move out of town." Lorelai jokes as she bangs on the table drunkenly.

"Has she eaten?" Emily asks Sookie.

"Yeah, about a quart of wine."

A drag walks up to them. "Oh, Hi, Mae West." Lorelai says.

"What can I get for you?"

"My dignity back." Michel tells him/her.

"A rum and coke, margarita, no salt, martini with olives, a Shirley Temple."

"Love her!" He/she says.

"I'll have her on the rocks, please." Rory adds in.

"And I'll have a giant Long Island Iced Tea."

"Coming up." He/she says as they walk away.

"So, Lorelai, how're you feeling?" Emily asks.

"Well, um, I'm tipsy, but just short of seeing pink elephants."

"No, I mean about you getting married. It's only a week away."

"I'm fine. I figured once I got the shoes to match the dress, the rest was just gravy."

"I must say, I admire your composure. The week before my wedding, I was a wreck. I just can't believe it was 34 years ago that I married Richard. I remember it so distinctly."

"Oh, this is going to be a romantic story." Sookie says happily.

"My stomach was not my friend. It was full of butterflies, I couldn't eat."

"What a bummer." Lorelai says as she starts popping peanuts into her mouth.

"I was actually weak in the knees, trembling all the time."

"Really?" Rory asks.

"When I wasn't actually with Richard, I was thinking about him constantly. Imagining what he was doing, was he thinking about me, making up little scenarios in my head about how we'd run into eachother accidently at the club and he would be playing golf, and I would walk by and he would be so distracted that he'd completely miss the ball. Silly." Emily says thinking back as everyone just smiles. They were all mesmerized by Emily's story.

"It's sweet." Sookie tells her.

"I was in love."

"It is wonderufl to be in love." Michel says.

Lorelai just bites down a few more peanuts nervously. "But the thing I remember most was that for the entire week before my wedding I'd wait till my mother went to sleep, and I'd sneak out of bed and I'd put on my wedding dress and my tiara and my gloves and I would stare at myself in the mirror and think how very safe I felt, how very right and wise and honored." Lorelai looks down thinking about how she never once thought about those things, and thinking about she and Max's fight about she never thought about their future together either. Emily stops and looks around the table. "This is a very good drink. I highly recommend it."

"Okay, I've got to make a call." Sookie says as she takes out her phone.

"Are you calling Jackson?" Patty asks her.

Sookie shakes her head. "No." She laughs as she stands up. "Hi, honey, it's me." She whispers as she walks away.

Emily looks over at Rory who is texting away on her phone. "And who are you writing to?"

"I just want ot see if Dean's around." Rory tells her.

"And thinking about you?" Rory just smiles and continues on while Lorelai digs in her purse for her phone, too.

"Oh, no, not you, too." Patty says.

"No, it's.. I'll be quick." Lorelai gets up from the table and starts dialing a number. "Hi."

"Hey, who's this?" Christopher asks on the other line.

"It's Trixie from the other night. You never called me."

"Lorelai?"

"You got me. What're you doing?"

"I'm just hanging out. What're you doing?"

"I'm at a bachelorette party." Lorelai tells him.

"Oh, cool. Whose?"

"Mine."

"Yours?" Chris says a little surprised. "Wow."

"I know." Lorelai laughs. "I'm still kind of wow about it myself."

"Who's the lucky guy?"

"Oh, you don't know him. His name's Max."

"Right, Max."

"You do know him?"

"Uh, Rory mentioned him. She didn't mention it was serious."

"Well, it wasn't. We hooked up, and then it was going good and then we broke up cause of us freaked out."

"You freaked out."

"I freaked out and then we got back together and it suddenly got very serious."

"So is he worthy?"

"Is anyone?"

"Bono, maybe? Bryan Ferry?" Chris jokes.

"Get serious."

"A young Tom Waits?"

"Now you're talking."

"So what's he like?"

"He's great."

"Could you be a little more vague?"

Lorelai laughs. "I don't know. He's Max. He's great."

"What's his Cd collection like?"

"Don't read into his Cd collection."

"Jazz? Classical? What's the story?"

"It's kind of a general collection."

"Uh, oh. Are we talking a dozen soundtrack, a few Beatles, a Bob Dylan plus a generic..."

"I said don't." Lorelai says, sternly.

"Alanis Morissette?"

"Hey, a lot of people knee-jerked about her first one. Cut them some slack."

"Dave Matthews?"

"A couple of his things are good." She says, defensive.

"So why are you calling me?"

"Because you know me really well."

"Yes, I do."

"And I just wanted to tell someone who knows me really well that I'm getting married."

"Well, as someone who know you really well, I say congratulation. If you found the guy, I think that's great."

"And you can picture me married, right?"

"Yeah. To the right guy, I can picture you married."

"Thanks."

"You should get back to your party."

"Right. He's a great guy, Max."

"I'm sure he is." Chris tells her. "I was just kidding around."

"I know. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye. Hey, can you put Trixie back on the phone?" He jokes.

"Bye." Lorelai hangs the phone up and sighs before she walks back to her party.

The next day at the Inn, Sookie and Lorelai are both sitting in the kitchen drinking cofffee.

"I think I know what an aneurysm feels like before you have it." Lorelai says talking about her hangover.

"Like a baseball the size of a cateloupe in your head." Sookie explains.

Lorelai chuckles. "Good one."

"What?"

"Baseball the size of a cataloupe."

"Yeah." Sookie says still not getting it.

"Because a baseball can only be one size, so it's a Yogi Berra type thing." Lorelai explains Sookie's own joke to her.

"Yogi Bear?"

"No. Forget it."

Michel walks in looking just a miserable as they look. "Your husband-to-be is out there looking annoyingly perky. Slap him or I will."

Lorelai smiles and walks out of the kitchen, looking for Max. Max walks up behind her. "Hey." He says a little too loudly for Lorelai's liking.

"Ahh.." She says as she turns around.

"What'd I do?" He asks.

"You spoke at a normal volune."

"Sorry."

Lorelai reaches over and kisses him on the cheek. "You did nothing wrong. I'm just mad you're not more hung over."

"I tried. I did."

"Liar."

"I drank copiously." He says as he starts following Lorelai to the front.

"People who drank copiously do not use words like 'copiously.'"

"Ask my brother."

"How is Mr. McMeeterhopper?"

"Ironically, he feels better than you."

"Ugh. It's so wrong."

"He's fine. So, I was going to drop my printer off at the house, but Rory or Lauren aren't there and guess who doesn't have his own set of keys yet?"

"Ah, I'm guessing it's you."

"It's still me."

Lorelai knew she was wrong, but she kept forgetting. "Max, I'm sorry. I forgot."

"Again."

"Again. You're mad."

"No. A little." He says, honestly.

"They're just keys."

"Try being without them and say that."

"Ugh, I've lost my keys before."

"I haven't. I never got them."

"You'll get them."

"I'm trying really hard not to read too much into this." Max tells her.

"Like what?"

"Like you don't want me having keys or coming in the house."

"Max, that's crazy."

"Well, I need keys."

"Well, I need an assistant."

"You need to think about someone other than yourself for a few minutes a day." He says raising his voice.

Lorelai sighs. "Ouch."

"That was too strong." He says, realizing what he did. "Maybe I am a little hung over."

"This is not a good day for keys or communication."

"I'll just bring the printer by later."

"Bring it tomorrow."

"I'll bring it tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll have the keys." Lorelai promises.

Max just smiles and walks away leaving Lorelai very disappointed in herself.

At the house, Rory, Lauren, and Lorelai are in the kitchen getting stuff together for the wedding and such.

"I can't believe school is almost starting." Rory says.

"I used to hate school starting." Lorelai tells them. "I once flipped the pages back on my mom's calendar and tried to convince her it was June and not September."

"I tried that once with you, but you never looked at the calendar and Rory kept ruining it for me." Lauren says as she rolls her eyes at Rory.

Rory shakes her head and walks to the table to sit down in the middle of her sister and her mom. "I got an interesting call today."

"Yeah? Who?" Lorelai asks.

"Dad."

"Cool. How is he? I talked to him last night."

"He mentioned that."

"Yeah, I was about to mentioned it myself."

"Why did you call him last night at your party?" Lauren asks.

"Yeah, I'd like to know, too." Rory says.

"Just to check in." Lorelai lies.

"At your bachelorette party?"

"Seemed as good a time as any."

"To catch up on calls?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Seems like a weird time." Lauren tells her.

"Did he call just to fink on me?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"No, he wanted to see what's up with you. He thought it was weird, too."

"Heaven forbit I ever use the phone again."

"Was it when you told us you were calling Max?"

"Somewhere around there."

"Why did you say you were calling Max?"

"Honey, some day when you're a little older you will be introduced to something that is extremely seductive but fickle. A fair-weather friend who seems benign but packs a wallop like a donkey kick and that is the Long Island Iced Tea. The Long Island Iced Tea makes you do things that you normally wouldn't do. Like lifting your skirt in public or calling someone you normally wouldn't call at really weird times." Lorelai explains.

"I'm not looking forward to meeting it." Lauren says.

"I'd definitely walk the other way."

"You know, Dad wants you to be happy." Rory tells her.

"I know."

"And we really want you to be happy."

"I know, sweetie."

"You are happy about all this, aren't you?"

Lorelai smiles. "Don't I seem happy?"

"I guess."

"Okay, then."

"Alright. I'll be in my room if you need me." Rory says as she walks away.

"Okay." Lorelai and Lauren hear a noise outside. They both get up and walk to the front door. Lauren is the first one to step out when she sees Luke taking something huge out of the bed of his truck.

"Whoa!" She says as she looks up at it.

"What is that?" Lorelai asks.

"It's a huppah." Luke tells them.

"A what?" Lauren asks.

"A huppah."

"You stand under it, you and Max. It's for your wedding."

"Did you make that?"

"Yeah, I had some time, so.. give me a hand."

Lorelai goes down the steps and starts pushing the huppah out on the other side. "Luke, it's beautiful."

"Well, I saw a picture in a book. The picture looks better."

Lauren stands in the middle of it and looks at the carvings. "It has birds and flowers."

"Yeah, there's also a goat." Luke says pointing it out for her.

"A goat?"

"Yeah, I don't know what it stands for, but it was in the picture. You like goats, right?"

Lorelai nods her head. "Yeah, goats are good."

"Okay, so there you go." He says as they both walk on either side of Lauren.

"What on Earth inspired you to do this?" Lorelai asks.

"You're getting married. You can't just stand in the hot sun in the middle of a law that hasn't been mowed in weeks. I guess he doesn't mow?"

"No, Max isn't a mower."

"Okay, you needed something. Here it is. I'll move it if you want."

"We got one of the Petes from the nursery to do that."

"Big Pete?"

"Little Pete."

"He's the better of the Petes."

"We've always thought so."

"I'm going get Rory." Lauren says as she runs back into the house.

"Hey, aren't huppahs Jewish?" Lorelai asks she and Luke sit on the steps.

"Maybe."

"Is it okay that Max and I aren't Jewish?"

"It's okay by me."

"No, I mean to stand under it. God won't smite us or anything?"

"I highly doubt it. Plus God would probably have to get a license from Taylor to do any smiting in Stars Hollow on a weeked, so I'd say you're safe." Lorelai nods her head understanding. "You know, I wasn't putting down Max. He seems like a really good guy."

"He is, and you were putting him down."

"Well, I didn't mean to."

Lorelai thinks about everything that was said and was starting to think they were all true herself. "Did you mean all those things you said about marriage?"

"What things?"

"You really want me to repeat them to you?"

"No. I don't know. I guess for some people marriage, you know, isn't the worst thing in the world. I mean, it's probably better than being hobbled or something like that."

"And people can evolve together, don't you think?"

"Maybe." Luke says as he looks at her. He himself could also see the fear in Lorelai's eyes just as Rory and Lauren did earlier. "I guess if you can find that one person who's willing to put up with all your crap and doesn't want to change you or dress you or make you eat French food, then marriage can be all right. But that's only if you find that person."

"Yeah, if you find that person." Lorelai stands up and walks back in the middle of the huppah. "No one has ever made me a huppah before."

Luke stands up and follows her. "Well, you only get married once. Theoretically."

"Yeah, you only get married once." She repeats as they both stand there, in the middle of the huppah, together.

Later that day, Rory and Lauren are in the living room reading when Lorelai rushes down.

"Pack." She tells them both with a huge smile on her face.

Rory and Lauren sit up and look eachother with confused looks. "What?" Rory asks.

"Pack." Lorelai repeats.

"What's going on?" Lauren asks.

"We are hitting the road." Lorelai tells them. "Lauren, I already have most of your stuff packed."

"What?"

"Pack everything." Lorelai tells them again.

"What's going on?" Rory asks. "Why are we hitting the road?"

"We haven't taken a road trip in forever, and the weather is perfect." Lorelai says as she grabs Rory's hand and drags her into her room. Lorelai starts grabbing Rory's things out of her drawers and puts them on the bed.

Lauren follows them. "We can't take a road trip, Mom. You're getting married this weekend."

"Rory, do you have my blue swimsuit?"

"What about Max?" Rory asks.

"We need sunscreen."

"Mom, stop." Rory yells.

Lorelai turns around to face her daughters who were looking at her like she had completely gone insane. "What?"

"Are you and Max getting married?"

Lorelai thinks about it for a second. "No." She tells them.

"Why?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai looks down as her tears start to form in her eyes. "Because I didn't want to try on my wedding dress every night." She says as she looks at her daughters.

Rory and Lauren look at eachother before Rory pats Lauren on her shoulder to get her moving. "Where are we going?" Rory asks as she turns back to her stuff on her bed and starts packing the bag.

"We don't have to." Lorelai tells her.

"Hot, cold, rocky, sandy, mountain, valley?" Lauren yells as she runs upstairs.

Lorelai looks at Rory who is waiting for an answer, too. "I didn't really have a particular spot."

"Packing for all contingencies." Rory yells.

"Got it!" Lauren yells back.

"Light layers."

Lorelai walks over a little surprised at her daughters. She loved that didn't ask any more questions than that. They just got moving because they knew that's why she needed. "Yeah, light layers."

"Do you need a book?"

"That Colette biography."

"I lost your place in it."

"That's okay, I have to start over anyway."

"You got it." Rory says as she grabs the book and packs it.

"And hurry."

"Are we going tonight?" Lauren asks from upstairs.

"First thing in the morning." Lorelai tells them.

"Sevenish?" Rory asks.

"Fiveish."

"Wow."

"It'll be more like sixish."

"Let's shoot for fiveish." Lauren tells them.

"You are both crazy, and I love it!" Lorelai says excitingly as she runs out of Rory's room and up to hers to pack, too.

It was morning and the girls packed all their stuff and themselves into the jeep. They were driving out of Stars Hollow where it didn't look like a soul lived.

"Wow, totally deserted." Lauren says from the backseat.

"We're the last ones left." Lorelai tells them.

"So are we almost there?" Rory asks.

"We're almost there and nowhere near it. All that matters is we're going."

"We're practically gone already."

"Look out, world." Lorelai gleams.

They end up stopping at the new light Taylor put up in town. It was red and there was no one around. They look at eachother and wait until the light that seemed to be forever red change to green.


	25. Linger

Out on the open road, the Gilmore girls are travelling to where exactly? Well, wherever the road takes them of course, but they were now growing restless, well, Lorelai was.

"Ah, no music." Lorelai groans in frustration. "I can't believe we forgot to bring tunes."

Rory is looking down at a map while Lauren is leaning against Lorelai's seat. She was getting real tired of just seeing dirt. "Do you realize that neither of us has the vaguest idea where we are going?" Rory tells their mom.

"What is a road trip without tunes?" Lorelai asks.

"The sun is directly behind us."

"So?" Lauren says a little annoyed at how worried her sister kept being.

"I've never been in this car for a long period of time without playing AC/DC." Lorelai tells them.

"I have no idea where it's going." Rory says as she tries to follow the sun.

"I need Highway to Hell!"

"It's right out the windshield, Rory. It's not going anywhere." Lauren tells her sister.

"There's nothing on the radio except for Top 40 and Christian rock. 'Christian rock.' There's an oxymoron. I need my tunes!"

"Stop complaning about the tunes!" Rory tells her.

"Stop complaining about our location." Lauren argues back.

"My complaint is legitmate. Yours is infantile."

"Whatever." Lorelai says as she turns on the radio again when nonstop country is playing. "Oh! Yes, country music. Must be my lucky day."

Rory reaches over and turns the radio back off. "We have to figure out where we're going."

"No, we don't." Lauren tells her. "We just need to figure out where we are going to sleep because we cannot sleep in the car."

"The point of this is to be spontaneous." Lorelai tells them. "To drive and land someplace we've never been and never expected to be."

"Sounds risky."

"Sounds exciting." Lauren says with excitement.

"Serendipity has never been kind to us." Rory says.

"Yes, but I talked to Serendipity on the phone last night. She feels bad about how she's treated us in the past." Lorelai jokes. "We had a nice chat. It's all gonna be different now."

Rory looks out the window and sees a sign. She starts freaking out. "What did that sign say? It said 'don't' or 'death' on it."

Lorelai and Lauren both give Rory a weird look. "Relax." Lorelai tells her.

"We're doomed." Rory exaggerates.

"Wrong. We're being guided by fate."

"I think we're lost." Lauren tells her.

"We can't be lost." Lorelai chuckles. "We don't know where we're going."

"You're going to stop before we drive into the Atlantic Ocean?" Rory asks her.

"I'll try."

"At least we'll know where we are." Lauren says.

Lorelai smiles and looks at Rory and Lauren with a mischievious look. "Unless it's the Pacific." Lorelai could only get a laugh at of Lauren where as Rory just rolled her eyes. Lorelai turns the radio back on.

_'Coming up, a three-song superset from Hootie & the Blowfish.'_

"WHAAAT!?" They all three yells out with disgust.

On the side of the road, the girls stopped to pick up some nuts that some people are selling.

"I love road food." Lauren says excitingly.

"I love it, too." Rory agrees.

"Well, yeah. What could be better thant the food at Haden's Nut House?" Lorelai asks them.

"Unless you don't like nuts." Rory tells her.

"As if those people exist. You know if I was in a rock band, touring and stuff, I'd make the driver stop at every Haden's Nut House we passed."

"Wow, your Behind the Music is gonna be really wild." Rory jokes as they get back into the car.

Back on the road, Rory is busy looking at the map she still had as Lauren ate on some nuts while Lorelai drove.

"Okay, so if we continue on the way we've been going.." Rory watches Lorelai take out her cell phone. "Who are you calling?"

"Sookie."

"Now?"

"I didn't get to call her before we left, so she doesn't know about the.."

"Oh." Lauren and Rory both say.

"Yeah."

"You okay?" Rory asks her.

"I guess. It's just..." Sookie answers the phone. "Hi, Sookie, it's me."

"Hi, sweetie. You on your way in?" Sookie asks from the other line.

"Um, no. Not yet. Actually, I'm gonna be out of town for a couple of days."

"What?" Sooke laughs.

"Yeah, the girls and I decided to hit the road."

"But how can you do that? You're supposed to be getting..." Sooke stops when she realizes that Lorelai is not getting married.

"The engagement is off, Sookie."

"What happened?"

"Well, uh.." Lorelai looks at Rory and Lauren. "It's a long story. I don't really want to go into all the whats and whys and gory details right now, but you should know we all still love Max. To figure out what happened you'd have to dig up Freud and have him work on me full-time." She jokes.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry."

"Thanks. So, I hope you didn't get too far on that cake."

"No, no, that's one thing you can be thankful about." Sookie says as she walks over to the fully made cake that is on her table. "You caught me in plenty of time." She lies.

"Good. I know the kind of work you were gonna put into it. I just would've killed myself if you'd gone all that craziness for nothing."

"Yeah, well. I've been so busy lately, I actually forgot about it."

"Listen, do me a favor. Mention canceling the wedding to Miss. Patty, will you? That way, by the time we get back-"

"The whole town will know within the hour." Sookie promises. She start cutting slices from the cake and handing it out to her workers.

"Then hopefully, they will all have chatted it out of their systems before we get home." Lorelai hopes.

"Consider it done. So where are you going?"

"We have no idea."

"My favorite kind of trip."

"Well, thanks. I'll talk to you soon. Call the cell if you need anything."

"Okey-dokey. Bye-bye."

"Bye." Lorelai hangs up.

Lauren looks over and sees Rory still looking at the map. "Mom, Rory is looking at the map again."

Lorelai glares at her oldest. "I'm sorry, but I'm openly defying your no-map policy." Rory tells her mother.

"Rory!"

"Mom, it's gonna be dark in a couple of hours. We don't want to sleep in the car."

Lorelai gasp. "My sense of adventure did not translate to my oldest offspring."

"Okay, so to the best of my map reading abilities we're headed towards Portsmouth, New Hampshire."

"Portmouth?" Lorelai says as little surprised.

"What?" Rory asks.

"I actually have a friend in Portsmouth, Donald something-or-other-stein."

"Close, personal friend?" Lauren asks her sarcastically.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Donald moved there a couple of years ago and opened a B & B."

"Ehhh!" Rory and Lauren both groan.

"No, it's actually supposed to be pretty cool."

"A cool B&B?" Rory questions.

"Yes."

"That's like saying 'an understated Nicola Cage movie."

"Listen, I myself am not usually a fan of B&B's, but Donal's place is different. Every room is decorated in a different weird style from a different country." Lorelai explains.

"That is kinda cool." Lauren tells them.

"Okay, let's call." Rory says.

"Let's go." Lorelai smiles.

"Let's call." Rory argues.

"Let's go." Lauren agrees.

"Sense of adventure." Lorelai reminds Rory.

Rory sighs. "Let's go."

At the B&B, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk in with their stuff in their hands.

"Hello there!" A woman says from behind the counter.

"Hi." Lorelai answers back.

"Would you like to ring the bell?"

Lorelai looks confused. "What?"

The woman points to the bell that is on the table. "Would you like to ring th bell, you or your daughters?"

"I don't understand."

"I'm not usually sitting here when guests arrive so people ring the bell, and they love to ring the bell." Lorelai and Rory nudge Lauren to do it incase something was to happen after. Lauren rolls her eyes and reaches up to ring the bell. "Well done." The woman gleams as she stands.

"Um, do you have a room available?" Lorelai asks.

"We most certainly do, you lucky, pretty things."

Lorelai smiles at Rory. "See? They have a room."

"Good." Rory tells her.

"Does Donald happen to be here?"

"Oh, no, no, I bought this place from Donald last year. It's my place now. I'm LaDawn."

"Hi." Lorelai looks around the room. "Yes, I noticed it was a little different. Actually, very different."

"Did you see it before?"

"Pictures."

"It was wacky." LaDawn laughs. "Just like Donald. It was fun, you know, but just a little too woo woo! It was just too eclectic. I don't care for eclectic. I don't think B&Bers do, either."

"No, you wouldn't want anything out of the normal." Lorelai tells her.

"Okay, room number 3 is all yours. Welcome to The Cheshire Cat." She grabs the key and hands it to Lorelai.

"Nice name. I'm gonna consult with my daughters for just one second." Lorelai tells her as she pulls the girls aside. "We must leave this place immediately."

"And sleep where?" Rory asks her.

"A hollow tree, a riverbank, I don't care."

"Mom, I'm tired and I'm starving." Lauren says as she leans dramatically against her.

"But, look, she's named the place after an Alice in Wonderland character. This is my worst nightmare."

"And dying of exposure in a jeep is mine." Rory says.

"Okay, okay." Lorelai says displeased. They walk back over to the desk. "Point the way to room 3."

"I'll take you there myself." LaDawn says with a smile as she walks on the other side of the desk and starts grabbing the girls' things. "Let me just grab your bags."

"Oh, we got that." Lorelai tells her, but LaDawn just keeps taking bags away from them.

"Oh, no. You are my guest. I won't hear of it." LaDawn looks at Rory. "You want to ring the bell? You haven't rung the bell."

Lauren and Lorelai both turn to Rory. "Yeah, Rory. How about you ring the bell." Lauren grins.

Rory looks down at the bell. "Maybe some other time."

"Follow me." LaDawn says as she walks towards the stairs where there is a big cat laying. "Watch out for Sammy."

"That's either Sammy or the cat that ate Sammy." Rory tells them.

"He's so cute." Lauren goes to pet the cat but Lorelai quickly grabs Lauren's arm back.

"You don't know where that cat's been." They follow LaDawn up to the room and before they could enter it Lorelai jumps back when she sees all the flowers everywhere. On the bed, on the wall, on the furniture, it was everywhere. "Ahh!"

"What is it, dear?" LaDawn asks.

"There's just a lot-"

"A lot of flowers." Rory finishes for her.

"Yeah, like a ton of flowers."

"Plethora of flowers."

"A load of flowers."

"My eyes hurt." Lauren says as she rubs them.

"Thank you. I get so many compliments on this room." LaDawn tells them. Lorelai walks further into the room while Rory and Lauren just linger in the doorway. "What business are you in, dear?"

"Me?" Lorelai asks as she looks at Rory and Lauren with a smile. "Publishing." She lies.

"How interesting! Now, if you need anything, you just ring down or come down cause I love company. Oh, and I don't want to forget to give you our activity list." LaDawn hands Lorelai the papers. "Never a dull moment around here."

"Thanks, LaDawn."

"Yes, thank you." Rory closes the door behind LaDawn.

"I think we just found the first room in world history that would have made Liberace say, 'Whoa, step back. No one's that gay.'"

Lauren walks over to the desk that has the guestbook on it. "Look. This is a book that pasts guests have written in. 'This room made my soul soar.'" She reads.

"Alright, enough grossness. Let's go eat." Lorelai tells them.

"Food. I'm starving." Lauren throws down the book and follows her mom and sister out of the room. When they go to the stairs, before they make their way down, Lorelai stops them when she sees a group of people. "What?" Lauren and Rory peek their heads out to see what their mom is looking at.

"Boston dentists." Lorelai tells them. "Cocktail hour at The Cheshire Cate."

"So?" Rory whines.

"So our exit is blocked."

"Let's just rush past them."

"Too risky."

"They're not assassins."

"Rory, if they catch us, they'll clamp on us like leeches. And you know what that means: chitchat. Stomach-churning, mind-numbing, soul-deadening chitchat."

"Mom, I'm starving." Lauren tells her.

"Yeah, we're going down there. You can stay here." Rory says as she takes Lauren's hand.

"You're both that hungry, huh?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes." Lauren says sadly.

"Hungry enough to answer a hundred probing, but only slighty different from eachother questions about Chilton, life in a small town, soccer, and your hunky boyfriend?" Rory and Lauren glance at one another before turning back around and going back to the room.

In the room, the girls are changed in their pajamas. Lorelai and Lauren are sitting on the bed as Lorelai digs in her purse.

"Oh, I struck gold." Lorelai laughs as she stares at what's in her hand.

"What is it?" Lauren asks.

"Certs." Lorelai reads.

"Let me catch my breath." Rory says from the bathroom.

"I cannot, for the life of me, remember the last time I bought Certs."

"Which would make those really really old." Lauren tells her as Rory comes out the bathroom and sits on the side of her.

"Fuzzy." Lorelai says as she continues to study the mint. She repacks her purse and throws it down on the floor before they all settle into bed. Music downstairs starts to play and they start laughing.

"Perfect." Rory says.

"A nice capper to the day."

"So, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. We could go to sleep."

Lauren looks at the clock on the side of Rory. "It's 8:23."

"Good Lord!"

"I'm not really sleepy." Rory tells her.

"Me, neither."

"We could sing." Lauren suggests.

"Sing?" Rory asks. "Or we could talk."

"Oh, okay." Lorelai sits up and she and Rory face eachother leaving Lauren in the middle. "What about?"

"I don't know." Rory looks over at Lauren who gives her a small nod. "Max?" She asks as she and her sister look towards their mom.

Lorelai's smile drops at the name. "Uh, no." She tells them as she slips under the covers to avoid that topic.

"Why?" Lauren asks her.

"Because I don't want to."

"But you said we could talk." Rory reminds her.

"Yeah, but I thought you meant about make-up or something."

"When have we ever done that?"

"Never, that's why I thought now would be a good time." Lorelai lays down with her back turned from her daughters.

"I just need to know-"

"Goodnight, girls!" Lorelai interrupts as she turns the light off.

"Mom!" Lauren whines.

Rory reaches over and turns it back on. "Are you sure that you're not just running scared?"

"Rory."

"Because I think you really love him..."

"Enough!" Lorelai yells as she turns the light off once again.

"..but you're just freaked out and don't know what do."

This time Lauren reaches over and turns the light back on. "You did this before, Mom, with Max, actually."

Lorelai groans and sits up quickly facing her girls. "I don't want to talk about this. I thought by saying 'enough,' and turning off the light you both would get the message. Apparently not."

"Mom, we're just asking you a question."

"I'm a grown woman."

"Says the woman with the Hello Kitty waffle iron." Rory says.

"I have earned the right not to be quizzed on my social life by my 16 and 11 year-old daughters."

"I thought we were your best friends." Rory argues.

"When we are at at U2 concert or shopping, you are, but now, you're my 16 and 11 year-old daughters and I am telling you both I do not want to have this conversation."

"Well, we do."

"Well, tough."

"Everything was planned. Everyone was excited, including you." Rory yells. "And then, all of a sudden, you're out." Lauren decides not to get back into the argument but instead just scoot under the covers as she watches her sister and mom argue. She had no reason to anymore because she actually was happy that her mom wasn't getting married to Max.

"I changed my mind."

"This is our life that you just tossed off."

"I didn't just toss of anything."

"We had plans. We made space in the closet."

"Oh, Rory, just because we moved a couple of boxes isn't reason enough for me to get married."

"Max was counting on this. I was counting on this. We all were counting on this."

"Rory, stop it! We;re not gonna have this fight in a flowery bedroom with dentists singing in the background!" Lorelai yells as she lays back down.

But Rory was not giving up. "I think you love him!"

"Rory, go to sleep!"

"I think you love him, and you got scared and you ran, but you're really going to regret it, and soon."

"Rory!" Lorelai says even more agitated than before.

"Fine!" Rory reaches over and turns off the light before settling down on her side of the bed.

All three of them are laying on their backs, wide awake, as they stare up at the ceiling. Lorelai takes a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sure. I wish I did love him." Lorelai says, sadly.

Rory and Lauren both look over at their mom. They, too, were sad for their mom, but Rory wanted the marriage to happen, and Lauren did. "I wish I wanted you to marry him just as much as Rory did." Lauren says quietly to Lorelai. Lorelai looks over at her youngest and takes her hand. Lauren just wanted to be honest with her mom. She didn't want to say anything before because she didn't want to ruin anything or hurt her mom or Max's feelings, but now was a better time than any.

The next morning, Lorelai is sitting on the edge of the bed as she looks around the room at the flowers while Lauren sits next to her reading the guestbook. Rory walks out and notices her moms face.

"What's the face?" She asks her.

"They're taller." Lorelai says about the flowers.

"Not this again." Rory says as she grabs her jacket.

"There's more of them."

"Mom, the flowers on the wallpaper are not growing or reproducing." Rory looks over at Lauren who is smiling. "You didn't write in that thing, did you?"

Lauren looks up as she and Lorelai start smirking. "Mom just wrote some stuff." Lauren tells her. Rory knew this couldn't be good if her mom and her sister were working together on something. "You want me to read it to you?"

Rory rolls her eyes. "Go ahead."

"'Satanic forces are at work here.'" Lauren reads proudly.

"Mom." Rory scolds.

"What?" Lorelai laughs. "Lauren came up with most of it."

"You cannot write that in here." Rory tells them. She walks over and grabs the book and pen from Lauren and sits down on the other side of Lorelai. "Here. Sat and forever am at work here." Rory writes.

Lauren snorts. "That doesn't even make sense."

"It doesn't invoke the Dark Prince, so it's preferable." Rory tells them.

"Whatever."

They all stand up to leave but Rory grabs Lorelai's arm to make her turn back around. "Hey."

"What?" Lorelai smiles.

"Last night."

"We're good. But you know what isn't good?"

"What?"

"I ate the fuzzy Certs."

"Gross!"

"They tasted like keys."

"Can we please go eat?" Lauren begs.

"Do you think the coast is clear downstairs?" Rory asks Lorelai.

"Let's check the schedule." She gets up and looks at the paper that is on the dresser. "Early morning nature walk: 7:30, regional history talk: 8:15..blah blah blah ahh we're in luck. Breakfast just ended. And the arts and crafts workshop begins in 13 minutes."

"We've got a window!" Lauren says happily. She jumps off the bed and hurries to the door.

"Must be when they shower. Let's go!" Lorelai hurries. Lauren opens the door and they all run out.

Downstairs, they all three come down quietly and try to head straight for the door but LaDawn sees them.

"Hello, strangers." They all three freeze with their back turned. There was no escape. "We've all been so worried about you two."

They turn around and see everyone looking out the window. "What are you people doing?" Lorelai asks.

"We're watching hummingbirds." LaDawn tells her.

"They're still out there if you want to scoot in." One of the ladies at the window tells them.

Lorelai and her girls look at eachother with annoyed looks. "That was not on the freakin list." Lorelai says with a smile.

LaDawn walks over to them. "We don't put things like this on the freakin list because the delights of nature aren't on any time schedule."

"So push in some chair. We're gonna make some fresh scones." The ladies says to them. Lorelai nudges the girls and they all look at the food like they hadn't eaten in months.

"They're for tea this afternoon. I just put out the first batch. Have a taste."

"A taste would not be bad." Lauren says looking up at Lorelai for approval.

"Maybe just a quick taste." Lorelai says and they rush over and grab them off the table while they sit down.

"So, LaDawn says you're in publishing." The lady says to Lorelai.

"Huh?"

"Publishing." She repeats. "You're in publishing."

"Oh, yes, I am." Lorelai laughs as she remembers the lie she told LaDawn last night about her career.

"Books? You should find a field with less paperwork." The lady's husband tells her.

Lorelai laughs. "Good one." She says with a stuffed mouth while she goes to grab another but Rory grabs her hand quickly before she does.

"Hey!" Rory yells.

"You have two. I still have one." Lorelai argues.

Lauren just sits in the middle watching her mom and sister as she enjoys the three she has in her hands. "So, publishing?" The lady asks Lorelai again.

"Mhm. Yes, I do publish. Kind of a dry line of work, not much to talk about."

"So what kind of books do you publish?"

"Um.." Lorelai starts stuffing more food into her mouth. "Mainly youth-oriented ones." She lies.

"Children's books?"

"Sure."

"Oh. Any that we've heard of?"

"Probably not."

"No, wait, please give me some titles. I'll write them down." She says as she takes out a paper and pen. "And then when I get home, I'll look them up. So, what are the titles?"

Rory and Lauren both look over at Lorelai curious to what their mother was going to make up. "Um, there's Goodnight Spoon and The Horse That Wanted To Bark."

"Oh, I think I've read that to my grandson. The horse learns to bark and then he...what happens at the end?"

"He dies."

The crowd gets quiet and looks away awkwardly. "But he learned to bark, though, so it's actually an upper." Rory tells them to lighten up the mood.

"So, where are you offices?"

"They're in the, um..." Lorelai looks at her daughters for help. "the building with the... over on the road." They all point behind themselves. "Would you guys excuse me for just a second?" Lorelai asks while she stands. "I have to make an important call concerning publishing."

"Well, that's just fine. That'll give us a chance to get to know you lovely daughters." LaDawn tells her.

"They're both so quiet, but we'll change that." The all laugh.

Lauren and Rory look at them with scared faces. They did not want to be left alone with this crowd. Lauren quickly grabs onto Lorelai's purse as she stares horrified at the crew in front of her while Rory grabs her mom's arm. "Mom, you promised not to do any business while on vacation." Rory tells her.

"Honey, publishing waits for no man. Got to keep the presses pressing." Lorelai jokes as she starts walking away.

"So, tell us about your school." The lady asks them. Lauren bangs her head onto Rory's shoulder as Rory just looks at them while she still stuffs food in her mouth.

At the stairs, Lorelai sits down with the phone by her ear waiting for Sookie to answer.

"Hey, Sookie, it's me."

"Hey, sweetie, how's the trip going?" Sookie asks her. She is sitting in Luke's diner watching Luke argue with Kirk about something.

"It's fine. Where are you?"

"Luke's got a nice little show going on here."

"You've been sitting there for two hours." Luke tells Kirk. Sookie puts the phone up for Lorelai to get a better listen.

"I want one more coffee." Kirk begs.

"You've had eight refills."

"You know, in France, when you sit and order, you can have the table as long as you want it."

"I bet you know what I'm gonna say next." Luke asks annoyed.

"That we're not in France?" Kirk guesses.

"Give or take a profanity."

"Fine, I'll go. Can I have my check?" Luke slaps Kirk's check right on the table in front of him.

Lorelai shakes her head with a small laugh. Oh, how she was already missing home. "So, how's the spreading of the news going?"

"Well, it worked just like you wanted, with one notable exception."

"Oh, what?"

"He's just such a loner lately, the news hasn't gotten to him." Sookie says sadly as she looks back at Luke.

"Can you just tell him now, so I can cross this off my list?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, uh.." Sookie stutters while Luke walks behind the counter. "He's coming over. Hang on. Hey, Luke. Have you heard the latest news? Kind of sad, Lorelai and Max."

"What about them?" He asks with a roll eye as he slams the register shut.

"The wedding's off."

"What? What happened?"

"I don't really know. It was kind of sudden. This is actually her now." Sookie tells him as she points to the phone.

Luke's face falls in disappointment, but he was trying not to show his excitement, too. "Tell her I'm sorry. That's tough."

"He says he's sorry." Sookie tells Lorelai.

"Thanks. Talk to you later. Bye." Lorelai hangs up.

Back at the diner, Luke walks over to Kirk and pours him some more coffee. "What's this?" Kirk asks him.

"Refill number nine."

"I thought you said I had to go."

"Welcome to France." Luke says happily. "Coffee's on the house, though."

"Thanks."

"In fact, everyone's coffee is on the house today." Luke goes around pouring everyone coffee. Sookie just sip on hers with a smile. Luke couldn't even hide his excitement, but good thing she was the only one who noticed.

At the B&B, Rory and Lauren are still sitting in front of LaDawn and her friends. They sat there trying not to look bored and angry at their mom for leaving them alone.

"We have a grandson about your age." The lady tells Rory.

"He's going to Brown." Her husband adds. "But we don't even know if she's on the market." He says as the all look up to confirm.

"Oh, I'm not on the market." Rory tells them. "I'm definitely off the market."

"She has a boyfriend." LaDawn sings.

"Isn't that cute?" The lady laughs. "So, Lauren, do you play any sports?"

Lauren notices her mom walking towards them and smiles. "Mom, we saved you a scone. You love us, right?"

Lorelai walks up and grabs both her daughters hands. "Sorry, everybody. I'm gonna have to drag them away now."

"Oh, shucks. It was so nice talking to you." Rory says quickly before dashing off to the front door.

"Bye!" Lauren says with a quick wave as she drags Lorelai away.

"So cute." The lady says.

"I now have abandonment issues." Rory tells her mother.

"I had to make a call."

"You left us hanging." Lauren scolds.

"I owe you one."

"Bigtime."

"Alright, you're both out now. What do you want to do?"

"Kill you." Rory answers.

"And?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I'm not sure. Why don't you pull out the map you're hiding." Lorelai smiles.

"I'm not hiding a map." Lorelai and Lauren both smirk at Rory knowing good and well she was hiding a map. "Well, I didn't want to drive around aimlessly again today." Rory says as she takes the map out from her jacket.

"I got it. I got it." Rory opens the map and they all three look curiously at it. "What's near?"

"Umm, Concord."

"What is that? Like, look at grapes?" Lorelai asks.

"Manchester."

"Been there, done that."

"You've never been there." Lauren tells her.

"I feel like I have."

"Boston, Newton, Needham."

"Oh, go back!" Lorelai says with excitement.

"What? Boston? Newton?"

Lorelai smiles mischieviously at her girls while they look at her with confusion. "I know where we're going." She says as she walks to the door.

"Where are we going?" Lauren asks.

"You both will love it."

"If you tell us where we're going, I can chart a course, and I can..." Rory says as she tries to fold her map, but Lorelai could wait, so she walks over and grabs the map and balling it up. "You're folding it wrong."

"Is it smaller?"

"Yes."

"Then it's not wrong. Let's go." Lorelai hands the map back to her and takes Lauren's hand, bringing her to the front door as Rory just stands there staring at her ruined map. Lorelai turns back around. "I will get you a new one when we get there." She promises.

"Where are we going?" Rory asks again as she follows her mom and sister out the door.

The three of them are standing in front of Harvard college, all three just staring at it with gleam in their eyes.

"Wow." Lauren says as they all look up at the entrance of Harvard.

"I don't believe it." Rory says with a big smile.

"Believe it, becuse there it is." Lorelai tells them.

"Harvard University."

"It's really real." Lauren tells them. "It looks just like the pictures."

"It's beautiful." Lorelai says.

"What are we doing here?" Rory asks her mother.

Lorelai couldn't contain the smile she was holding. "We are beholding your future."

"You have a big future, Rory." Lauren tells her sister.

"I can't believe it. I'm actually standing outside of Harvard." Rory says as she looks back at the school. She was still trying to believe it, but it was hard to.

"Come on." Lorelai says as she grabs both her daughters' arms.

"Wait, come where?"

"Inside."

"We can go inside?" Lauren asks.

"We can't go inside." Rory tells her.

"Why? Is there a force field around here?" Lorelai jokes.

"This is Harvard." Rory reminds her.

"I know."

"This is Harvard."

"I knooww."

"You can't just go inside. You need a guide."

"I'll be your guide."

"What do you know about Harvard?"

"I know this: Look, there's Harvard." Lorelai points to the school.

"Mom."

"Hey, don't you want to see it? The place where you'll be living and studying and developing very naive but pretentious world views that will come crashing down the minute you graduate?"

"Yeah, I do." Rory says nervously.

"So, let's go!" Lauren yells, excitingly, as she grabs her mom's and sister's hand and drags them in.

The girls are walking through one of the many courtyards as Lorelai is looking at a pamplet she picked up.

"Whoa! Harvard is over three hundred years-old." Lorelai tells them.

"Founded in 1636." Rory says.

"That means that almost everyone who ever went to Harvard is dead now. Are you sure you still wanna go here?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"They developed the pacemaker here." Lorelai reads. "Also discovered how electromagnetism and radioactivity are two manifestations of the same force and postulated existence of a charmed quark. I was wonder who did that." She says sarcastically.

"The smarties at Harvard." Lauren tells her.

"Holy smokes. They get an average of 18,000 applicants every year, and only 2,000 get in. Those are not good odds."

Rory looks at her mom with an unhappy look. "Mom."

"No, no, you're different. 'Past graduates: Henry James.' Isn't that a beer?"

"And a novelist. Go on."

"'John Adams.' That's a beer."

"Our second President." Lauren tells her.

"He's very in right now." Rory adds.

"'W.E.B. DuBois, Yo-Yo Ma.' Oh, cool! Fred Gwynne."

"Who?" Lauren asks, confused.

"Herman Munster. Now I'm impressed."

Rory sees a coffee cart. "You want something?"

"A nice, cool Henry James." Lorelai jokes.

"Or some coffee?"

"Or some coffee."

"I'm ordering coffee at Harvard." Rory says, happily, as she and Lauren run over to the cart.

Lorelai turns around and starts looking at a bulletin board. "Hey, there's people looking for roommates, tons of them." She tells Rory. "'Wanted: girl to shar a two-bedroom apartment on Trowbridge. Quiet street, quiet building, so quiet roomie a must.' Join a convent and cloister yourself, you loser."

"Mom, it's gonna be two years before I go to Harvard." Rory reminds her while she walks back over to her. "Those people will have roommates or have graduated by then." She says as Lorelai starts ripping the addresses off some papers.

"Who says these are for you?"

"Who are they for?"

"Me. If you're here, I'd need a room nearby so I can come visit."

"What about me?" Lauren asks.

"I will just leave you the house when I go. Let you get some parties in that Rory never thrown." Lorelai tells her youngest.

"Cool." Lauren smiles while she turns back around.

"How often are you going to visit?" Rory asks Lorelai.

"I don't know. Every other day." Rory's face drops. "Too much? What's too much?" Rory just turns back around and goes back over to her sister to grab the coffees.

A guy, who goes to Harvard, walks up to Lorelai. He looks her up and down with a smile. "Man, there are a lot of postings here." He tells her.

Lorelai looks at him and figures he thinks she is just a student there, so she plays along. "Yeah, there sure are."

"Are you looking for a place to live?"

Rory nudges Lauren to look at their mom. "Maybe." Lorelai answers.

"There's a lot of choices. Something for everybody."

"Yeah, yeah. Unless you're an existentialist and can't figure out what you want."

"Good point. I think we have a class together. Contract Law. Prof. Shefferson?" He asks her.

"Oh, yeah, Sheff's class."

"Right." Rory and Lauren start laughing hysterically as they watch their mom. "I've been meaning to say hi to you."

"Really?" Lorelai smiles. "Hi."

"Hi."

"Hi." She says again with a laugh.

"So, do you like the class?"

"Um, it's not too bad."

"He's kind of got a monotone voice." He says as he talks about the professor. "If I don't caff up, he puts me to sleep."

"I'm caffing up now, just for the hell of it." Lorelai says as she points to the coffee cart her daughters are standing at.

"Okay. So, I'll see you in class, and maybe at the Phi Kap party tonight?"

"Peachy." Lorelai flirts.

"Cool. Bye."

"Bye." Lorelai watches the guy walk off just as Rory and Lauren walk back over. "I think I'm gonna like college." Lorelai laughs. "Did you hear? I used 'existentialist' in a sentence."

"I heard." Rory tells her proudly.

The girls start walking again through anothe courtyard, but as they are passing a building, Rory stops instantly in her tracks and looks up at it.

"Oh, my." She says in amazement.

Lorelai and Lauren walk back over to her and look at what she is looking at. "What's this?" Lauren asks.

"It's the library."

"It's the biggest library I've ever seen." Lauren says.

Lorelai looks into her pamphlet. "Oh, brace yourself."

"What?" Rory asks not looking away from the building.

"This is just one of the libraries."

"One of the libraries?!"

"'This building is one component of a 13 million-volume collection housed in more than 90 different libraries. It's the oldest library in the US, and the largest academic library in the world.'" Lorelai reads. She looks back at Rory who is still staring at the library. "Breathe, breathe." She nudges her.

"I'm a failure." Rory blurts out.

"What?"

"I am stupid."

"Oh, stop."

"I'm uninformed, ignorant, and... and... I can't even think of a second synonym for 'uninformed.' I suck."

"Honey."

"Thirteen million volumes? I've read like three hundred books in my entire life, and I'm already sixteen? Do you know how long I would need to read 13 million books?"

"You don't have to read every one of them." Lorelai assures her. "Tuesdays with Morrie. Skip that. Who Moved My Cheese? Stuff you already know."

"Yeah, I'll read them and tell you all about it." Lauren promises her.

"Yeah, but every kid coming to Harvard is inevitably reading book. Different books. I want to be able to converse intelligently with each of them. And I can't do that unless I read books. At least a few from every genre and subgenre."

"Mom, Rory's scaring me." Lauren says as she and her mom are both looking at Rory with a frightened look.

"Okay, come on, I'm getting you out of here." Lorelai tells her as she grabs her oldest by her arm.

"I sleep too much." Rory tells them.

"You don't."

"I've been frittering away my life."

"You don't fritter."

"Did I mention I suck?"

"Yes." Lauren tells her as she, too, pushes Rory away from the huge library.

"Well, I do."

The girls walk up to another building that looks to be the dorms.

"This is a dorm? Not bad, huh?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Pretty, actually."

"Let's go see what it looks like on the inside." Lauren tells them.

"It says 'residents only' in plain English." Rory says, pointing to the sign they just passed. Lorelai rolls her eyes and grabs her daughter's hand and drags her behind Lauren who is running towards the entrance. When they get inside, Rory keeps looking around. "We're gonna get in trouble."

"You worry too much." Lauren tells her.

"Get in character." Lorelai tells them as two girls walks over to them from the other end of the hallway. "Hey, there!"

"Hi." One of them says awkwardly.

"I'm Angie. This is Trish." Lorelai says, pointing to Rory.

"Hi." Rory says.

Lauren hurries and walks ahead so that she doesn't look to be with them because, well, that would be kinda hard to explain. "How's it going?" Lorelai asks them.

"Not bad."

"Cool. We're just hanging out between classes. We got Sheff next. So, we'll probably see you at the Phi Alpha Beta thing tomorrow?"

"Maybe." The other says nervously.

"Yeah, we're not sure, either. They can be so totally lame. Gag me."

"Yeah, see ya." They say while quickly walking passed them.

Lorelai and Rory walk over to Lauren who is laughing. "You do realize your college kid jargon comes from Happy Days and the Valley Girl song."

"Hey, it's open." Lauren says as she points to the open dorm they are standing at.

Lorelai looks inside. "What are you doing?" Rory asks her.

"I wanna see the room." Lorelai knocks on the open door. "Hello?"

"They have pictures of their rooms on their website."

"So, I prefer reality, thank you."

Lauren peeks her head in. "The coast is clear." She tells them.

"The coast is not clear." Rory says following her mom and sister into the room.

"Susie!" Lorelai yells.

"We're not officially breaking and entering."

"Susie!"

"Why are you saying that?"

"Because it's our cover if we get caught. Plus, there's a 30% chance the girl living in this room is named Susie."

"The room is tiny." Lauren says very unimpressed.

"It is tiny." Lorelai walks further into the room. "Your Oxford English Dictionary will need a room of its own."

"It'll fit somewhere." Rory tells her.

"One window, brick wall. You're going to need a better view."

"This isn't my room, to begin with."

"Hey, at least there's two beds, somewhere for me to sleep." Lorelai says, happily, as she sits down on one of them.

"That'd be my roommate's bed."

"You don't want a roomie." Lauren tells her.

"I don't think I have a choice."

"They force someone to live with you?" Lauren says in an absurbed tone.

"It's all part of the socializing experience."

"What if it's a lemon?" Lorelai asks.

"Then I'm stuck with it."

"Hare Krishna banging a tambourine." Lauren says an example.

"I'll use earplugs."

"Serial murderer?" Lorelai asks.

"I'll sleep with a gat strapped to my ankle."

"Someone who likes Linkin Park?" Lauren asks her.

"Then I'll drop out."

Lorelai nods in agreement and stands back up. She sees clothes laying on the other bed. "Look, I had these same pants in high school!" She says, showing the girls.

"Can we go now, please?" Rory begs.

"I'm in again."

"Mom."

"Okay. Just come over here and let me take a picture with you at the desk."

"What?" Rory asks as she walks over to the desk.

"Really get into it. Pretend like you're studying."

"Okay." Rory sits down and grabs a pen. She looks up at the camera with the pen in the air.

"Are you writing in the air?" Lauren asks her.

"Can we just take the picture?"

"Okay." Lorelai says as she snaps the picture.

"Let's go." Rory says putting the things back and walking towards the door. Rory walks out and Lorelai grabs Lauren and pulls her next to the pants. Lauren holds them up and lets Lorelai take the picture before following Rory out of the room.

In another building, the girls are walking down the hallway where the classes are taking place. Lauren and Rory take a peek into one as they walk.

"God, these classrooms are huge." Rory tells them.

"Yeah, they are bigger than Stars Hollow." Lauren says.

"The better to fit those big Harvard brains." Lorelai jokes. "Hey, I'm going to head to the ladies room. Are you two good here?"

Lauren nods her head. "Yeah. I think I'm going to listen in on one of them." Rory tells her.

"Okay. I'll be back."

"We'll be here." Rory says as she and Lauren poke their head into a classroom as Lorelai walks away. Rory peeks in more and ends up dropping her coffee cup in the process. Everyone turns towards her and Lauren hurries out of the room.

"In or out." The Professor says to Rory.

Rory looks up nervously. "Excuse me?" She asks him.

"If you are going to take the class, then you need to sit."

"Okay." Rory turns around and sees Lauren peeking her head in. She gives her big sister a thumbs up and Rory sits down in the back row. On Lorelai's way back to the classroom, she hears Rory's voice coming from the classroom.

"That's an interesting point, but I'm not sure I agree with you. That's because Stoicism was not about giving up things, of money and luxuries and stuff." Rory tells the Professor.

"That's right." He tells her. "By the time he was in his early 40s, Seneca had earned enough money to acquire villas, farms. He ate well. He loved expensive furniture. But he didn't consider that a non-philosophical way to live."

Lorelai walks up and sees Lauren sitting against the wall, listening in on the lecture. "What's going on?" She whispers.

Lauren looks up at her mom and smiles. "Rory went in and the Professor said something she didn't agree with so she just started talking." Lauren explains.

Lorelai gasps. "No way." She peeks her head in and sees her daughter sitting, with a smile on her face, in the back row.

"But he didn't consider that a non-philosophical way to live." The Professor continues.

"It's all kind of relative, though." Rory tells him. Lorelai's eyes widen at the sound of her daughter's voice.

"Oh, here we go." A student says.

"What?"

"We can't get through a class without debating relativism." He tells Rory.

"I just meant luxury to some is not necessarily luxury to others."

"A better subject for another time." The Professor tells her.

"Sorry."

"No, no. Your point is well-taken, but it's different than what's at hand. What we're talking about is Seneca's choosing the better, more comfortable of two options while remaining a Stoic." Rory turns around and sees Lorelai standing in the doorway. She smiles and gets up quickly to meet her outside.

"Did you see me?" Rory asks her.

"Yes."

"Rory, that was so cool." Lauren tells her sister.

"I was in college."

"It was amazing." Lorelai tells her.

"Did I look like I belonged?"

"Completely. You're a natural."

"I can't even believe how it happened."

"I can. You just started voicing your opinion like it was no big deal." Lauren tells her.

"I know. I was talking and I couldn't stop." Rory says out of breath from the excitement.

"I know that feeling." Lorelai says.

"College is gonna be amazing. I can't wait!" Rory and Lauren walk ahead of Lorelai while she stops and looks at the pictures hanging on the wall beside her. "I love college! I love Harvard!"

"I can't wait either!" Lauren says with just as much excitement as her sister. She wasn't big on the whole school thing and going to it, but she was smart, and for some reason she couldn't wait to use it at a big school just like her big sister.

Lorelai looks back at her daughters. She was excited for Rory. She was even excited that Lauren was finally getting excited to go to school. Her girls were growing up fast, and she wished she could have the life that she knew they were going to have one day, but if she had to live is vigariously through them then will do that such thing, if it meant seeing her girls happy.

Back at the Inn, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are coming downstairs behind LaDawn, who insisted on carrying their bags again. They are all three wearing some kind of Harvard gear. Lorelai is wearing a hat, Rory is wearing a shirt and a hat, and Lauren is holding the foam finger and is wearing a t-shirt.

"Please, LaDawn, we can carry the bags." Lorelai tells her.

"Nonsense." LaDawn says as she tries not to show her struggle.

"But they're so heavy." Rory tells her.

"I'll just get them down the stairs for you." She stops at the end and leans against one of the post. "Let me just catch my breath here."

Lorelai looks down and notices the cat isn't there. "Oh, wow, Sammy's AWOL." LaDawn looks up at her confused. "Sammy. It's the first time she hasn't been on the stairs."

"My Sammy?"

"Yes."

"Oh, she's rarely ever on the stairs."

"No, she's always been right there."

"Sammy?"

"Yes."

"No, she has her favorite place, but not on the stairs."

Lorelai looks at her girls. "There's not been one moment she hasn't been right there."

"On the stairs?"

"Yeah."

"No, she's hardly ever on the stairs." LaDawn says again before finally walking to the desk.

Lorelai looks up with wide eyes at her girls. "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." Lauren says to her mom as she pats her on the back.

They walk to the front of the desk where LaDawn is waiting for them. "Everything's on your card. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Did you enjoy your stay?"

"Very much." Rory tells her.

"Very much?" LaDawn asks Lorelai.

"I sat and forever am at work here." Lorelai repeats from what they wrote in the book.

"What?"

"It was great." Rory tells her quickly.

"There you go." LaDawn hands Lorelai her receipt. "Drive safely and tell all your friends about The Cheshire Cat."

Lorelai laughs. "You bet we will."

"As soon as you leave I'm going to dod my favorite part of the job."

"What's that?" Lauren asks.

"I'm going to read what you wrote in our guest book."

Lorelai turns quickly to LaDawn. "Give us a five-minute head start?" She asks.

"Beg pardon?"

"Thank you." Rory says as they all three grab a bag and head out the door as quickly as they could.

Back into Stars Hollow, everything still looked the same as they drove through. Lorelai wasn't too thrilled to be back because she knew there were going to be stares and sad faces looking her way, but the girls were thrilled to be back and to tell their friends and boyfriend all about it.

"Home." Lorelai tells them.

Lauren makes her way out of all the Harvard gear they bought and scoots closer to the front so that she is sitting in the middle of her mom and sister. "Feels like we've been gone a long time."

"You know, it's weird. Every time I leave town, even for just a little while I always expect everything to look different."

"And it never does." Rory finishes for her.

"It never does." As they drive deeper into town, everyone on the sidewalks are walking up the road and are waving sadly towards them. "Patty's good." They pull up at the house. "So, what about dinner?"

"It should probably be something healthy, since we've been eating junk the whole trip."

"We had lettuce on our burgers last night." Lauren reminds her.

"We picked it off." Rory also reminds her.

"But it left its essence."

"There was lettuce essence on our burgers?" Rory tries acting surprised.

"Definitely."

"And that satisfied our vegetable requirement?"

"For the week." Lauren tells her as she jumps out of the jeep.

"We can't argue with cold, hard facts." Rory says to he mother who just shakes her head with a laugh.

Lauren runs towards the house, but stops instantly when she sees the huppah in the middle of the yard. "Mom?" Lauren calls out.

Lorelai and Rory look up and see what Lauren is standing in front of. "I forgot about that." Rory says, sadly.

"Me, too." Lorelai says as she continues to stare at it. "Well, everything's the same."

They get out and Lorelai walks over to the hoopah as Rory opens the back on the jeep to start unpacking. Lauren runs over to her to help, leaving Lorelai staring sadly at her wedding present from Luke. She wiped the tears that were trying to make their way out of her eyes and sucked in the breath that was trying to blow out, and turned back around to go and help her daughters. She was not going to cry. It was her decision and now she had to pay for it.

At the grandparents' house. Lorelai is showing pictures of their trip while Emily, Rory, and Lauren sit on the couch and watch.

"This is Sever Hall, one of the oldest buildings at Harvard." Lorelai explains.

"Focus the picture, Lorelai." Emily tells her.

"It is focused."

"That's how it came out." Lauren tells her grandmother.

"It's hurting my eyes."

"Come on, Mom, just be a little arty."

"She doesn't know how to use a camera." Rory explains.

"I've only had it six years."

"It's like I have glaucoma." Emily complains. Lorelai smiles and switches to another picture of a squirrel. "What's that?"

"That is a Harvard squirrel."

"Good grief."

"Sitting on a Harvard rock." Rory adds.

"Doesn't he look smart?" Lorelai asks.

"He looks dirty. Next."

"That's Rory's dorm and mom's finger." Lauren explains the next picture.

"It's not my dorm yet." Rory tells her. "We just saw a dorm and figured it might be mine."

"Why in the world do you insist on taking slides?" Emily asks.

"I like slides."

"But prints are so much easier and faster to get through."

"That's what I hate about prints." Lorelai tells her annoyingly. "You give people this big pile of pictures you're so proud of. They end up just flipping through them fast without really seeing them or giving you a chance to narrate, like you can with slides."

"I stopped her from adding music." Rory says to Emily.

"I'm eternally grateful."

"I like the bigness of slides, too. Makes you feel like you're there."

"Yes, this one makes me feel just like I'm in your finger." Emily says, sarcastically.

Lorelai shakes her head and turns off the slides. "You're just jealous cause we didn't invite you alone." She says as she turns the lights back on.

"Next time." Rory promises.

"Next time you go to Harvard, you're going to do it properly with a scheduled visit and guide."

"I told her about the guide."

Lorelai walks back over and sits down on the other couch in front of them. "And why would you go out of town so soon before your wedding? Didn't your fiance mind?"

Lorelai's face drops at the mentioning of Max. They had been avoiding the topic for so long that she forgot about telling her mother. Rory and Lauren both look at their mother signalling it was time to tell Emily. "Oh, well.."

"I mean you act like this coming weekend is just business as usual and not the most important day of your life."

"Mom." Rory says.

Lorelai takes a deep breath. Emily looks at the girls, who are staring hard at Lorelai. She looks back at her daughter. "What?"

"Well, it's about this weekend, Mom."

"Yes?"

"I should have told you before."

"Oh, my God. You didn't!"

Lorelai looks up at her mom's surprised face and is quickly confused by it. "What?"

"You did!" Emily yells.

"I did what?"

"You eloped." Emily says in frustration as she stands up. "I knew you'd do anything to keep me out of this wedding."

"Mom, that's not.."

"That is just cruel, Lorelai." Emily interrupts. "A mother waits and plans for this day, even your mother."

"Yes, but..."

"I bought a new dress. I got my hair done."

"It looks nice."

"And now you just waltz in here, torture me for hours with these ridiculous slides, only to let me know at the last minute..."

"Mom!" Lorelai interrupts her this time. "Max and I are not together anymore. The wedding is off."

Emily stops pacing and stares at her daughter, surprised. "The wedding's off?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Oh." Emily says, sitting back down.

"Mom?"

"Who called it off?"

"I did." Emily looks away. "You're thinking you're not surprised." Lorelai chuckles at the thought. It was something Emily would think about.

Emily looks back at her. "No, I wasn't."

"You're thinking, 'yes, I won that $5 from Dad.'"

"Who would like dessert?" Emily asks as she looks towards the girls.

"What are you thinking? Just tell me." Lorelai begs.

"I was thinking, I guess I have to return your gift."

Lorelai looks a little shocked that her mom got her gift. "My gift?"

"That's right."

"You'll have to return my gift. That's what you were thinking?" Lorelai asks.

"That's right.

"So, you got me a gift already?"

"You were getting married. Gifts are expected. It's the proper thing to do. So, how does ice cream sound?"

"Ice cream sounds great." Lauren tells her.

"So what'd you get me, Mom?" Lorelai asks, still stuck on the gift topic.

"I'm not gonna tell you." Emily says as she walks away.

"Why? It's for me." Lorelai says as she gets up and follows her.

"You're not getting it now."

"Iced tea spoons, right?" Lorelai guesses as she steps in front of Emily. "Because nobody really needs iced spoons ever. I mean, you'd probably use them if you remembered, but nobody does. They're never with the everyday silverware. Out of sight, out of mind. So people just grab a regular everyday spoon to stir with and you know what? They work fine."

"It wasn't iced tea spoons." Emily says as she walks around Lorelai.

"Oh, oh!" Lorelai follows Emily. "Corn-on-the-cob holder thingies? Sterling silver corn-on-the-cob holders?"

"No."

"HA!"

"What?"

Lorelai walks back in front of Emily. "The tiny forks."

"What tiny forks?"

"The tiny forks with tiny prongs and handles, that I assume are used to eat tiny food?"

"They're for lobster tails."

"So you did get the tiny forks." Lorelai smiles.

"You know what? I'm not returning the gift. I'm going to put it away, and you won't know what it is until you do get married someday." Emily grins satisfied with her teasing.

"Tell me now!" Lorelai begs.

"Sorry." She says as she continues to walk.

"Come on! I may never get married. I may be a free spirit my whole life or fall for a separated Catholic guy like Katherine Hepburn did and then not go to his funeral when he dies."

"Well then you'll never know what I got you." Emily says as she turns to her daughter.

"I must know." Lorelai says, sternly.

"No."

"This is toture."

"Tough."

"Okay, fine. Forget it. I'm going to the bathroom."

"I'm going to the kitchen." They both go their separate ways but Lorelai ends up meeting Emily in the kitchen.

"HA!" She yells.

"Oh, God. You scared me." Emily says.

"Come on, tell me."

During all this Rory and Lauren are still sitting on the couch listening to their mother bug their grandmother. Rory takes out a book and Lauren takes out her ipod, but both couldn't focus because they were being distracted by their crazy family.

"Lorelai, get away."

"Tell me now."

"I'm serious, get away."

"Please tell me."

"This is not funny."

Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai pulls up on the street and she and her daughters get out of the jeep.

"Hey, am I too far from the curb?" Lorelai asks them.

Rory and Lauren look back. "You're within five feet." Rory tells her.

"Close enough for jazz."

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Look it up?" Lauren asks.

"You got it."

"Rory!" They look over and see Lane running towards them.

Rory smiles as big as she could when she sees her best friend. "Lane, you're back!"

Lane runs up and they both attack eachother with a hug. "Did you ever think this day would come?" Lane asks her.

"I had hopes, dreams."

Lorelai and Lauren walk up to them. "I escaped from Korea. I'm home. Hi, Lorelai. Hey, Lauren."

"Welcome home, sweetie."

"Glad you're back, Lane." Lauren says to her.

"It's so amazing to be back. When I got off the plane I kissed the tarmac." She tells them.

"Just like the Pope." Rory says.

"It was hot, I burned my lips."

"Maybe that's why the Pope always looks grumpy." Lauren says.

"I'm back." Lane says, happily, again.

"I know." Rory says just the same.

"Did you get my letters?"

"Yeah. The first one was intense."

"Which one was that?" Lane asks, confused.

"The one that said: 'Korea equals death,' with a bunch of exclamation points and your very sad face plastered all over it."

"That was a tad dramatic."

"Was it awful?"

"You know what, it wasn't."

"Really?" Lorelai says surprised.

"Some of it was great."

"No way." Rory says, not believing it.

"Yeah. The food's not so bad, and then my cousins were actually pretty interesting. And the best part, Korea is bootleg heaven. I totally scored in Seoul. Elvis Costello at the Marquee in 1978, a barely coherent Nico doing Doors songs in 1974 and an even more barely coherent Iggy Pop doing David Bowie songs naked in 1981."

"How did you get them past customs?"

"I strapped them to my body, like in Midnight Express."

"Cool."

"We'll be in Luke's." Lorelai tells them.

"Okay." Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand and they make their way across the street. "So it was just an open-ended plane ticket?"

"Just to save money. I kind of overreacted." Lane tells her.

"Kind of? You did everything but tie a string to yourself and the Statue of Liberty at the other." Rory jokes.

At Luke's, Lorelai and Lauren walk in where Luke is wiping down a table. He looks up and smiles at them.

"Hey."

"We have returned."

Luke walks behind his counter while Lorelai and Lauren take a seat at the barstools. "Coffee?"

"You have to ask?"

Luke grabs the coffee. "Sorry about what happened, the wedding.."

"It's okay." Lorelai interrupts. "I'm fine." She says looking over at her daughter who is giving her a sad look. "I want everyone to know that."

"I've been feeling like a jerk."

"Why?"

"The way I had to come down on Max, I don't know. I was being a.. what's that word you use? 'Pickle-schnitz?'"

"Schnickelfritz?" Lauren asks.

"Yeah, that's it."

Lorelai smiles. "Luke, it's okay. You already apologized."

"Yeah, well, I've been feeling kind of guilty."

"Don't. You are great, Luke. Just making me that huppah alone."

Luke hits the counter remembering the huppah. "The huppah! I left that stupid huppah on your lawn."

"Hey, it's okay."

"What an idiot."

"Really, it's okay." Lorelai promises him.

"God, just this enormous reminder sitting on your lawn, mocking you."

"I didn't see it mock, I promise."

"I'll take it down in the morning. No, I'll take it down now. We're closing early." He yells at everyone.

"Hey, Luke, it's okay, really. I think I'm gonna keep it."

"What?" Luke and Lauren both say together.

"Yeah, it's beautiful. You made it for me, and it doesn't have to be a wedding huppah. It can be a beautiful archway in our yard. I'll grow stuff on it."

"Well, okay. I'll, uh, I'll help you move it around the yard, wherever you want it to be."

"Well, that would be good."

"So, where'd you guys go?"

"Well, we drove around a little, hit a B&B, and took a tour of Harvard." Lorelai tells him.

"Harvard?" Luke asks a bit surprised.

"It was so cool, Luke!" Lauren says getting excited again as she thinks about Harvard.

"Yeah, seeing them there, knowing that Rory was going to be there in two years, in a dorm room, in a classroom, she fit."

"I can see her fitting there." Luke says, proudly.

"Yeah, she even sat in on a class and talked to the Professor and everything." Lauren tells him.

"Really?" Luke says, smiling. "So, how are you taking that?" He asks, Lorelai.

"Taking what?"

"Seeing her fit."

"I loved it, and I hated it."

"That seems about right."

Lorelai takes a deep breath and smiles at her daughter. "Alright, kid. Let's go see if your sister is ready to go."

"Okay." Lauren says as she and her mom get up. "Hey, Luke." She says, turning back around. "I missed a couple practices while I was gone. Would you mind helping me out before my game Saturday?"

"I'd be happy to." Luke tells her.

"Awesome." Lauren walks out leaving Lorelai smiling, gratefully, at Luke, who is smiling at her for all different reasons.


	26. Come As You Are

At Luke's diner, it's the first day of school and Lorelai brought her girls to their usual breakfast place to eat before. And it was not only their first day of school, but Lauren's last day of soccer practice before her big game that weekend. She was so excited that she made sure everyday to remind everyone who was coming that her game is Saturday. Rory, however, was not too happy right now. She did not want to be late for school and her mom was not making it easy right now.

"How are the eggs?" Rory asks her mother who is still the only one eating.

"Good." Lorelai answers as she takes another bite.

"I'm glad." She says as she continues to stare at her mom.

"Look, freak, we will not be late."

"It's the first day." Rory reminds her. "I want to get there early."

"We will. I promise."

"I have different classes this year. My routes aren't the same. I haven't found the quickest path around. And they moved my locker so I don't even know if it'll work properly. I'll have to get a new one, and God knows how long that'll take and where it'll be, and that could send the whole day into chaos."

Lauren just sits there staring at her sister. "I hope I don't have all those issues in 7th grade."

Lorelai laughs. "I'm just excited." Rory tells them with a huge smile.

"Come on, Lauren, let's go get some donuts for your teacher." Lorelai says as she stands up.

"Hey!" Rory yells at her mother.

"I am just getting doughnuts for Lauren and as soon as I do, I'll take you to school and the nice men in white coats will pick you up." Lorelai leads Lauren to the counter where there is a group of kids in boy scout outfits with Taylor standing in front of them. "Donuts please." Lorelai yells out to Luke.

"We were here first!" One of the boys yells at her.

"On the planet?"

"Huh?"

"You lose."

"Chocolate cinnamon and sprinkles." Lauren says to Luke.

The phone starts to ring and everyone groans loudly. "Pipe down!" Luke yells at them before he answers the phone. "Yeah, I'm working. What do you think I'm doing? Uh huh. Uh huh."

"Mom, can you just go get some?" Lauren asks Lorelai.

"Aw, man. What did you do?" Luke asks still on the phone. Lorelai walks behind the counter and starts opening a bag. "Man, are you serious!?"

"Mr. Doose, she's not supposed to do that." A little boy tattles.

Lorelai starts filling the bag up with donuts as Taylor looks back at her. "That's right. She's breaking the rules and people who break the rules end up very lonely with no friends because they become society's outcasts."

"Planning on burning a little Huck Finn after lunch?" Lorelai asks Taylor as she walks back over to her daughter.

"Excuse me?"

"This is unbelievable!" Luke yells in phone. "You won't ever change, will you? Okay, fine. Do what you want, make the arrangements. Now, I'm working. We'll finish this later." He hangs up the phone and looks back at everyone who is staring at him and sighs.

"Is everything okay?" Lorelai asks him.

"Do you have a sister?"

"Um, no."

"I do." The boy says, raising his hand.

"You have my sympathies." Luke tells him.

"Thanks. I appreciate that."

After dropping her girls off at their first day of school, Lorelai is walking down the street when she sees Luke walking by with a ton of groceries in his arms.

"Hey." She says to him just as he drops a bag on the ground in front of her.

"Hey."

"What are you doing?"

"Just redecorating the sidewalk." He jokes.

"Looks nice." Lorelai says, playing along.

"You don't think too much blue?"

"No, just enough."

"Yeah, thanks for the input. You can go now."

"Need some help?" She asks as she watches him pick the stuff up off the ground.

"Nope."

"Need some help?" She asks again.

"Nope."

Luke stands up and drops a box of cereal on the ground. "So, do you need some help?"

They walk through the diner and go upstairs to Luke's apartment.

"Since when do you buy Frosted Flakes?" Lorelai asks still holding the box of cereal in her hands. Right when they walk up to the door, though, everything Luke was holding falls right onto the floor. "Okay, now, what is going on?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Lorelai laughs. "You just woke up this morning and decided to buy every food item in the world that you don't actually eat?"

"It's not for me." He says, walking into his place.

"Who's it for?" Lorelai asks as she follows him inside.

"Someone who's not me."

"Like who?"

"Like my nephew."

"Ooh. Your nephew's coming to visit."

"No, he's coming to stay." Luke confirms.

"Your sister's moving here?" Lorelai asks as she helps Luke bring in the rest of his stuff.

"No."

"Well, I'm sorry, I don't get it."

"There's nothing to get. She's just Liz." Luke tells her. "She's busy, she can't handle him, she's sending him here."

"Where's his dad?"

"Well, the great prize that my sister picked up at a Der Wienerschnitzel left her about two years ago, whereabout unknown."

"So she's just sending him here, just like that?"

"Oh, no, I'm sure she put at least five or six minutes of thought into it."

"But, why?"

"Cause apparently he's been getting into some trouble and Liz is afraid he's heading for something bad and rather than handle it herself, she's given up. She's sending him here so I can straighten him out."

Lorelai smirks at Luke. "You?"

"Yes."

"You can straighten him out?"

"Yes."

"Luke, the great cummunicator, you're going to straighten the kid out?" Lorelai asks a little amused. Luke never seemed like the great discipliner that she's known.

"All he needs is a change of pace, a new crowd and to get away from the nut job that unfortunately is my sister."

"How long is he staying?"

"I don't know. Indefinitely." Luke says as he start putting the food away.

"How old is he?"

"Seventeen."

"Oh, wow. That is very generous of you."

"It's family. What else can you do?"

"Right."

"So what kind of trouble has he gotten into?"

"Just kid stuff. You know, staying out late, getting rowdy. I don't know exactly." Luke says as he grabs some stuff out of his closet.

"You might want to find out. Ask a couple of subtle questions. Has he ever seen The Shawshank Redemption? Did the setting seem homey to him? Stuff like that." Lorelai follows Luke into his small room by his bed and watches him take out an air mattress.

"Look, his problem is obvious. It's his mother. We never could count on Liz for anything. Our mom died when we were kids, right? It was just my dad, me, and Liz." Luke explains. "My dad worked all the time and I worked in the store with my dad and Liz was off doing God knows what."

"I bet losing her mom so early was hard on her."

"It was hard on all of us but we did our part. And then the minute she graduates high school, she is out of here. Didn't matter that my dad was sick. Didn't matter that the store was failing. She just took off. Married the hot dog kind, had a kid, he left. Now here we are are." Luke says as he continues to blow up the air mattress.

"Yeah. I'm sorry." Lorelai tells him until she notices what he is doing. "What are you doing?"

"I'm blowing this up." Luke says in a obvious tone.

"What is it?"

"It's a bed."

"A bed?"

"For Jess."

"Jess?" Lorelai chuckles.

"Jess. My nephew."

"Luke, that's not a bed, that's a raft. Which is fine if you'll build a moat around the diner but.."

"It's fine."

"The kid needs a bed. If you want to get him something inflatable, make it a blonde." Lorelai jokes.

"I'm getting him a bed. This is just temporary."

"Hey, how does Jess feel about this?"

"I don't know."

"You haven't talked to him about it?"

"No."

Lorelai is a little surprised. "Don't you think you should?"

"Why?" Luke asks. "He doesn't have a choice. His mom's a flake, he's coming here. End of story."

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Lorelai asks a bit nervously.

"Of course."

"I mean, taking on a full-time kid, that's a lot of work."

"I know."

"And a seventeen year-old who's been in trouble and is being shipped off without his consent, that could be harder."

"Look all he needs is to be around someone who's not a selfish basket case, who will give him a little space, who will treat him like a man."

"Maybe you should think about this."

"There's nothing to think about. He's family. You take care of family. Period."

"Yes, I respect that. But what if he turns out to be Fredo?"

"Are you seriously telling me not to do this?"

"Not, I'm not."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm just saying that if you need any help, I'm here." Lorelai tells him.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Lorelai smiles. "Okay, I have to get to work." Lorelai says as she stands up and grabs her purse from the table. She looks back at Luke. "Hey, you do have an extra set of sheets, right?"

"Yes, I do." Luke says in a obvious tone.

"Sorry. Just checking. Bye." Lorelai walks out and just as she does Luke hurries and grabs his keys.

"Sheets. Sheets." He repeats to himself before walking out of his apartment.

At Stars Hollow school, Lauren is out on the field with the rest of her teammates as they get ready for practice.

"Are you guys as excited as I am for our first game?" Lauren asks them. She couldn't get the smile off her face. She was never this happy about something before, ever. "Because I am. I am really excited. It's going to be great." She looks over at her teammates who are just shaking their head at her. "What?"

"Oh, Gilmore." One of the girls say as the Coach goes over to them.

"Alright, are you girls ready?" She asks them. They all just stand there quietly looking at her as Lauren jumps up and down with excitment. "That's the spirit, Gilmore." Coach blows her whistle. "Alright, ladies, I know it's the first day of school and you all are not too thrilled to be here, but we have a game we have to get ready for. So, everyone get as excited as Gilmore over there and let's practice!" She blows her whistle again and all the girls run to their position.

"This is so great." Lauren says happily to herself as she looks around the field.

At Chilton, Rory was excited to get to class, but as she was walking down the hall to get to it she runs into Paris, Madeline, and Louise. They all stop in front of the class and Rory realizes her first class is with them. Great. They each, one by one, look at her as they walk in to the room.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Okay. Round two." She says before following them in. She goes straight over to Paris who is picking up their paperwork. "Five seconds?"

"Four."

"Fine."

"Now it's three."

"Paris, it does not have to be like this."

"No?"

"You and I are going to spend a lot of time together on the Franklin." Rory says as she follows Paris around the room.

"I know."

"We're going to sit in the same classroom, share the same oxygen. Occasionally make eye contact."

"I can avoid that."

They stop at Paris' desk. "Look, I'm not saying that we should be friends. I don't want that." Rory tells her. "I'm just saying that we should look at this like life."

"Life?"

"Yes, in life there will be people you don't like but you have to coexist with." Rory tells her.

"I'm well aware of that." Paris says annoyingly.

"So I'm just suggesting that we coexist."

"You're scared I'll make your life on the Franklin a living hell. Especially since I'm the editor and you're...oh, what's the wrod? Not."

"If you want to spend the precious energy that you would spend on the paper obsessing on making me miserable, then that's your choice. I'm just suggesting an alternate plan. The paper could be really great this year."

"I know."

"So can't we agree on that and make the rest of it go away?" Rory asks.

"Everything okay?" Louise asks when they notice the two talking.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Rory tells them.

"We were just talking." Paris says.

"Talking?" Madeline asks. "You two?"

"About the Franklin."

"Oh. Nope, still seems weird."

"Okay. Look, we're all on the paper together. There's going to be a lot of long afternoons and weekends. We need to coexist. Right?" Paris asks Rory.

"Right." She confirms.

"So that's what we'll do. The first meeting of the Franklin is today."

"Yes, it is."

"Four."

"Sounds good." Rory gives Paris a quick smile before they all sit down at their desk. She was satisfied with how things went with Paris. It was a bit surprising, but satisfying also. Little did Rory know was that Paris was not that easily convinced.

At the bus stop in Stars Hollow, Luke is waiting as the bus pulls up. He stands up and watches as everyone gets off the bus and smiles when his nephew finally does.

"Jess."

"Luke."

They stand there a few seconds, not saying anything, just looking at eachother. "Okay, so.." Luke points to his diner and starts walking. Jess follows and looks around at the new town. His new home. His new hell. They walk into the diner and Jess looks around again. "Well, this is my diner."

"Oh."

"It belonged to your grandpa."

"Hm." Jess says as he looks at Luke.

Luke was feeling awkward with this silence that kept happening between them. He starts walking towards the stairs to show Jess where he'd be staying. They walk into the apartment and Jess begins to look around again. "This is the room. That's my bed." Luke says as he points to his bed in the corner, and then he points to the air mattress that now has sheets on it. "And that's your bed for now, but the sheets are new." Jess walks in front of Luke to take a good look at the beds. Luke turns around and points behind him. "There's the bathroom, there's the closet, there's the dresser, the phone, and over there there is the kitchen. I've got Frosted Flakes."

"Wow, that's greeeaaat." Jess says sarcastically.

"So, is that all your stuff?" Luke asks as he looks at the duffle bag hanging from Jess' shoulder.

"Yeap." Jess walks over and puts his things on the bed.

"Not much there."

"Liz's sending the rest later."

"So, you need some help?"

"Nope." Jess dumps all his things from the bag onto the mattress.

"Okay, uh, I have to get back to the diner. I'm going to close at ten, so I thought..."

"See you at ten." Jess interrupts as he grabs his book and walks out of the apartment.

Back at Chilton, Rory is walking down the hallway figuring she just had to wait for the meeting to start. So, she sits down on the bench beside the classroom the meeting is going to be held in and takes out a book to read while she waits. But as soon as she opens it, she hears talking coming from the closed classroom.

"The op-ed page is sad. It's worse than sad. It's unopinionated. Pick a side, people." Paris tells the group just as Rory walks in and is a little surprised at what she is looking at. Paris looks up and sees Rory standing in front of them. "Oh, Rory."

"Hey." Rory says a little taken back.

"Nice for you to join us." The teacher tells her.

"I thought we were starting at four."

"No, we start at 3:15 sharp."

"Look, we're wasting time here." Paris tells her with a smug look.

"Take a seat." The teacher tells Rory.

"Sorry." Rory closes the door and quickly takes a seat at the table.

"Okay, so we were just finishing up handing out the first assigments. Now, Rory, unfortunately since you got here so late everything of interest has been given out." Paris explains to her.

"Why, I'm shocked." Rory tells her sarcastically as she rolls her eyes.

"Wait, just let me check my list here." Paris says as she goes through her list that is in front of her. "There might be something left for you. Well, here, they're paving the new parking lot tomorrow."

"And?"

"You can cover it."

"Cover what?"

"The paving process."

"You're serious?" Rory asks astonished. What could she possibly write about when it came to pouring cement?

"Absolutely. Is it environmentally safe? What are the financial remifications? Should brick have been considered taking into account the architecture of the building?" Paris says giving her a few examples.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea." Rory tells her.

"But, hey, if you think this is below you, you can wait until the next issue. You can just use this time to get a nice manicure."

"That's okay." Rory tells her with a fake smile.

"Maybe get a massage." Paris continues on.

"I'll do it."

"Armatherapy. Smell like a peach."

"I said I'll do it, okay? I'll cover the paving."

"Okay, good. Well, then, I guess that's it." Paris dismisses everyone and they all get up from the seats to start on their research. As Paris walks to her computer Rory walks over to her. "Problem, Miss. Gilmore?"

"No problen at all. I love this assignment." Rory tells her confidently, knowing that it would just annoy Paris more.

"I'm glad."

"I'm going to write the best piece on pavement you've ever read."

"I hope so."

"And then next week when you give me the scoop on the plumbing installation, I'll be thrilled."

"I like a team player."

"And no matter how many crappy, stupid assignments you throw at me I'm not going to quit, and I'm not going to back down. So, you can go home tonight and think about the fact no matter what you do and how evil you are at the end of the year, on my high school transcript, it's going to say that I worked on the Franklin. So, if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do on the origins of concrete." Rory tells her with a quick smile before walking away.

"A thousand words on my desk on Tuesday!" Paris yells to her.

As Rory is walking out of the classroom to head home, while she is outside she isn't exactly looking at where she is going until she runs into someone unexpectantly. Max Medina. They both quickly look up at eachother with shocked faces. Max was going to say something but before anything could come out of his mouth Rory was already turning away and walking as fast as she could away from him. They both knew they couldn't avoid eachother forever, of course, he was her teacher. But figuring they wouldn't have to really ever speak to eachother, they were clearly wrong because Paris Gellar seen the whole thing, and she definitely had something up her sleeve.

At the diner, Lauren walks in holding her soccer ball. Luke is cleaning off table and clearly didn't see her come in until she comes running up to him.

"Hey!" She says loudly making Luke drop a few things on the table.

"Hi."

"Oh, sorry." Lauren tells him.

"No, it's okay." Luke grabs the plates and walks behind the counter with Lauren following behind but she sits on a stool instead. "You had soccer practice today?" Luke asks when he notices the soccer ball in her hands.

"Actually, yeah. My game is Saturday so Coach is really trying to get us prepared. Which reminds me, Luke, are you still going to help me out before the big game?" Lauren hesitantly asks. "I mean, I know your nephew came in today and he will probably be a big priority, so, I don't want to get in the way with you spending time with him or anything, and..."

Luke smiles and walks closer to her. "Hey, I made a promise to you." He tells her. "Jess is seventeen years-old. I think he'll be okay if I'm not around all the time. Actually, I think he'll be happy if I'm not around all the time.

Lauren smiles happily at Luke. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Cool. So are you free tomorrow after school?" Lauren asks hopefully.

Luke takes a deep breath and looks at his watch. Jess probably wouldn't be home and the diner usually isn't crazy on Tuesdays. "Yeah, I think we can manage to put something in today. How about five o'clock?"

"Sounds great!" Lauren smiles at him.

Luke smiles back and walks back into the kitchen area just as Lorelai walks in the door. She smiles when she sees her youngest daughter with her soccer ball in her hands, and dirt on he knees and elbows. It was weird seeing Lauren in dirt and playing a sport, but she loved it. She loved seeing her happy and she was actually good at it which made it ten times better. "Hey, Allstar." Lorelai says as she sits next to her.

Lauren looks up at her mom and smiles. "Hey, Mom!"

"How was school and practice?"

"It was great! There's a few new kids in my class and practice was awesome. I can't wait until my game. Did you talke to Dad about coming yet?"

Lorelai sighed at this. Christopher was very hard to get in touch since his last visit with them. Lauren wasn't too close to him, but Lorelai was happy that Lauren wanted him to come to her first game. And, of course, she wanted Lauren to have a happy day with everyone watching her. "I left him a message. If he doesn't call me back then I'll give him another call. Okay?"

"Okay." Lauren tells her. Lorelai was happy Lauren didn't ask anymore questions. Perks of being an eleven year old little girl with barely any worries at all. Lorelai knew Lauren would be upset about her dad not going, though, but she knew her daughter wasn't going to show it. She was very much like her when it came to those kinds of things. Lauren is going to hold it in until something far worse sets her off.

Luke walks back out and sees Lorelai sitting there next to Lauren. "Hey. You want some coffee?"

Lorelai gives Luke a quick smile." Yes, please." Luke starts pouring the coffee and not saying anything else, but Lorelai could barely hold her composure and that didn't go unnoticed by Lauren who was staring at her with crazy eyes. "So?" Lorelai asks Luke.

"So, what?" Luke asks her as he sets her cup of coffee in front of her.

"Is he here?" She asks, talking about Jess.

"He's here." Luke says, nonchalantley.

"Yeah? How is he?"

"He's fine."

"Did he see the bed?"

"He saw the bed."

"Well, where is he? I want to meet him."

"He's out." Luke says as she grabs a plate of fries from the kitchen and sets it in front of Lauren.

"Out where?"

"I don't know." Luke shrugs.

"You don't?" Lorelai says a bit confused.

"No, he just went out."

"You didn't ask him where he was going?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because he's not two."

"Yeah, but, Luke, he's new in town. He doesn't know his way around yet."

"Way around what? This is Stars Hollow. You take three left turns, you're back in the center of town."

"Luke, when a kid goes out, you have to ask where he's going." Lorelai explains.

"Why?"

"Because you're responsible for him now. If he goes and knocks over a liquor store, it's going to be your fault."

"If I had asked him and he actually intended to knock off a liquor store do you really think he would have told me?"

"Is he dumb?" Lauren asks, deciding to jump into their conversation.

"He's fine. New topic." Luke tells Lorelai. Jess walks in quickly just in time. "Jess, good. I'd like you to meet some people."

"Hi." Lorelai says with a big smile. "I'm Lorelai. I just wanted to meet you before Luke filled your head with all kinds of lies about me." She jokes.

Jess just stands there with no emotion. "Hi."

"This is my daughter, Lauren."

Lauren looks up with a mouth full of fries. "What's up." She says quickly.

"Oh, you should meet my other daughter. She's about your age. She can show you where all the good wilding goes on." Lorelai looks at Jess waiting for a response but he just stands there looking at her. "Okay, it's nice to meet you. I hope you like it here. So, class dismissed." She laughs as Jess makes his way back upstairs to the apartment. "So, that's Jess." Lorelai says to Luke.

"Yeap."

"Very chatty." Lauren tells them.

"He's adjusting. He just got here. He probably just realized there are twelve stores in this town devoted entirely to peddling porcelain unicorns." Luke tells him. "I've lived in this town my entire life, I still can't believe it."

"I'm sure that's it." Lorelai says not buying the whole thing.

"He'll be fine in a few days."

"Hey, listen, I have a fabulous idea. What are you doing tomorrow night?"

"Why?"

"Why don't you and Jess come over for dinner?"

"Dinner?"

"Sookie will cook, Rory will be there. It'll be a little, 'Hey, welcome to Stars Hollow. And see everyone here is not straight out of a Fellini film' kind of an evening."

Luke smirks as he thinks about it. "Okay, that would be nice. I mean, I'm going to be practicing with Lauren anyway, so we'll come right after. Thanks."

Lorelai looks over at Lauren who is smiling as she chews her food. "You're welcome." She smiles.

"And you won't bring up the bed?" Luke asks.

"I'll definitely bring up the bed." Luke shakes his head and walks away from them.

Rory walks in still fuming about what happened at school with Paris. She walks over to the mom and sister and sits down on the other side of Lorelai. "Oh, my God, I hate her." Rory tells them.

"Me, too." Lauren says.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about." Rory says as she takes a sip of her mom's coffee.

"Solidarity, sister." Lorelai jokes.

"Paris."

"Ugh." Lorelai rolls her eyes. "That I should have guessed."

"She thinks she can torture me off the paper, and she can't."

"No, she can't." Lorelai assures her.

"I have never met anyone like her. Her insistence on holding onto this stupid grudge that is based on nothing and will never end shows the amount of commitment that I would have never thought possible. I'm beginning to admire her."

"First day sucked?" Lorelai dares to ask.

"Just the paper stuff. The rest was good."

"I'm glad to hear it." Lorelai looks away a for a moment a little nervous to hear the answer to the question she was about to ask. "Did you happy to run into Max?"

Rory quickly looks down but then back at her mother. "Actually, no." She lies.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Our paths just didn't cross."

Lauren looks over her mom's shoulder and sees Rory's nervous face. Why doesn't her mom ever notice it. "Isn't he your lit teacher?" Lauren asks her sister.

"Yeah. But I have really tall people sitting in front of me." Rory lies again. This time Lorelai knew she was lying and smirks at her sneaky daughter.

"Rory.."

"I saw him in the hallway and I walked the other way." Rory explains to her.

"Why?"

"I don't know. I thought that's what you'd want me to do."

"Just because Max isn't apart of my life anymore doesn't mean he can't be apart of yours." Lorelai tells her. "He has to be apart of yours. You have to see him and talk to him. And that's okay. That's good. I know everything seems screwed up right now but I don't want you to avoid him. Especially not on my account, okay?"

"Alright."

"I am sorry that I put you in this position."

"That's okay. It's going on the list." Rory says.

"My God, that list is getting long."

"You have no idea."

Minutes later the girls walk out of the diner. Lauren is walking a little ahead of them as she throws and kicks her ball up in the air as they walk.

"We are having a little gathering tomorrow night." Lorelai informs her oldest.

"What kind of gathering?"

"Well, Luke's nephew's here and I thought we could try to make him feel a little more at home."

"You met him?" Rory asks.

"Sort of."

"What's he like?"

"Well, he's not going to be subbing for the new dodo on the Regis show anytime soon." Lorelai tells her as she thinks about her interaction with Jess. "Let's put it like that."

Luke walks up into his apartment and goes into his bedroom. He finds Jess sitting on his air mattress, playing with cards, with a ciggarette hanging from his mouth. He decides to ignore it and walks passed him while trying to move around all of Jess' stuff he threw around the room.

"So, you get unpacked?" Luke asks.

"Yeap."

"You got enough space in the closet?" Luke asks as he opens the window.

"Plenty."

"You hungry?"

"Eighteen." Jess says, randomly.

"What?"

"Just counting how many questions till we hit twenty." Jess tells him.

Luke exhales the breath he was holding. "Okay, nevermind." The phone rings and Luke walks over to answer it. "Yeah, Liz, he got here fine." Luke says to his sister.

"Got here at ten this morning." Jess says.

"Hang on a second." Luke holds out the phone. "Jess?"

"Pass."

"Jess, come on." Luke begs.

"Nope."

"What am I supposed to tell her?"

"Tell her I got to take another crack at the closet. You know, I think I hung my Tool t-shirt next to my Metallica t-shirt and they don't really get along." He says sarcastically.

"You really want me to tell her that?"

"You think a different band combo would sell it more?"

"Yeah, Liza, Jess is going to hang to call you back. Yeah, he's helping me out with a shelf thing and his hands are full. Yeah, I'll tell him. Okay. Bye." Luke hangs up. "She said to tell you that your stuff will be here on Friday."

"Great. We'll have a party."

"You know, your mom thinks this is... for the best, for your own good. Anyhow, I guess you'll just call her when you feel like it."

"Want to play some poker?" Jess asks him, ignoring everything Luke just said to him. "Five buck a hand?"

"No."

"Ten?"

"No."

"I can't go any higher than ten."

"Jess.."

"Okay, fifteen."

"I don't want to play poker."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Okie-dokie." Jess says turning back to his cards.

Luke decides to sit down and go over the game plan for tomorrow. "So, listen, Lorelai, you met her today, remember? Anyhow, she invited us to her house tomorrow night for dinner. Her daughter Rory, who you didn't meet, but you'll like cause she's a lot like Lorelai. Well, they both are, but Rory's got a slightly tighter grasp on reality. Anyhow, she'll be there. It'd be a chance for you to meet more people and so I said yes." Jess gets up and grabs his jacket as he heads for the door and leaves.

Luke just stayed sitting here. He didn't know what to do. Why did his sister find him a better choice for Jess to live with? He had no idea what he was doing when he came to kids. Luke just knew that he had a long road ahead of him and he was pretty sure it wasn't going to be safe.

At the house later that night, Lauren is sitting up in her room. She had bathed as soon as she got home and was not in fresh pjs. While in the bathroom Lauren had overheard Lorelai talking to Rory about Christopher. She had just got off the phone and Chris was still not answering her calls. Lauren wasn't sure if her dad was just busy or just didn't want to talk to her mom. She wasn't aware of any fight they may have had so it was a little weird for him to not pick up on the first ring. So Lauren decided to take matters into her own hands, withouth her mom knowing, or her sister knowing, for the first and last time ever. Lauren figured if her dad wasn't going to answer her phone calls then she was definitely not going to try again, and instead let her mom do all the dialing. Lorelai and Rory didn't need to know about her calling because then she'd just get sympathy from them and that's not what Lauren wanted. So Lauren was sitting in her bed staring at the phone that was laying in front of her. She was nervous about calling him. She never did. Christopher always did the calling to check up on them unless Rory had something to tell him which was rarely. Lauren quickly picks up the phone and dials the familiar number. She let it ring about seven times until she finally hung up. Chris wasn't answeing her calls either. Lauren throws the phone on the floor in frustration. And this is why she never tried anything she shouldn't do in the first place.

The next day at Chilton, Paris walks into the classroom where the meeting for the paper is held and is surprised when she sees Rory, and only Rory, sitting at the table.

"Hello." Paris greets her.

Rory looks up and gives Paris a small satisfactory smile because Paris' face was priceless even when she is showing anything at all. "Hi." Rory says back.

"You're early."

"Yeah, well, I felt so bad about the mix-up last time I wanted to make sure it didn't happen again. It won't." Rory smiles.

Everyone starts gathering into the room, including the teacher. "Great. Everyone is here today, and promptly." She says hinting towards Rory. "I read everyone's article and they were all extremely well done. Snappy, informative, well-researched. Paris, you should be very proud of the team you've assembled."

"Thank you." Paris says as she smirks towards Rory.

"When you've got a reporter who can take an incredibly mundane and seemingly unimportant subject like the repaving of the faculty parking lot and turn it into a bittersweet piece on how everybody and everything evenutally becomes obsolete, then you've really got something." The teacher says as Paris and Rory lock eyes. One completely embarrassed and the other smiling proudly about her accomplishments. "Miss. Gilmore, I was touched."

"I owe it all to Paris." Rory tells her.

"I would strongly advise that next time you give Miss. Gilmore something with a little more meat to it."

"Oh, yeah. Great idea." Paris tells her.

"Alright, well, let's get to work. We've got a layout to put together." The teacher says and everyone gets up and starts walking to their assigned desks.

Paris walks over to Rory who just sat down in front of a computer. Rory was pretty shocked and impressed with herself, too. She wasn't sure if she could pull off the whole concrete thing, but she did, and she was feeling pretty good. "Congratulations." Paris tells her.

"Thank you."

"You must be very proud of yourself."

"Well, I'm not hiding when I pass a mirror."

"I guess it's part of my job as editor to make sure that our best writers are writing our best pieces. So, I'm going to give you one of our best pieces."

"Uh huh." Rory says clearly not believing her.

"Front page, lead story." Paris tells her.

"Get to the catch, Paris."

"No catch."

"No catch?"

"I'd like to start our year off with a profile on the teacher voted most popular from last year." Paris explains. "You know, an in-depth, no-holds-barred interview. Everybody wants it. You have it."

"You're kidding," Rory says as her face falls at the sincerity in Paris' voice.

"Nope."

"Well, thanks."

"You're welcome. So go ahead and set up that interview with Mr. Medina."

"What?" Rory exclaims.

"I know it's short notice, but I'd love it to lead off our first edition."

"Mr. Medina?" Rory asks.

"He was the winner by a landslide." Paris tells her.

"But.."

"I'm sorry. Is there a problem? I mean, is there some reason why you wouldn't want to interview him? After all, you of all people shoulder be able to get the most in-depth story out of him especially since he and your mother are involved." Paris says with a smile. "They are still involved, aren't they?"

"Let's just leave my mother's personal life out of this." Rory says bitterly as she looks back up at Paris.

"Oh, sounds bad."

"It's not bad. It's just none of your business."

"Fine. You want the interview or not?"

"Yes, I want the interview." Rory says confidently.

"Good. Get me something more than his favorite color, okay?" Paris walks away leaving Rory with her thoughts.

At the soccer field, Lauren is kicking around the ball when Luke walks up to her.

"Hey, Lauren." Luke says. Lauren looks up and smiles when she sees him walking up to her.

"You came?"

Luke gives her a confused look. "Well, of course I came. We said five, right?" Luke asks as he checks his watch.

Lauren laughs and nods her head. "Yeah, we said five." She just couldn't believe Luke actually came. Well, she could, but with everything happening, she didn't think Luke would have the time.

"So, what are we working with today?" Luke asks as she grabs the ball, playfully, away from Lauren.

"Well, I'm having trouble kicking the ball to the side." Lauren tells him. "When I kick it, it keeps going behind me instead of diagonal."

Luke throws the ball down in front of Lauren. "Show me." He tells her.

Lauren takes a deep breath and backs up a little to get a good running start to kick. When she does Luke instantly notices what's going on. "You're kicking it from the middle of you foot and not the top." Luke says as he walks back up to her. He grabs another ball and puts it in front of her. "When you go to kick, try to reach for it at the tip of your toes but towards an angle. Don't go too far down the middle of your foot." Luke explains. "Here. Try it again."

"Okay." Lauren does the same thing, but when she kicks it she does it off the side on the very top of her toes. "I did it!" She says happily as she jumps up and down.

Luke couldn't keep himself from smiling at Lauren's excitement. "You did. Good job. Your coach hasn't noticed that before?"

Lauren shakes her head. "She just never taught us the correct way of doing it, or maybe I just missed that practice when we went on that road trip."

"Well, we are going to practice until you make that a habit, okay?"

"Okay." Lauren smiles. "Thanks, Luke."

Luke puts his hand up for a high five which Lauren gratefully takes as she jumps up and hits his hand.

Back at the house, Sookie is scrambling back and forth in the kitchen trying to make sure she has everything for the dinner she was about to prepare.

"Maybe I should make grilled cheese." She tells Jackson who is there to help her.

"But you're making a pot roast."

"Not everybody likes pot roast."

"Well, then they can have the chicken wings, the mashed potatoes, the four salads in addition to the pot roast." Jackson tells her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So I should start slicing the cheese." Jackson asks with a sigh.

"Would you?" Sookie asks excitingly. "That would be great!"

Lorelai walks and looks around her kitchen. "Wow, something smells good!"

"It's the garlic." Sookie tells her.

"Three heads of it." Jackson adds.

"Nice." Lorelai smiles.

"I want everything to be perfect. We are going to make this kid think he went to Heaven."

"Or Henry the VIII's house." Jackson jokes.

Lorelai laughs and walks towards Rory's door and knocks. "Milady?" She calls out.

"Come in." Rory tells her.

Lorelai opens the door to find Rory sitting at her desk in front of her computer. "Hey, you joining the festivities?"

"In a sec."

"You sound crabby."

"I'm just concentrating."

"Okay, don't concentrate too hard. Boys like them dumb, right, Jackson?"

"If you can navigate yourself around a tree, keep on walking." Jackson amuses her.

Lauren runs in quickly from the side kitchen door. "Hey, how was practice with Luke?" Lorelai asks.

"It was great! Luke knows everything!" Lauren tells her with satisfaction.

"Luke? Luke Danes? Wow." Lorelai laughs. "Where is he anyway?"

"He should be coming in a second. He stopped and picked up Jess. I'm going to go shower." Lauren starts running towards the stairs. "Food smells awesome, Sookie!" She yells.

Jackson and Sookie look at eachother. "I told you." Jackson says.

There's a knock on the door. "Coming!" Lorelai yells as she begins to walk to the front door. She opens it where Luke and Jess are standing. "Hey, perfect timing." She tells them. "Sookie's about to break her own record for the most food served."

"Sounds great." Luke says.

"Sure does." Jess adds in.

"So, come on in." Lorelai says and Jess walks in first and goes straight to the living room.

"Sorry we're a little late. We had a little misunderstanding about what time were were supposed to leave." Luke tells her.

Lorelai chuckles. "It's okay. How's it going?"

"Oh, well, not bad. The bed popped."

"Yikes. Was anyone in it?"

"Me."

"You?" Lorelai says surprised.

"I let him take the real one."

"Well, it was very nice of you." They walk into the living room to find Jess looking at the pictures up on the mantel of Lorelai and her girls. "Hey, Jess, you want to come on in the kitchen?" They all walk into the kitchen. "Sookie, Jackson, I want you to meet Luke's nephew. This is Jess."

"Do you eat cheese?" Sookie asks him immediately.

"What?" Jess asks, confused.

"Oh, my God. This is the greatest lemon I've ever grown!" Jackson tells them. "This is a great lemon. Sookie, you got to try this lemon." Jackson hands Sookie a piece while Lorelai smiles awkardly towards Jess.

"That is a great lemon." Sookie tells them.

"Jackson grows fruit and scares people with it." Lorelai tells him. "Rory, they're here."

"Coming." Rory says. Jess looks into her room just as Rory turns in her chair and smiles at him. "Hey."

"Hey." He says as he walks in.

"I'm Rory."

"Yeah, I figured."

"Nice to meet you."

Jess walks further into the room and over to Rory's bookcase. "Wow. Aren't we hooked on phonics?"

Rory stands up and walks towards him. "Oh, I read a lot. Do you read?"

"Not much." He says as he takes out a book.

"I could loan you that. It's great."

"No, thanks." He says putting the book back on the dresser and walks towards her windows.

"Well, if you change your mind."

"Okay, we really need to get Jackson away from the lemons now so we're moving the feast to the living room." Lorelai says as she pokes her head in.

"Be right there." Rory tells her.

Jess opens Rory's curtains and looks at the window. "Do these open?"

"Oh, yeah, you just have to unlatch them and then push."

"Great.. Shall we?" He asks as he unlatches them.

"Shall we what?"

"Bail."

"No." Rory tells him.

"Why?"

Rory laughs awkwardly. "Because it's Tuesday night in Stars Hollow. There's no where to bail to. The 24-hour mini-mart closed twenty minutes ago."

"So we'll walk around or sit on a bench and stare at our shoes."

"Look, Sookie just made a ton of really great food and I'm starving and though it may not seem like it at this moment, it's going to be fun. Trust me."

"I don't even know you."

"Well, don't I look trustworthy?"

"Maybe."

"Okay, good. Let's eat." Rory says with a big smile before she heads out of her room. "You want a soda?"

"Oh, I'll get it." Jess says as he watches Rory take out a soda.

"Okay." She says walking into the living room.

Jess walks to the fridge and opens it. He looks around until he spots the beer. Jess takes a bottle and quickly makes his way out of the back door with it.

"Lauren, move it, sister! Food is ready!" Lorelai yells towards the stairs.

Luke looks at Lorelai. "You know you should be proud. Lauren is a great soccer player. She has a lot of potential. That's not something I thought I'd ever see."

Lorelai smiles lovingly towards Luke. She loved when other people talked about her kids in such a great way. It made her feel like she was actually doing something right. "Aw, thanks, Luke. I'm sure she's really happy that you agreed to help her. She is really taking this thing serious."

"Well, I'm happy to help her."

Lauren then comes beaming down the stairs with her eyes wide open at the sight of all the food layed out on the table. "Oh my gosh I'm starving!' She says as she makes her way towards the table by her mom.

"When are you not?" Sookie jokes.

"Hey, Rory, where's Jess?" Luke asks just as Rory is walking in.

"He's getting a soda." Rory tells him.

Lorelai hands Luke a plate of food. "Here!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You've must have mistaken me for you." He says talking about the amount of food Lorelai put on his plate.

"Oh, too much?" She asks taking it back and putting more mashed potatoes in his plate.

"Oh, I forgot the garlic bread." Sookie says.

"I'll get it." Lorelai says as she hands Luke back his plate before walking into the kitchen. Lorelai walks into the kitchen and takes the bread of the oven. She then notices that Jess isn't in the kitchen like Rory said he was. She walks towards Rory's room to check in there, but no Jess, so she goes out the back door to see if he made his way onto the porch and indeed he did. Lorelai walked out right on time just as Jess is opening the beer. "Aw, for me? Hey, thanks." She says walking over and taking the drink right out of Jess' hands and taking a sip. "Refreshing." Jess turns away a little annoyed that he got caught. "So what? You're not hungry?"

"Not really."

"Oh, well, Sookie made you some grilled cheese if you don't like pot roast."

"Well, if I'd known that." He says sarcastically.

Lorelai chuckles. "Let me guess. You don't want to be here."

"Doesn't matter."

"I mean, here in Stars Hollow."

"Geez, Miss. Gilmore, why would anyone not want to be here in Stars Hollow? That just sounds plum crazy."

"Oh, Jess, let me give you a little advice." Lorelai says with a smirk. "The whole 'my parents don't get me' thing I've been there."

"You have?"

"I've also done the 'chip on my shoulder' bit. The surely, sarcastic 'the world can bite my ass' bit. And let me tell you, I mastered them all. In heels, yet. And everything you're feeling might be totally justified. Maybe you are getting screwed. But Luke is a great guy. He's very special. And he really wants to take care of you and make things right for you. You're incredibly lucky to have him." Jess turns towards Lorelai and tries to study her face. "If you give this situation half a chance you might be surprised at how good it can be. How much you like living here, and how comfortable it feels to have someone like Luke you can really depend on."

"What are you sleeping with him or something?" Jess asks taking Lorelai a little off guard.

"Excuse me?"

"I don't know. The whole starry-eyed, 'you're so much better off, just give it a chance' speech. You're either really naive or you're getting some."

Lorelai looks down not believing what she was hearing coming out of this kid's mouth. "Wow. There have been very few moments in my life where I've actually wished I had one of those enormous cream pies you can just smash in someone's face. This is definitely one of them."

"Well, now, that's not very neighborly."

"Hey, you know what? This is my house." Lorelai tells him. She was finally having enough of this kid and his attitude. "I choose how I get talked to in it. Ha Ha."

"You know, you don't know anything about me, or my life, or my mom, or Luke." Jess argues back. "So why don't you Dr. Laura someone else?"

"I'm going inside. Stay out of my fridge." Lorelai tells him. She walks back into the kitchen pretty pissed off at what just happened. She sets the beer down and to busy herself she starts putting the bread into the bread basket as Luke walks in.

"Where's Jess?" He asks her.

"Outside working on his Breakfast Club audition. He's good."

"What?" Luke asks, confused.

"I'm sorry." Lorelai says. "That kid is way more screwed up than you think he is."

"What are you talking about?"

"I catch him outside with a beer. I don't even bust him on it. I try talking to him."

"What do you mean 'talk to him?' Luke asks. He knew Lorelai's talking was different than anyone elses so whatever she said to him probably wasn't sitting well with Jess. "What did you say?"

"I said he's got a good thing going here with you and he shouldn't blow it. And then, well, then he just got charming."

"What are you doing talking to him about stuff like that?"

"I'm trying to help you."

"I don't need your help."

"Uh, yeah, you do."

"Oh, here we go again with this I'm not prepared for this crap!" Luke says loudly.

Lorelai sets the bread down as she readys herself for an arguement. "This is not crap. This is the truth. You should've heard him talking."

"I don't need to hear him talking. He's my nephew and I know what I'm doing and I'm getting a little tired of your condescending..."

"I'm not being condescending." Lorelai interrupts him.

"You have kids, so you know everything?" Luke asks.

"I have kids, so, yeah, I know a little more than you do."

"You know, you ever think maybe you just got lucky with Rory and Lauren? I mean, you did get pregnant at sixteen and twenty. That doesn't show the greatest decision-making skills, does it?" Luke throws in her face.

Lorelai looks at Luke completely stunned by what he just said to her. "Two pies." She says.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about nothing. And you won't have to hear my opinion on anything ever again, okay?"

"Oh, don't tease."

"Go find Jess." Lorelai says in disgust as she walks away from Luke.

"Don't tell me what to do." Luke tells her before he walks out the back door.

The next day, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are standing in front of Luke's diner staring into the window.

"You're being completely childish." Rory tells her mother.

"Am not."

"So we're never going to go into Luke's again? We're just going to starve?" Lauren asks.

"Lauren, this was a bad one. This was not Nick and Nora. This was Sid and Nancy. I'm not going in there."

"The coffee is in there. It's Danish day." Rory whines. "Are you telling me you'll let a fight get in the way of Danish day?"

"No I'm not." Lorelai smiles.

"Good."

"Now go in and order three coffee and three Danishes to go."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Mom, he's going to know what's going on. He's not stupid." Lauren tells her.

"He cannot prove that you're not ordering all that for yourself, can he? No, so go on." Rory and Lauren both look at eachother and sigh. Why did their mother have to make everything to difficult? "Scoot, scoot. Mommy's right here."

Rory grabs Lauren by her shoulders and leads her towards the entrance of Luke's. They walk inside and go straight to the counter. "Hey, Luke." Lauren says. Luke looks up and sees both girls but no Lorelai.

"Lauren, Rory."

"We'll have three coffees and three cherry Danishes to go, please." Rory tells him.

"Three coffees and three cherry Danishes."

"And some napkins." Lauren adds.

"One of these is for her, isn't it?"

"Who?" Lauren fakes confusion.

"No. They're all for us." Rory tells him. "We are super hungry today."

"Yeah, we're going to split the third Danish and coffee."

"Yeah, we were debating on ordering a fourth one, but we'll tell you how we feel after the third."

"Tell you what I'm going to do." Luke says. "I'll give you both each one Danish and one cup of coffee. You both can sit over there and eat and when you're finished, right over there where I can see you, I'll bring you the other one to split."

"You're just going to stand there and watch us eat a Danish?" Lauren asks a little frightened at the fact of Luke just staring at them.

"Cable's out. I'm starved for entertainment."

"Okay, this is insane." Rory says. "So you guys had a fight. Big deal. You know you're going to make up anyway. And what better day to make up than Danish day? The happiest of all days." Lauren stands there nodding in agreement with her sister. "The day when we all say, 'Let's forgive and forget over a nice Danish and a cup of coffee.'"

"Two Danishes, two cup of coffees. Take it or leave it."

Lauren hits her head on the counter and sighing because they were unsuccessful. "We'll take it." Rory says sadly. Luke walks away to get the coffees and danishes. "I still think you're being silly."

Luke turns around and hands a bag and coffee to both girls. "Thank you for sharing. Come back soon."

Rory and Lauren both walk out of the diner and over to Lorelai who is still standing by the window. "Well?" Lorelai asks.

"He would only sell us two." Rory tells her.

"Didn't you say they the third one was for both of you?"

"He knew we were lying." Lauren tells her.

"Did you do the blinky thing?" Lorelai asks her youngest. "You always do it when you're lying."

"She didn't have to." Rory says taking up for her sister. "He knows you well enough to know that you're not going to go a whole day with no coffee and especially no Danish. Why don't you go in there now and make up?"

"Why don't you give me half your danish and some coffee?"

"I'll give you the Danish but I'm keeping the coffee." Rory says as she hands the bag to her mom.

"What is a Danish without coffee?"

"The eternal question springs up again. Gotta go." Rory quickly turns away and leaves for her bus to go to school.

Lorelai smirks at Lauren who is slowly sipping her coffee. She makes eye contact with her mom and as soon as she realizes what her mom is thinking she turns away and begins to walk, but Lorelai is quickly on her heels. "I'm not mommy, Lauren, you have to give me your coffee!" She yells.

Luke looks out the window and watches as Lorelai runs after Lauren. All he could do was shake his head and answer his phone that started to ring. "Luke's?" He answers. "What is it, Taylor? Slow down. You're babbling. Well, how do you know it was Jess? Okay, Taylor. I'll talk to him. But if he tells me he didn't do it and nobody saw him do it then he is off the hook. Understand?" Luke says impatiently before hanging up the phone.

Later that day at Lauren's soccer practice, Lauren and her group were getting ready to take the ball from the other group. She was nervous about running the ball because she didn't want to screw up. But she kept thinking about what Luke taught her to do and she was getting herself ready to do it. Lauren stood there watching the ball coming her way. As the girl is running closer to her she goes to kick the ball to another girl but Lauren quickly steals the ball and makes a run for their goal. She kept repeating in her head, remembering everything that Luke had said to her, and so as she reached her foot out to kick the ball she hits it from the side tip of her toes and it goes straight to the goal instead of behind her. All her teammates begin cheering her on as the Coach walks up to her.

"Good job, Gilmore. I see you've bee practicing."

"Yes, ma'am." Lauren says with a huge smile on her face. She couldn't wait to get back and tell Luke about what happened.

At Chilton, Rory was trying to overcome her own battle. She is walking down the hallway to her English class to interview Max for the paper. Rory hadn't really talked to Max since he was engaged to her mother and she was scared about how he may react. So Rory takes a deep breath and opens the classroom door. When she walks in, she finds Max sitting at his desk.

"Hi." She says, nervously.

Max quickly stands up. "Rory, hi."

"Am I too early? 'Cause I can..."

"No. No." Max interrupts her. He was pretty nervous himself.

"...come back some other time."

"This is fine."

"Tomorrow maybe."

"Now is good." Max assures her.

"This is weird." Rory says as she continues to stand at the door.

"Yeah, it is." Max agrees.

"I don't really know how to act."

"I'm not sure of that myself. We could sit."

"Sit?"

"Sure, that's good. Barbard Walter sits. Or walks, if the person she's talking to has a horse or a ranch or a big backyard sometimes but usually she just sits." Rory rambles while she walks over to grab a chair to put in front of Max's desk. "Okay, so I guess we should just start."

"Good idea."

Rory starts digging through her backpack. "Do you mind if I tape this?"

"Not at all."

"Okay." Rory sets the tape recorder in front of Max, on his desk. "I guess I'll just dive in." She says as Max looks at her with a smirk. "Full name?"

"Max Arturo Medina."

"You're kidding?" Rory chuckles.

"No. I'm not." Max laughs.

"Where does that come from?" Rory says as she writes down some stuff in her notepad as well.

"My father's butcher was named Arturo." Max tells her.

"Really?"

"When my mother was pregnant with me she would eat only lamp chops. So Arturo would cut her the extra-large lamb chops and only charge her for the regular-size lamb chops which in my family made you eligible for sainthood."

"Hence the Arturo."

"That's right."

"Well, I assume that you are aware that you were voted the students' favorite teacher last year."

"I teach an exceptional bunch of young people. I'm glad they seem to like me as much as I like them."

"Have you ever thought of doing something other than teaching?"

"Well, my father wanted me to be a doctor." Max tells her. "And my mother wanted me to be President, and I wanted to be a clown."

"What?" Rory says surprised.

"When I was a kid, I went to the circus and I saw this man who was dressed in this crazy outfit. He could juggle and he rode on an elephant and the people loved him, and I thought, 'that's it. That's for me.'

"How long did that last?" Rory laughs.

"Junior High. And then slowly I figured out that I wanted to teach. Plus, when you told people that you wanted to be a clown they tended to get very frightened."

"Mom took me to the circus once when I was really little. It was right before she had Lauren, and this clown knocked into me and I dropped my cotton candy. We didn't have a lot of money back then so she couldn't buy me another one and I started crying. So, she literally chased the clown onstage, ripped off his wig, and said she wouldn't give it back to him unless he bought me another candy." Rory explains as she smiles at the thought.

"Which I bet he did." Max smiles.

"It was twice as big and I threw up all the way home."

Max laughs thinking about Lorelai and how she'd handle that. "Yeah. That sounds like your mom."

Rory looks down realizing she just brought her mom up. "Do you even regret the fact that you didn't become a clown?" She asks.

"I don't really believe in regrets. All my experiences, even the ones that didn't turn out the way I wanted them to I firmly believe they were all worth it."

Rory reaches over and turns off the tape recorder as she looks down in sadness. "I just want you to know, I really wanted you to be my stepfather."

Max sighs. "I just want you to know, I really wanted to be your stepfather."

Rory gives Max a small smile and turns the tape recorder back on. "So, what would you say are the great challenges facing high school graduates today?"

"A myraid of things, really." Max tells her as they continue their interview again and getting passed the awkwardness that was once between them.

At Stars Hollow High, Luke is waiting outside the school just as Jess walks out reading a book. He didn't notice Luke standing there so he ended up walking right passed him.

"Hey." Luke says, as he walks after him. "How was school?"

"Great." Jess says displeased.

"You learn anything good?"

"Yeah, tons of things. I got gold stars plastered all over my forehead." He says sarcastically.

"I had an interesting call today." Luke tells him, ignoring everything Jess just said. "Want to know who it was from?"

"Not really."

"From Taylor Doose. You know, he ownes the market."

"If you say so."

"He said you came in today. He said you took some money out of a donation cup to help repair the bridge. I told him he was crazy, you wouldn't do that, you weren't a thief." Luke explains as they still continue to walk. "That he was just trying to start trouble, then i hung up on him. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy hanging up on Taylor. And he is crazy. But I was just wondering if maybe any of the things he said were true."

"What do you think?"

"I think if you tell me what's he's saying is not true, I'll believe it."

"Okay, it's not true."

"That doesn't sound very convincing."

"Look, what do you want from me?" Jess yells at Luke as they both stop walking. "You bring me here, you put me in a school that says the Pledge of Allegiance in six languages, two of which I've never heard of! You take me away from my home, my friends, and now you want what from me!?"

"I'm trying to help you!"

"Well stop trying! Stop talking ot me, stop following me, stop asking me questions! Just stop!"

"That's what you want?" Luke asks.

"Yes."

"That's really what you want?"

"Yes."

"Fine! You got it!" Luke yells back.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome!"

They start to walk again and as they are going across the bridge, Luke just couldn't take much more, so, he reaches out and pushes Jess into the water, easily, with one arm and continues to walk on.

Back at the house, Lorelai walks into the front door while Rory is sitting at the kitchen table writing her report on Max Medina.

"Rory!" Lorelai yells.

"Kitchen!" Rory yells back.

Lorelai walks in frustrated. "Nowhere in either Stars Hollow or its surrounding counties can you get a decent cup of coffee. I swear. It's like a big, stupid coffee conspiracy." She says as she grabs the coffee from the fridge and walks over to the coffee pot.

"Why don't you pour the water right into the bag?" Rory tells her.

"Oh! You jest? Believe me, the thought has crossed my mind. It's looking better all the time." Rory gets up and goes to her room. "Where are you going?" Lorelai asks her. "I'm not through complaining."

"I just have to get some more notes I need." Rory tells her.

Lorelai walks over to the table to look at what Rory is working on. "What's this?"

"What?"

"This that you're working on?" Lorelai says picking up the papers to take a closer look at.

Rory walks back out and goes over to her mom. "Oh, that's my interview with Max."

"What interview with Max?"

Rory looks at her mom nervously. "The paper wanted me to do a piece on the students' favorite teacher from the previous year. Paris assigned it to me when she caught wind of the fact..."

"Nice kid, that Paris."

"Yeah. It wasn't that bad, though. It was actually good. It gave us a chance to talk about some things." Rory says very impressed with herself and how they handled it all.

"Good." Lorelai says smiling at her.

"Yeah. It was good. I'm going to buy a folder for it before the store closes."

"Okay." Lorelai says as Rory turns away. "Hey, stop by the field and pick up Lauren, too, please. I don't want her to walk home by herself."

"Okay." Rory walks to her room to grab some money.

"This is some good writing here, missy." Lorelai says as she reads the notepad.

Rory walks back out. "Really?" She asks."It's not quite up to the repaving piece yet, but I'll get it there."

"Boy, he sounds like a hell of a guy, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he does." Rory smiles back at her mother before she turns away and walks out the house.

Lorelai is still reading the notepad, sighing sadly at it. "I sure know how to dump them, don't I?" She says to herself. There's a knock on the door, bringing Lorelai out of her thoughts. She walks over and opens it and Luke walks in. "Hey."

"I just pushed him in a lake." Luke tells her.

"What?"

"Jess." Luke says, closing the door behind him as he walks into the kitchen. "I got this call from Taylor that Jess stole the bridge money. I went to confront him and he was being impossible and I just pushed him in a lake. This is bad."

"That depends. Can he swim?"

"He's fine. He's wet. I lost it. You were right. I am in so far over my head that I can't see my own hat."

"Try turning it around."

"What was I thinking? Why did I say yes to this?" Luke asks as he paces the floor.

"Because you saw a kid in need of help and you thought you'd throw him a line." Lorelai reminds him.

"But me? Raising a kid? I don't even like kids. They're always sticky, like they've got jame on their hands. Even if there's no jam in the house somehow they've always got jam on their hands. Well, I'm not the right guy to deal with it. I have no patience for jam hands!"

"Okay, slow down. First of all, Jess is seventeen so he's probably past the jam hands stage by now. Second of all, you can do this. If you want to, you are totally capable. But you can't just buy a bed and some sheets and expect the rest to take care of itself. That won't work." Lorelai tells him.

"I swear, I'm going to kill Liz."

"Hey, Liz is not the point anymore." Lorelai assures him. "Liz is not here. Jess is here. Focus on him. What are you going to do about him?"

Before Luke could answer Babbette comes walking into the kitchen door in panic. "Lorelai, sugar, I hae to bother you, but have you seen Pierpon?" She asks.

"Um, no, why?"

"It's the darnedest thing. I came out just now and I noticed that he was gone. Just like that."

"I'm sorry. Who's missing?" Luke interrupts completely confused.

Pierpon, gorgeous."

"Her gnome." Lorelai adds.

"The one with the pipe."

"Ooh." Luke says, nodding his head.

"I hope nothing's happened to him. You get so attached to their little faces sometimes you can hear them talk to you at night."

"You know, I wouldn't sorry, Babbette." Luke tells her, thinking about exactly who could have done this. "I think you're going to see Pierpon again. Really soon." Luke turns away and heads towards the front door.

Lorelai watches him and starts following him. "Where are you going?"

"I have to take care of something. I'll see you tomorrow at the diner for your Danish, right?"

"Tomorrow isn't Danish day."

"Just be there." Luke says before he walks out. "Oh!" He says on the porch, turning back around to Lorelai. "Tell Lauren tomorrow at five again. I went to her practice today and she did a really good job with what I taught her yesterday. I want to practice a little more before her game."

Lorelai smiles gratefully at Luke. "Sure thing." She says as she watches Luke smile at her before he walks away.

At the apartment, Luke storms in with a bag of stuff and walks to the bedroom where Jess is sitting on mattress smoking a cigarette.

"Okay." Luke says grabbing some thing out the bag. "We got the patch, the gum, hyponosis tapes, Chinese herbs, self-help books, and several pictures of diseased lungs to hang on the fridge." Luke shows Jess the pictures. "Pretty, huh?" Luke grabs the ciggarette out of Jess' mouth. "This is done. You will get up, you will go to school, you will come home. You will work in the diner until closing, you will do your homework, and then you will go to bed. Where's the gnome?"

"What?"

"Weekends are for chores and selected pre-approved outings, i.e. Cabala studies, freeway beautification projects, Color Me Mine pottery painting, all discussable options." Luke says going through each closet and digging through it to find what he is looking for. He goes to the last closet and finds the gnome in a bag and pulls it out. "You will not steal. You will pay back Taylor Doose, you will graduate from high school, and you will return Pierpon to his yard."

"You can't just..."

"I can just. I am not letting you fall off the face of the earth. You will not drift. I won't let it happen. I don't know if this is the right way to handle this, but this is the way it's being handled and that is the end of this discussion." Jess grabs his coat and walks to the door. "Where are you going?"

"Out!" He yells as the door slams behind him.

Luke takes a deep breath. "Well, at least I asked."

Jess is walking down the sidewalk in town and stops when he sees Rory and Lauren walking out of the supply store. He hurries to catch up with him.

"Hey." He says when he gets to the side of Rory.

"Hey, yourself." Rory says.

"Hey, Lauren."

"Hey, Jess." Lauren smiles. It was the first time she had actually heard him really speak and talk to her directly. It was nice.

"What are you two doing out here?" He asks them.

"I needed something for school and I had to pick up Lauren." Rory tells him. "What about you?"

"Yeah, same thing. So, that was quite a disappearing act you pulled the other night."

"Potlucks and Tupperware parties aren't really my thing."

"Too cool for school?" Lauren jokes.

"Yes, that is me."

Rory sees Jess doing something in his hands. "What are you doing?"

"This?" Jess puts out a coin and does some sort of magic trick with it. "Nothing." He says as he makes it disappear. "Just another littler disappearing act."

Lauren looks up at her big sister who wasn't too amused at his little trick. "A little tip?"

"Yeah."

"If you ever want to speak to me, don't pull that out of my ear."

"So I assume the nose is off-limits, too?"

"Any place you wouldn't naturally find a coin. Let's leave it that way."

"So what are you doing now?"

"I have some homework to finish."

"Okay. Then I'll leave you this last little trick." He pulls out the book he was looking at in her room and hands it to her.

"You bought a copy?" Rory asks impressed. "I told you I'd lend you mine."

"It is yours."

"You stole Rory's book?" Lauren asks him.

"No, borrowed it."

"Wait. That's not called a trick, that's called a felony." Rory tells him.

"I just wanted to put some notes in the margins."

"What?" Rory asks as she takes the book from him and starts looking through it. "You've read this before."

"About forty times."

"I thought you said you didn't read much."

"Well, what is much? Goodnight, Rory. Goodnight, Lauren."

"Goodnight, Dodger."

"Dodger?"

"Figure it out." Rory says as she and Lauren turn away.

"Oliver Twist." Jess yells out to her.

Rory turns around and smiles at Jess while she nods her head. Lauren grabs her sister to stop and turns to Jess. "Hey, Jess. What are you doing Saturday?" Lauren asks him.

Jess looks back, confused. "Why?"

"Come to my game. It's my first one, and Rory will be there." Lauren says with a smile.

Jess smirks. "I'll see what I can do." He turns back around and walks away.

Rory looks down at her sister in disbelief. "I like him." Lauren tells her simply before they continue their walk back home.


	27. Even If It Breaks Your Heart

Friday night dinner approached but all Lauren could think about was her big game the next day. She had been practicing really hard and even Luke has been practicing with her. But now was the big day and it was coming fast. Her first real game. Her first game where everyone that she knew and loved was going to be watching her. Gilmores were not known for their sports, so this was a first for everyone to watch. Lorelai still never got in touch with Christopher, though. She left him numerous messages and was hoping he'd get them and surprise them all by showing up, but that was a lot to hope for and she didn't want to get Lauren's hopes up, making her mess up during her game. The kid worried a lot, and when she worried it was bigger than anyone could imagine it to be. So, Lorelai and Rory just made sure to tell Lauren that she was going to be great and awesome and they couldn't wait to watch her everytime she'd start freaking out. Now tonight they were at her grandparents and for the first time she was happy to be there than one the field right now.

The maid opens the door and the three girls are standing in front of it. "Hello."

"Hey." Lorelai says looking at her girls.

"Hello." The maid says again.

"You're new."

"I started yesterday." She says nervously.

"What's your name?"

"Leisal."

"Okay, Leisal. I'm Brigitte. This is Gretal and Louise." Lorelai jokes, knowing the maid would completely believe her. "And Emily and Richard are expecting us."

"I'm sorry. Please come in." Leisal opens the door wider for the three of them to walk in and she takes their jackets and purse. They stop in the foyer when they hear bickering coming from upstairs. "Can I get you a drink?"

"That's okay. I can get it. Why don't you go hide in the kitchen?" Lorelai suggests.

"Really? Thank you." Leisal hurries and dashes for the kitchen away from the bickering and out of sight.

"What is going on?" Rory asks her mom.

"I don't know. I think George and Martha are joining us for dinner." Lorelai says when she hears the two's voices coming closer.

"I didn't know my every conversation had to be reported. I stand corrected." Richard argues with Emily as they make their way to the top of the first set of stairs.

"I have been the co-chair of the Starlight Foundation for the last eight years." Emily tells him.

"I know this."

"And the Black and White Ball is the main fundraising even of the season."

"It's one year."

"The co-chair cannot miss the main fundraising event."

"Why? Won't the chair be there?"

Lorelai and Lauren giggle at that. "Is this a joke to you?" Emily asks Richard.

"Emily, I have too many things to take care of at work. I don't have time for frivolous parties."

Emily gasps. "Frivolous parties?" Emily storms away up the next stairs.

"Where are you going? Come back here." Richard tells her as he walks after her.

"This is bad." Rory tells them.

"I know. I wish we had popcorn." Lauren says.

"Lauren." Rory scolds.

"Sh, Mom." Lorelai tells him when she hears her mom's voice coming closer again. "Incoming."

Richard and Emily come back to where they were standing before. "This is the fourth even you have turned down on our behalf. I am on the board of all those foundations. Now how does that make me look?"

"Like your husband is busy and has a lot of responsiblity." Richard answers.

"I have responsiblities, too."

"I understand that your social engagement are important.."

"They're not just social engagements."

"Anything at which you serve tea is a social engagement." Lorelai starts laughing at that.

"That's it. I am getting a tape recorder so you can hear how pompous and condescending you sound." Emily says as she once again makes her way back upstairs.

"Emily.."

"No, I don't want you to take my word for it. I might be delirious from all that tea I've been drinking."

"Stop." Richard orders her as he follows her back up.

"Maybe we should leave." Rory whispers.

"Are you kidding?" Lorelai asks her. "We have dinner theater here."

"But Grandma and Grandpa are in a fight."

"Yeah."

"They wouldn't want us to see it."

"Hey, we stumbled in here completely innocently. We came for dinner, as usual, per their request. We had no idea we'd see The Lion King without the puppet heads." Lorelai laughs.

"Oh!" Lauren exclaims. She turns around and digs in her mom's purse and grabs the twizzlers they keep there incase of emergencies.

"Oh!" Lorelai exclaims as well taking a twizzlers out of the bag that is in Lauren's hand.

"Get that thing out of my face." Richard tells Emily as the come back down, but this time Emily has the tape recorder in her hand.

"Just say the tea thing again."

"You're acting like a child." Richard says as they both finally make their way down the next set of stairs, too.

"Turn around when you talk. I'm not sure this microphone is good."

Richard stops in his tracks when he sees the girls smiling and looking right at them. "Oh." He says, embarrassingly.

"What?" Emily looks at what he is looking at.

Lorelai and Lauren both start clapping towards them while Rory looks at them in disbelief that they actually enjoyed this. "Brava!" Lorelai says.

"Encore!" Lauren adds in.

"I'm sorry does Terrence McNally know about you two? Get me the phone!" Lorelai jokes.

It was finally the big day and Lauren was still sleeping. Usually, Lorelai would wake her up to go have breakfast at Luke's or something, but she decided to let Lauren get some rests since she had been stressing all week. Lorelai wanted Lauren to do great, too, and she was excited to watch her daughter play her very first game, ever. But little did they know that Lauren had actually had a really rough night of sleep and was tossing and turning most of the night. It was now morning and she was still tossing and turning. Lauren jumps up, out of breath, with sweat dripping down her face. She looks around her room and realizes she is still in bed. Panic growing right in her throat, Lauren jumps out of bed and runs down the stairs.

"Mom!" Lauren yells for Lorelai. "Mom! Mom!" Lauren yells louder as she looks for Lorelai who was no where in the house. "Mommy!" Lauren finally cries out as loud as she could.

Lorelai runs into the house in complete panic. She was next door and hearing your youngest daughter scream like she was in pain could mean the end of the world to a mother. "Honey, I'm right here. Lauren." Lorelai says getting Lauren's attention. She could see her frightened green eyes and the sweat running down her face. Lauren turns to her mother and runs, quickly, right into her mom's arms. Lorelai wraps her arms around her shaking daughter. "Lauren, what is going on?" She asks in confusion.

"Mom, I had a bad dream. It was the worst dream ever!" Lauren tells her.

Lorelai pulls Lauren away, but makes sure to keep a good grip on her. "Tell me about it."

Lauren wipes her face before she speaks. "I was on the soccer field, and I was running to the goal to make the first point and when I kicked the ball it knocked me right in the face!" Lauren tells her.

Lorelai was trying really hard to keep her laughter in. "Honey.."

"You're laughing! Why are you laughing!?" Lauren asks her. Lorelai was clearly not hiding it very well.

"Lauren, it was just a bad dream. That is not really going to happen on the field. How is that even possible anyway?"

"I don't know. But it happened and what if that happens today!?"

Lorelai gives Lauren a kiss on her cheek before she stands back up. "That will not happen. You are going to be great and that was just a dream. Dreams aren't real, okay?"

"Okay." Lauren says, giving up on her argument. Her mom was right, but it felt so real.

"Okay." Lorelai walks to the coffee pot and pours herself another cup. "How about you go get dressed and then we'll go have a nice big breakfast at Luke's."

Lauren sighs and wipes away her tear stained cheeks. "Okay." She says quietly as she walks away.

"You're going to be great!" Lorelai yells again. "Oh, and next time you yell like that someone better be dying!"

At Luke's, Lorelai and Lauren are sitting at the counter patiently waiting to be served. Lauren couldn't stop thinking about her dream and Lorelai couldn't help but laugh everytime Lauren brought it up. It was impossible to really kick a ball in your own face. Lauren definitely had a list of crazy dreams and this was one of them. Luke walks up to them and pours them some coffee.

"Okay, what do you want? Eggs, toast, combo?" Luke asks in a hurry.

"What's the rush there, Zippy?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm swampled this morning. I was supposed to have help, but I don't. So order now, or I'm bringing you both an egg-white omelet with steamed spinach."

"Pancakes." Lorelai says quickly.

"French toast." Lauren tells him.

"Thank you." Jess walks down and Luke looks at his watch. "Jess, you were supposed to be down here..." He stops talking when he sees what kind of t-shirt Jess is wearing. "What the hell is that?"

"What?" Jess asks.

"That." Luke points to his shirt.

"That is a shirt." Jess says the obvious.

"Change."

"What?"

"Go upstairs and change your shirt."

"I like this shirt."

"How can you like it?"

"It brings out my eyes."

"Hey, part of the deal of you staying here is that you work here. When you work here, you will wear proper work attire. And that is not proper work attire. Now go upstairs and change into something that won't scare my customers." Luke orders him.

"Whatever you say, Uncle Luke." Jess turns away and heads back upstairs.

"Gross t-shirt." Lorelai says to Lauren.

"Yeah." She agrees.

"Good band."

"Yeah."

In Hartford, Rory left to go do some work for the paper at school and while she was there she decided to head over to her Grandparent's house before she went back home to pick up something her grandfather left her. When she got there, the maid let her in, and she walked right outside where it seemed her Grandmother was having tea and such with friends. They all look up and are little surprised to see her.

"Oh, Rory." Emily says. "What a nice surprise."

"Hey, Grandma. Sorry to butt in like this." Rory was going to walk away, but Emily starts waving her over.

"Nonsense. Come and meet my friends. Ladies, I'd like you to meet my grand-daughter, Rory." Rory walks up to them and smiles.

"Well hello, Rory." One of them says.

"Nice to meet you."

"My goodness. What a pretty girl you are." Another tells her. "She looks just like Lorelai, doesn't she?"

"The eyes." The red haired woman says.

"The nose." The blonde adds.

"Walk around, sweetie."

"Oh, you all leave the girl alone." Emily tells them.

"I just wanna see the walk. Lorelai had such a specific walk."

"Fast." One of them answers.

"That was it."

"Then you should see my sister. You would think she was the exact replica." Rory jokes.

"Sit. Would you like some tea?" Emily asks her.

"Oh, no. I just came to pick up a book that Grandpa was supposed to leave for me."

"Go check his study, it might be on his desk."

"Thanks." Rory walks back into the house and overhears the ladies talking about her.

"Emily, your grand-daughter is just lovely. How old is she?"

"Sixteen." Emily says proudly.

"That's a nice age."

"So, have you thought about her debut?"

"No, not yet." Emily says, hesitating. Truth was she never thought about it.

"Well, you know The Daughters of the Daughters of the American Revolution Debutane Ball is next week." The red head tells her.

"It is? I hadn't realized."

"Why don't you present Rory there?"

"Oh." Emily says taken back. "I don't know. Isn't it a little late?"

"Oh, please. For Emily Gilmore I'm sure they'll bend the rules." The blonde tells her.

"Oh, you have to." The red hair begs. "With a girl like that, you'll be the hit of the ball."

"She'd definitely be the prettiest one." The other blonde says.

"Except for Katie Hethington."

"No. Didn't you hear? Katie fell of her horse. There's a scab on her face."

"Oh, well, then if Katie Hethington has a scab on her face Rory will definitely be the prettiest one there."

"I found it." Rory says as she walks back outside to show her Grandma the book. All four women turn her way all wearing a creepy smile. She stops and looks a little scared. "Yay."

At the house, Lorelai is busy in the kitchen working on a few things from her college class as she waits for Rory to get home and Lauren to get ready before they head off to Lauren's first soccer game. Rory walks in slowly and hesitantly into the kitchen.

"I'm coming out." She tells her mom.

Without looking up Lorelai asks. "Out of what?"

"Out into society." Rory walks closer to her and puts the pamphlet Emily gave her on the table in front of Lorelai.

"What are you talking about?"

"I went to Grandma's house after school."

Lorelai looks up at her daughter. "Right away, bad."

Rory sits down next to her and picks up the pamphlets. "And her DAR friends are all there, they're talking about this Debutante Ball that's being thrown."

Lorelai face turns to instand disgust as she remember her past and her almost coming out ball before she had Rory. "Oh, no."

"When I got back from Grandpa's office, they invited me onto the patio."

Lorelai quickly reaches out and grabs Rory by her arm. "No, no, no. Tell me you did not go onto the patio."

"I went onto the patio."

"Ugh, Rory, that's like accepting the position as the drummer in Spinal Tap."

"Before I knew it Grandma told me how important it is for a person to be properly presented to society."

"Ugh!"

"And how every young girl dreams of this day."

"Ahh!"

"And how there are flowers."

"Lord."

"And music."

"Please." Lorelai's grimaces.

"And cake."

Lorelai looks up and smiles. "Oh, the cake's actually good."

"And before I knew it, Grandma brought out your old dress, I tried it on and..." Lorelai shakes her head and gets up. "What are you doing?"

"Getting you out of this." She says as she grabs the phone.

"Mom, wait." Rory stands up.

"I swear, there is nothing my mother is great at getting someone to agree to something that in another universe they would never consider."

"Mom."

"I am convinced she had something to do with Lily Tomlin doing that movie with John Travolta."

"I'm doing this." Rory tells her before she grabs the phone from her.

Lorelai looks at her daughter and is surprised that Rory was actually considering it. "Why?"

"Because you should've seen the look on Grandma's face when she asked me. It's just really important to her."

"But..."

"No if it's important to her and not important to me, then why shouldn't I do it?"

"Rory, do you know what a coming out party says?" Lorelai asks.

"It says, 'I'm a woman now.'"

"No, it says: 'Hi, I'm Rory. I'm of good breeding and marriageable age. And I will now parade around in front of young men of similarly good breeding and marriageable age so they can all take a good look at me.'" Lorelai explains.

"You're exaggerating."

"No, it's like animal being up for bid at the county fair except sheep don't wear hoop skirts."

"I promised. But you don't have to be a part of it."

"If you want me to do it, I'll help." Lorelai tells her. "It's just weird. This is all the stuff I ran away from. I just assumed you'd be running with me."

"Well, I would, but I heard debutantes don't run, something about the heels." Rory jokes.

Lorelai nods her head, understanding. "Alright, then. If you're sure, where do we start?" Lorelai and Rory walk back over to the table and sit down. Lorelai starts looking at the pamphlets Rory brought in. "Okay, let's see, you have a dress. You need a dowry, I guess." She picks up the decorational cow on the table and sets it in front of Rory. "There you go. And you'll need shoes, hose, gloves, some mice, a dog, a pumpkin." Lorelai looks at Rory who is looking sadly at the book she has in her hand. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Rory lies.

"Rory."

"I says your father is supposed to present you at the ceremony. Whatever. It's no big deal. I can get someone else to do it. Grandpa, probably. Or Taylor."

"Okay." Lorelai stops her. She was not liking the idea of Taylor walking her daughter.

"Or the cable guy, he looked friendly last week. He may have a tux."

"Rory." Lorelai laughs.

"Mom, he hasn't picked up the phone the last hundred times you've called him for Lauren, or returned any of your messages. It's okay if he doesn't come to this."

Lorelai goes to say something but is interupted by her youngest running in dressed in her soccer gear. Lorelai smiles proudly at her daughter. "Oh, my gosh, it's a real soccer player!"

Lauren rolls her eyes, embarrassed. "Mom."

Lorelai pulls Lauren closer to her. "Let me get a good look at you." Lorelai backs Lauren up and spins her around to check her out. "You are so going to win that game today."

"Mom, don't jinx me." Lauren scolds her.

"Sorry." Lorelai says raising her hands up in defense. "Let's go kick some soccer whoever you're playing, butts!" She yells as she grabs her things and Lauren runs ahead of them to the car. Lorelai turns back around to Rory who is following her. "Let's not say anything about this to Lauren until it happens. Your dad not showing up to her game is going to hurt her, even if she doesn't think so. Okay?"

"Absolutely." Rory agrees and they both turn back to follow Lauren.

At the field, Lauren is standing by her team as the coach talks to them. Lorelai and Rory make it up to the bleachers where it seemed like everyone was there, including Luke and Jess, to watch the littliest Gilmore play a sport they never thought would happen.

"So you actually came." Rory grins at Jess.

Jess just rolls his eyes. He didn't want to admit that Lauren was cute and he was glad she invited him. "Look, the kid invited me. I'm not going to say no." He tells her.

Rory just shakes her head knowing good and well Jess was just trying to play it cool. "She has been nervous about this all day." Lorelai tells Luke. "This morning she came running into the kitchen crying because she had a dream that she kicked the ball right into her own face."

Luke starts laughing. "That's impossible."

"That's what I said!"

"Well, she's going to do great. I heard this team isn't worth a crap." Luke tells her before he starts looking around. "Her dad's not coming?"

Lorelai looks out onto the field sadly at her little girl who is just smiling away, happy to be there. "No. I've been trying to call him all week but he's not answering my phone calls."

"Are you serious? Geez." Luke couldn't believe Lauren's own father didn't show up, but the whole entire town did. "Well, who cares, right?"

"Yeah!" Lorelai agrees. "She's is going to be great without him. Go Lauren!" Lauren looks up into the bleachers and smiles and waves big at her mom and Luke as they wave back. The whistle is blown signaling all players to go on the field.

An hour went by and the game was almost over. Lauren's team is in the lead with only four minutes left in the game. The opposing team had the ball as of right now and during that time getting the ball back and forth, a lot of injuries were insued on different players. Luckily, Lauren wasn't one of them. Coach insisted Lauren play all the rounds in the game because she was the only one not rolling around in the grass and getting hurt. Lorelai and everyone else in town were on the edge of their seats as they watched the close game. The other team is running with the ball to make a goal. Lauren looks around at her team who were running behind her. She was the closest one to the girl who had the ball. The girl goes to kick the ball into the net, but Lauren runs full speed to steal the ball away from her. The crowd went wild, jumping up and down, and screaming Lauren's name. Never had the town ever really got together for a game. This is what proved to Lorelai that her girls' were special. Anyone and everyone would do anything for them. Lorelai just wished Christopher was one of them and was able to watch his little girl about to win her first game. Lauren is running faster and faster to the other side of the field. A girl comes in and pushes her down to the ground, but Lauren is able to kick it to another teammate and she gets up running towards the ball. Her teammate kicks the ball over to her and Lauren kicks the ball, running as fast as she could. She stopped before the net and looked around her. The opposing team was running closer and closer to her. She knew she had to make the point to win the game. Lauren looks up into the bleachers and sees her and mom and Luke staring back at her. Her mom is screaming her name, but Luke is watching her. He knew what she was thinking and that she was nervous about screwing up, or hell, kicking herself in the face with the ball. But as they made eye contact all Luke could do was nod his head telling her that she could do it. Lauren smiles a confident smile that reminded him so much of Lorelai and Rory and reached back, kicking the ball, just like Luke taught her, right into the goal. They won the game.

Everyone wend crazy as they all ran up to Lauren and tackled her with a hug. She laughed and celebrated with them as she tried making her way over to her family. Lauren sees Luke and jumps him with a hug making him laugh.

"You did great!" Luke tells her as he hugs her back.

"Thanks, Luke."

Lorelai grabs Lauren and hugs her tightly. "Are you sure you're a Gilmore?" She jokes.

Lauren turns to Rory and Jess and reaches out hugging her sister around her waist. "Glad you made it, Jess." She smirks.

"Yeah, I gotta go now. Good job." He tells her before he ruffles her hair and walks away.

"That was amazing, Lauren. Who knew you had it in you?" Rory laughs.

"Can we go celebrate now?" Lauren asks Lorelai.

"Well, of course!" Lorelai grabs her daughter's hand. "Off to Luke's!"

Luke rolls his eyes, but sneaks a smile in as he follows the Gilmore girls to his diner with a group of other people from the town.

Later that night, Lorelai comes downstairs where Rory is sitting in the living room still looking at all the papers for her coming out ball.

"Well, Lauren is officially knocked out." Lorelai says as she sits down next to her oldest.

"She had fun." Rory tells her. "Even though I never thought I'd see the day that Lauren Gilmore is running across a field with a ball."

Lorelai laughs. "Who knew my offsprings had such amazing talent running through their blood?"

"Did she ask you anything about Dad?"

Lorelai sighs. "No. She didn't say anything which is kinda scary. Either she's forgot or she's really upset about it."

"So do you want to try?" Rory asks a bit uneasy.

"Hand me the phone." Lorelai says as Rory hands her the phone. She dials the familiar number she has been dialing for over a week now and suddenly instead of ringing like it's always been there's a voice. _'The number you have dialed has changed.' _Lorelai points to the paper on the table for Rory to slide over and she grabs a pen.

"New number?" Rory asks confused.

Lorelai writes down the number then hangs up the phone. "Suddenly he has a new number?" Lorelai asks while she dials the new number.

"Hello?" Christopher's voice comes through the other end. Finally.

Lorelai gasp. "Hi!" She says. "Where the hell are you?"

"Boston." Chris tells her.

"Boston?"

"Yeah. Boston. Baked beans, cream pie, tea party, strangler."

"Oh, that Boston."

"And you?"

"Well, I'm just getting back from your daughter's first soccer game." Lorelai tells him.

"Rory?"

Lorelai snorts at the thought. "No, Lauren."

Christopher smiles as he thinks of Lauren. "Lauren? Lauren Gilmore? She plays soccer now?"

"Yeah, and you would have known that if you would have answered my phone calls. Christopher, I have been calling you for over a week now and I'm just getting the new number." Lorelai says getting upset.

Christopher sighs. "Lor, I turned my phone two weeks ago. I thought it would go through faster. I am sorry. Is Lauren upset?"

"No. Well, I don't know. If she is, she isn't showing it. But she has asked me over and over if I've got in touch with you. Chris, she was actually counting on you to be there."

"I am so sorry, Lorelai. I should have called you with my new number. I had planned to once I got everything organized. Tell her I'll make it up to her."

"Well, tell her yourself. I have some more shocking news for you. Rory's coming out."

"Out of what?" Christopher asks, confused.

"Coming out: white dresses, gloves, curtsies."

"Stop it!"

"I swear to God."

"I can't believe you're letting her do it."

Lorelai laughs. "Huh, well, I wasn't about to let her use my method of getting out of it."

"This is crazy." Chris laughs. "Lauren's playing soccer and now Rory's coming out?"

"She's doing it as a favor to my mom. Can't talk her out of it." Lorelai tells him.

"Did you tell her about Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke?"

"Yes, and she's perfectly willing to marry Cary Grant get offerd by her crazy bulter and start designing blue jeans as soon as the ball ends."

"Well, okay, if that's what she wants."

"Now comes the reason for my phone call. Now, I know this is totally not your thing but as you will remember, part of the coming out process involves the girls being escorted around the dance floor by their dads."

"Ah." Chris remembers.

"Now, I know you would rather sit through Endless Love than ever be a part of this scene again but this is important to your daughter, and she's never asked you for anything. And although no one's keeping track, it seems your constant non-presence in their life, and your lack of showing up when you say you're going to or calling when you say you're going to, or basically doing anything when you say will tend to indicate that you owe Rory big time. Now, before you say no, I want you to take a minute and remember you have two great daughters who need you. And they have a mother who will hunt you down like a half-price Kate Spade purse if you disappoint her. I would have hunted you down for Lauren but I didn't know where you were."

"Okay. I'm there." Chris says simply.

Lorelai scrunches her face in confusion. "By there do you mean the Daughters of the American Revolution Annual Debutante ball?" She asks.

"Yes."

"Oh, Chris, please don't make this promise if you can't." Lorelai begs.

"I wouldn't miss it."

"It's next weekend."

"I'll clear my schedule."

"You swear?"

"Wait, next weekend?" He jokes.

"Christopher!" Lorelai scolds.

"I'm kidding." He laughs. "I will definitely be there. I need to be there anyway to beg for forgiveness to my little soccer player."

"Good luck with that one." Lorelai says, knowing how stubborn her daughter could be. "In exchange, I'll refrain from saying the ten things that came to mind for making fun of your schedule."

"Thanks."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Lorelai hangs up and smiles at Rory who is walking into the room. "Hey, little debbie, your dad is definitely gonna be there."

"You're kidding!" Rory says as her face lightens up with surprise.

"No. He's gonna walk you down the stairs, turn you in a circle, watch you curtsy, and announce that Rory Gilmore is officially open for business. Which I'm sure in between all of that, Lauren will trip him and make him fall right off the stage." Lorelai says proudly as she grabs Rory's hands.

"He definitely said 'definitely?''' Rory asks.

"Definitely."

"So there's a 50-50 chance?"

"He sounded pretty sure. I'd say 60-40."

The next day, Rory, Dean, Lane, and Lauren are all sitting on the living couch and watching videos of what the ball is going to be like while Lorelai is walking around on the phone with Emily.

"No, Mom, I'm sure one crinoline will be plently." Lorelai tells her. "No, she doesn't. I'm sure she doesn't. In what scenario would I have bought Rory elbow-length kidskin gloves? Oh, I'm sorry, in what scenario on my planet would I have bought Rory elbow-length kidskin gloves?" Lorelai says as she walks back into the kitchen.

"So?" Rory asks Dean.

"So, what?"

"It's good, huh?"

"It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction." Dean tells her.

"Yes, and doesn't Neil Young look cool?"

"I guess."

"If you'll notice, he's wearing a tux." Rory points out.

"He looks cool because he's Neil Young, not because he's wearing a tux."

Lorelai walks back in still on the phone. "I don't have to ask her, Mom, cause I know the answer. I know the answer, Mom. Yeah. No. Well, I don't have to ask her...Hold on. Rory, would you like Grandma's hairstylist to come and set your hair before the ball?" Rory grimaces. "Oh, I did not coach her. Go back to talking about gloves." Lorelai walks back to the kitchen.

"I think you're gonna look great in a tux." Rory says turning back to Dean.

"Tails." Lauren reads into the book that she and Lane are looking at.

"What?" Dean asks Rory with horror on his face.

"According to this it says that: 'All escorts must be properly attired in black tails, white cummerbunds, and while gloves.''' Lane reads.

"What?" Dean says sternly as he sits up and looks at Rory.

"I'm sure the gloves are optional." Rory tells him.

"Not according to this." Lauren tells her.

"Tails? Gloves?" Dean asks.

"Remember Neil Young." Dean sighs. "Remember that you love me." Dean raises his eyebrow. "Remember that I'll be watching Battlebots with you for a month."

Dean sighs and lets out a breath while he sits back into the couch. "Show me Neil Young again."

As Rory is rewinding the tape, a car honks from outside. "Dad!" Rory yells as she runs towards the front door.

Lorelai walks back into the foyer and looks over at Lauren who is still sitting on the couch not looking to move whatsover. "Lauren, your dad's here."

"I don't care." Lauren says as she continues to look at the t.v.

Lorelai sighs and follows Rory outside. "Dad!" Rory yells again as she runs over to her Chris.

Chris quickly stops her. "Whoa! Hold it. A lady never run out to meet a gentleman caller who hasn't been announced." He jokes.

"Sorry. We haven't tamed my wild way yet."

"Thank God I'm here now."

Rory laughs and hugs her dad tightly around his neck. "I missed you."

"Me, too."

"Hey." Lorelai says, walking over to them. Chris reaches out and kisses Lorelai on her cheek. "What is this?" She asks pointing to the car.

"What? My God, where did this come from?" Chris fakes being surprised.

"What happened to your bike?"

"Crazy game of key exchange at the car wash."

"This is a car." Lorelai tells him.

"Yes, it is." Chris laughs.

"It has four wheels and a roof and air bags and seatbelts, and my God, it smells like a forest."

Chris smiles and walks towars the trunk of the car. "Well, I needed a little more space. Had something big to haul." He says as he opens the drunk and picks up the dictionary he was suppose to get Rory last time he was down. "I believe this belongs to you."

Rory jumps and grabs it. "The Compact Oxford English Dictionary." She says, happily.

"I'd promised you." He reminds her. "I'm just sorry it took so long."

"That's okay."

"On the bright side, this is the new edition. If I'd got you the old one it wouldn't have the word 'jiggy' in it."

"Thank you." Rory smiles as she looks at it. "I love it. I'll look things up right now." She says before running back into the house.

"That was really great of you." Lorelai smiles as Chris walks back over to her.

"Thank you." He opens the back door and takes out a book along with some new soccer gear. "You think Lauren will forgive me?"

Lorelai stares at the stuff. "You know buying her stuff is not the way to go when getting on Lauren Gilmore's good side."

Chris sighs. "Yeah, I know. I just feel horrible. We already don't have that great of a relationship, which is my fault, and I didn't make it any better."

"She'll come around." Lorelai assures him. "You're here now. Granted, she's not too thrilled about the idea of you coming for Rory and not for her." Chris goes to speak but Lorelai hurries and continues. "But I explained to her the phone situation but her dad is coming to her big sister's thing and not her's so regardless of the situation, Lauren is not happy." Chris didn't know what to say to that. He tried, when he could, to have a good relationship with his girls. But Lauren was the toughest one. Not being there from day one and just slipping in and out when he pleased really hurt Lauren. Which is why she never chose to get to know him like Rory did. As far as Lauren knew, Lorelai is the only parent she will ever really know. Lorelai pats Chris on the back, supportively and leads him into the house. "Lauren, your dad is here, and he has some really cool stuff for you." Lorelai says as they both enter the living room where now it's just Lauren.

Lauren looks up and sees her mom smiling her famous fake smile towards her. Lorelai tried to make things good between the two as often as she could. She always tried to get Lauren to call her dad and just talk to him but Lauren never budged. Chris walks over to her and bends down on one knee in front of Lauren who never moved from the couch. "Hey, Lauren." He says as he reaches over and kisses her gently on her forehead. "I got a few things for you. I heard you were playing soccer now, which I am so sorry I missed. But I wanted to make it up to you and get you some really cool new soccer gear. I'm sure it'll help you the rest of the year." Lauren doesn't say anything but instead grabs the bag of stuff and looks into it. "And I also got you this book I seen you looking at last time I was here." Lauren takes the book and looks through it. It was indeed the book she was looking at. She was surprised Chris remembered. "I'm really sorry, kiddo. If I had go the message, I swear I would have been there." Chris says, sadly as she looks into Lauren's eyes where all he could see was disappointment and sadness.

"Thanks for my stuff." Lauren simply says as she stands up and walks towards the stairs.

Lorelai swipes her hand through Lauren's hair lovingly while Lauren makes her way up the stairs and into her room. Chris looks down and sighs as he lets out a deep breath. He stands back up and faces Lorelai. "Give her time." She tells him.

The next day Lorelai and Emily walk into Emily's house with a ton of bags in their hands.

"Twelve pairs of pantyhose." Lorelai announces as they walk in.

"It's going to be a long night. She's bound to have a run." Emily tells her as she follows her daughter into the living room.

"Twelve pairs. Including the ones you got for Lauren who doesn't even wear them." Lorelai says.

"You never know when a little girl may need some pantyhose, and there's the presentation, the circle, the curtsy, the fan dance." Emily explains.

"Mom, there'd have to be a 12-kilometer run and jujitsu demonstration for her to go through twelve pirs of pantyhose, and as soon as Lauren would even attempt to wear them, there will have runs in every single one of them within ten minutes."

"Does it really hurt to be prepared?"

Lorelai smiles sarcastically at her mother. "No, Mom, it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

"Thank you."

"The good news it, now she is prepared for her high school graduation, her college graduation, her marriage, three to five anniversaries, a hostess gig, and jury duty especially is she's sequestered."

"You make me tired." Richard comes downstairs. "Oh, Richard, I didn't know you were home."

"Yes, well, we learn something every day." He tells her.

"You didn't have to work?"

"I am working." Richard says holding a book to show Emily.

"Oh, Richard, I got you some beautiful new cuff links for this weekend." Emily says as she reaches into one of the bags.

"I already have cuff links."

"I know, but these have bulldogs on them. Look."

"I'll look at them later."

"Alright. Fine. Just remember to get your tux from the cleaners tomorrow." Emily tells her while he is walking away.

"I won't have time." He says turning back around.

"It's right around the corner from your office."

"I have to go in early tomorrow."

"Go now."

"I am busy now." Richard says growing very frustrated with this conversation.

"Doing what?" Emily pesters on.

"Emily, I am not going to qualify my time with you. I am not going to pick up my tuxedo. You planned this ridiculous affair, you pick up my tuxedo. Or I simply don't have to go. Either one of these options is fine with me."

Richard walks away to his office and Emily turns around clearly upset as she goes through the bags. Lorelai had been watching the whole thing and was feeling a little uneasy about how her dad was talking to her mom." Hey, Mom, I might be reading too much into this, but, um, is something going on between you and dad?" She asks, awkwardly.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know. He just seems a little less jolly than usual."

"He's just busy." Emily says.

"He seems upset."

"Well, he's not."

"You seem upset."

"Well, I"m not. We're both fine."

"Okay. My mistake."

"I'd better go pick up his tux." Emily grabs her coat and in hurry she leaves leaving Lorelai standing there trying to figure out what just happened.

Later that day, in Miss. Patty's studio, Dean and Rory are learning to dance while Miss. Patty teaches them. Lauren is sitting by the door, wanting to laugh hysterically at how bad Dean and Rory were trying to dance. They could barely move their feet without falling over eachother.

"Keep counting in your heads." Patty tells them. "Look eachother in the eye. Dean, are you leading?"

Dean sighs. "I have no idea."

"Okay, stop." Patty turns off the music and walks over to them. "Now, remember, one of the most important things in ballroom dancing is to remember to spot. Otherwise, you're gonna get dizzy. So what you want to do is pick out something to focus on. I usuall like to find a lonely seaman." Dean and Rory just stand there staring blankly at her as she talks. "Then when turning, whip your head around and find your spot again." Patty starts doing some turns to demonstrate to them. "Now you try it." Patty walks back to the stereo.

"Come on, Rory and Dean, you got this!" Lauren yells as she laughs hysterically at them.

"Now take it from the top." Patty tells them.

Dean and Rory start dancing again and this time it looked even worse. Lorelai and Christopher walk in and stand near Lauren. "Hey, you guy are really improving." Lorelai tells them. "Now you're actually facing eachother."

"And sorta on beat." Lauren adds in.

"Anyone need a break?" Chris asks showing them the coffee in his hands.

"Ookay, take five, but don't sit down because your muscles will get cold." Patty tells them before walking away.

Lauren follows her parents over to Rory and Dean. "So, how's it going?" Lorelai asks them.

"Actually, I'm not very good." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, which is really holding me back, because I'm a natural." Dean jokes.

"Well, maybe you just need a glittery glove and a freaky face." Lorelai says.

"At one point Miss. Patty thought Dean would get hurt, and she made Rory sit in the corner and watch." Lauren tells them.

Lorelai gasps. "Hey, nobody puts baby in the corner!" Lorelai says pointing to Rory.

"It's not your fault. Ballroom dancing is a wonderfully sexist thing." Chris tells them. "Any woman can do it. All she needs is a strong male lead. No offense, Dean." Chris takes Lorelai's hand and pulls her to him which causes an accident and Lorelai runs and smacks him in his chest as she trips over her feet.

"AH!" She yells making the kids laugh.

"Well, almost any woman can do it." Chris says.

"I wasn't ready. I want a do over." Lorelai tells him.

"Fine." Chris turns the radio on and takes Lorelai back into his arms. "May I have this dance?"

"I don't know. Do you have a trust fund? Always make sure." Lorelai says to her girls.

The kids stand back and watch Lorelai and Chris breeze easily through the room. Lorelai is moving back and forth towards Chris as he gently leads her around. They all clap as soon as they music is done. "Okay, I'm adopted." Rory tells them.

"Yeah, I'm never gonna be able to do that." Dean tells her.

"I agree." Lauren jokes.

"Nah, you guys just need some practice." Chris assures them.

"Listen to your father, Rory. Your adorable father." Patty grins as she looks at Chris.

"Come on. Let's get you out of here before you become Patty's next husband." Lorelai jokes while she reaches out her hand to Lauren who takes it acceptingly and follows her parents out of the studio. "Did you know you still knew how to do that?" Lorelai asks Chris as they walk out.

"I wish I didn't. Imagine what we could do if we freed up the brain space it holds on the Viennese waltz."

"Yeah, it's right up there between Brady Bunch reruns and the lyrics to Rapture." Lorelai looks at her daughter on the side of her. "Hey, how'd you like your dad's moves?"

Lauren laughs. "I can't believe you guys can even do that." She tells them.

"Hey, we have a lot of surprises." Lorelai says as she nudges her daughter playfully.

Chris takes a sip of his coffee and grimaces. "I got to say, this isn't like the chai lattes in Boston."

"Yeah, well, expecting Luke to make a chai anything was completely insane."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he just threw a cinnamon stick in some tea."

"I'm pretty sure it's not a cinnamon stick."

"Okay, throwing this out now." Chris says as he tosses his coffee into the trash can.

"Hey, Mom, can I go visit Luke?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai looks at Chris then back at her daughter. She was trying to make them spend time with eachother. Of course Lauren would be the one to not go through with it. "Uh, yeah, sure. Just don't get in his way."

"Okay, thanks!" Lauren runs down the sidewalk and enters Luke's.

As Chris and Lorelai follow her down, Chris looks into the window of Luke's and sees a smile he has never seen before on Lauren's face as she jumps onto the stool and talks to Luke, who is smiling right back at her. Lorelai could see the sadness running through Christopher's face so she decided to change the subject. "So, chai latte, when did that happen?"

"I don't know. Everyone at work drinks them."

"Huh. Well, since you still haven't told me what exactly it is that you do I'm gonna go with yoga instructor or chiropractor." Lorelai tells him as they sit down on a nearby bench close to Luke's.

"It's actually pretty interesting. I'm working for this firm that helps overblown tech companies scale back and stay afloat in leaner times." He explains, but by the look on Lorelai's face, she had no idea what he was even saying.

"I'm sorry, what's the interesting part?"

"We dress like superheroes when we do it." Chris tells her.

"AH! Nice." She smiles.

"So, how long will you be able to keep this going?" She asks curiously.

"Well, I'm pretty happy there, I'd say at least till Tuesday." He jokes.

"Oh, so, long term."

"You know, it's weird. I always hated the idea of having to be somewhere at a specific time each day but as it turns out I like the stability."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I like that at the end of the day, I feel like I've done something, earned something."

"Well, I think that's really great." Lorelai says honestly.

"Only took me ten years and several failed business ventures to figure out what I wanted."

"Which is?"

"Not my parents life." He tells her. "Something you figured out at sixteen."

"Actually, six months, but I just couldn't vocalize it yet."

"Yeah, you knew what you wanted, you went out and got it. I was always a little jealous of you."

"Well, you seem to be catching up." They both smile at one another. "We did good." She says looking over at Patty's at Rory attempting to dance and then behind her at Luke's at Lauren who is helping Luke flip a burger. Chris does the same and smiles for different reasons.

"Yeah. Well, I did good." He jokes. "The fact that Rory can't follow lead is all you, but Lauren being somewhat atheletic must be me somewhere."

Lorelai glares at Christopher while he laughs. "Hey, you know Lauren has soccer practice later today if you'd want to sneak up on her and watch."

"Yeah." Chris says enthused. "I'd love to see her run and kick a ball." He laughs.

"It starts at four. I think she'd be happy to have you there." Lorelai tells him. But truthfully, she wasn't sure how Lauren would feel about it, but she had to do something to get the two together.

Minutes later, Chris decided to go back to the house and change before he went to Lauren's practice while Lorelai went into Luke's to pry her daughter away from the diner in time to go get ready for her own practice.

"So you cook now?" She jokes as she watches Luke show Lauren how to make fries.

"Someone needs to." Lauren tells her mom as she looks at her with a smile and laughs as Lorelai fakes being hurt.

"Ouch." Lorelai looks at her watch. "Hey, you have practice in a hour. We need to get you home to change."

"Okay!" Lauren takes her apron off and runs towards Lorelai. "Oh, Mom, tomorrow can I stay here with Luke while you guys go to Rory's coming out thing?"

Lorelai looks confused at her daughter and looks at Luke who is just standing there, taking glances at the two Gilmores while he pours more coffee into customer's mugs. "Well, Lauren, I'm sure Luke is busy. And don't you want to come watch your sister walk around and dance horribly with your dad and Dean?"

"As much as I would like to do that, I really don't want to. Please. Luke said it was fine. Please. Please. Please." She begs.

Lorelai looks at Luke for confirmation. "I told her it was fine." He tells Lorelai.

"Luke, are you sure? You have a diner to run. You don't need a kid running around here."

"It's fine. Lauren isn't any trouble at all. I can put her to work or something." He jokes.

"Yeah, please, please, Mom."

Lorelai sighs and playfully but forcefully pulls Lauren to her. "Fine!" She tells her, sternly. Lauren jumps up and down excitingly. "But you are the one that's going to tell your sister that you're not going."

"Okay!" She grabs Lorelai's hand and drags her towards the door. "Thanks, Luke. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye." Luke smiles as he watches the two leave.

Back at the house, Lorelai is preparing Rory for her walk that she would have to do while Chris is showing Dean how to tie his bow.

Lorelai is walking back and forth with a book balancing on her head as she eats Chinese food. "See, only a lady can gracefully walk around a room with a book on her head while eating kung pao chicken. And a great lady can spit the peanuts into the container without anyone noticing." She says to Rory, who is just finishing painting her toenails.

"Wow." Rory says, clearly impressed.

"Well, don't be intimidated. You have to practice a lot to get on my level." Lorelai drops the book from her head and sets it down on the table.

"Anyone want the last egg roll?" Rory asks.

"No." Both the guys says.

Rory reaches over from the couch to grab it but Lorelai stops her. "Where are you going?"

"To get the egg roll."

"You're getting it yourself?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"No! Ladies never get their egg rolls, they never get their own anything." She explains. "They don't even get their own ideas." Lorelai hands Rory the chinese box.

"Oh, boy." Rory says with an eye roll.

"They just sit helplessly and wait for some young, strong man to come by and assist them. They don't step in puddles or over puddles. They can't even look at puddles. They need to be blindfolded and thrown in a sack and carried over puddles." Lorelai exaggerates.

"Isn't there a moratorium on how long ladies should talk?"

"Uh, no. Repeat after me, 'I am completely helpless.'"

Rory shakes her head and laughs her mom's craziness. "Now you put the left side through the back loop and you tug a little bit on both sides, and you, my friend, might just be mistaken for a gentleman." Chris tells Dean as he finishing the bow. "Or a waiter."

"So how do you know how to do this?" Dean asks.

"Seventeen contillions, a dozen debutante balls and a brief scarring experiment with the Children of the American Revolution."

"Where you wore only the bow tie." Lorelai reminds him.

"A good idea on conception, but the sudden snowstorm instantly dampened the effect." Christopher tells them.

"Hey, do you think it's cool when Neil Young wears a tux?" Dean asks Chris.

Christopher shrugs. "Yeah, of course, but it's Neil Young."

"Alright, I should get going." Dean walks over to Rory and takes off the bow tie. "I'll see you a three." He tells her as he leans in and kisses her.

"Oh, wait." Rory opens the side table's drawer and takes out a box of gloves.

"What's this?"

"Your gloves." She hands him.

Dean looks at Rory dumbfounded. "I thought you were kidding."

Lorelai chuckles. "No. Ladies never kid."

Dean sighs with disappointment. "Bye."

"Bye." They all say as they watch Dean leave out the front door.

Chris looks at his watch and grabs his coat. "I should get going, too. I wanna catch Lauren's practice before it ends and then we'll come back here."

"Alright." Lorelai smiles. "Have fun." Chris smiles back and walks out the door.

At the soccer field, Lauren is kicking around the ball with a few of her teammates when Chris walks up and sits on the bleachers closest to the field. He smiles, proudly, at his daughter as he watches her run back and forth with ease to each goal. She was manuvering herself like she had been playing this game since she could walk. It was very impressive. The Coach blows her whistle for everyone to gather up in the middle of the field. They were going to play a one minute game before they all headed home. In the corner of her eye, Lauren could see her father sitting down and watching her from the stands. Chris sees her looking at him and gives her a small wave which she begrundingly received and game him a very tiny wave back.

A minute goes by and a very tired Lauren runs over to her very proud father who could not stop smiling as he watches his daughter approach him.

"Is Mom and Rory busy getting ready for tomorrow or something?" Lauren asks him without a hey or hello.

Chris looks down her, confused. "No. Not really. Why do you ask?"

Lauren shrugs. "Well, when practice runs late either Mom or Rory come and get me."

"No, no. I wanted to come watch your practice. But if you don't mind I'd love to walk you home, too."

"Whatever." Lauren says as she grabs her things and starts walking, not waiting for Christoper.

Christopher takes a deep breath and starts following his daughter. "So, you are really good out there."

"Thanks."

"What made you want to join soccer anyway?"

"Um, Coach asked me. She seen me in P.E. and figured I'd be good at it." Lauren tells him.

"Well, she was definitely right." Christopher watches as Lauren just continues to walk. She wasn't saying anything and that was making things hard for Christopher to make things up to her. "Look, Lauren, I know I've missed a lot of things in your life."

Lauren snorts. "Try everything." She tells him. "Well, no, you did come to my kindergarten graduation, but then again, you were late for that, too." She remembers walking down the little aisle to meet her teacher for their make believe diploma. When Lauren looked out into where the parents and family members were sitting, she only seen her mom and sister, smiling proudly and clapping for her. Christopher only decided to show up while they were eating.

"Lauren, I'm really sorry. If I would have got the message then I would have came. I swear."

"It's okay." Lauren lies. "We're not close. We never have been. You have always been closer to Rory and that's okay."

"That's not true." Christopher tries to stop her.

"Yes, it is." Lauren tells him. "Rory is five years older than me and even though she was an accident just like I was, I was the second accident. I mean, I know when I keep making mistakes I don't even want to attempt or deal with it anymore. And that's pretty much what you did. Rory had time to get to know you and be around you before I was born, and you were used to her. I was just there."

"Lauren, that is not true and you know it!" Chris says sternly. "I love you and your sister just the same."

"Just not enough."

Christopher closes his eyes. He never wanted his daughter to feel like she wasn't wanted by him. Yes, he made a few mistakes, but he didn't want Lauren, or Rory, to feel like they were included into those mistakes. "Lauren, I wish I could be the dad you want me to be. Trust me, I want to be that dad, but I'm not. Not yet. I'm trying, though. I want to be able to give you and your sister everything that you want, even your mom. You three mean so much to me and I want to be able to show you."

Lauren stops and turns around looking at Christopher with angy and upset eyes. "You still don't get it, do you?" She asks. "I don't want anything from you, Dad. I've gone this long without it. I think I'll be fine." Lauren tells him as she turns back around and walks further away from him to go home. Christopher knew whatever he said next wouldn't fix anything. He screwed up and now he had to deal with it. One day he was going to make it right. Whether it was today, tomorrow, next week, or next year, or even the rest of their lives, but he was going to try whatever he could to be the dad his girls needed him to be.

The next day, Lorelai and Rory walk into the building where the ball is going to be taking place. Rory hadn't put her dress on yet so she was carrying in, while Lorelai is dressed in a long dark purple dress with her hair slicked back in a low ponytail. They both stopped and looked around the place.

"This place is huge." Rory tells her mom. She looks over and sees the stairs on the side that are super long. "Do I have to walk down those stairs?"

"I'm afraid so. Unless you want to make a memorable entrance and slide down the banister which I totally encourage, by the way."

A woman with clipboard walks up to them. "You are..."

"Lorelai Gilmore." Rory tells her.

"...late."

Sorry. My fault." Lorelai apologizes. "Took me awhile to get pretty. Not all of us are sixteen anymore, you know what I mean?" She asks as she waits for the woman to respond, but instead she gets dead looks. "No."

"You are to head up the stairs. The preparation room is on the right."

"Look for the toxic cloud of Chanel and Final Net." Lorelai whispers to her. Rory follows the woman towards the room, but she looks back at Lorelai who is encouraging her again to slide down the banister. Rory smiles and walks further away and into another room. Lorelai walks over to the open bar and grabs a glass of champagne just as Emily walks up to her. "Mom, you're here."

"Where should I be, Spain?" Emily asks sarcastically.

"Oh, I tried calling you all night last night."

"I was very busy." Emily says as she starts to walk.

Lorelai follows her. "And then we got here before you."

Emily turns back to Lorelai. "What is your point?"

"Nothing. It's just weird."

"Well, I'm here now, so it's not weird anymore." Emily starts looking around behind Lorelai and around the room. "Where is Lauren?"

"Oh, she stayed home. Well, she's with Luke." Lorelai tells her.

Emily gives Lorelai a weird look. "Why on Earth is she with the diner man?" Emily asks.

"Luke, Mom, and because she wanted to be. I didn't want to force her to get all dressed up and come to this. Lauren would just be bored." Lorelai explains.

"She is an eleven year-old girl, Lorelai. It's time she gets used to stuff like this."

"Mom, my daughter never goes to these kinds of things so I highly doubt we will make this a annual event." Lorelai tells her.

Emily rolls her eyes. "Her sister is coming out. She should be here."

"But she's not. I'm fine with her not being here, she's fine with it, Rory's fine with it, so you should be, too."

"Fine." Emily says giving up. "Look at these flowers." She says in disgust. "Baby's breath. What is this, County General?"

Lorelai smiles at her mother. "You look very nice, Mom. I like you dress."

Emily continues to look around obviously not hearing anything Lorelai is saying to her. "Cotton tablecloths, folding chairs. It's not supposed to be like this. In my day, people sat in real chairs."

"Mom, what's the matter?" Lorelai asks her sensing something far more than chairs is bothering her.

"I wanted my grand-daughter to be presented to society in a beautiful, elegant ballroom, not a Shakey's."

"The room is beautiful. You're being too critical."

"There's Nan. I'm going to have a little talk with her about the proper height for a taper." Lorelai watches her mother walk away. She was being weirder than normal especially the last few days. Lorelai usually never cared what was happening in her mother's life, but for some reason this was bothering her and she needed to figure it out.

Later, Christopher walks in and sees Lorelai being completely bored as she stands with a few women talking about their daughters. He smiles and walks quickly over to save her.

"Hi. Sorry to interrupt." He says walking up behind Lorelai. "Could you come with me? My cummerbund and I aren't seeing eye to eye." He lies.

Lorelai looks over at the ladies and shakes her head. "Men. Totally helpless. Excuse me." Lorelai wraps her arm around Christophers and walks him away. "You save me." She says, happily. "I love you. I want to have your babies. Oops. Too late."

"I saw the look." Chris says, grinning at her. "The same one you had that time you ended up on homecoming court."

"Ugh. Someone's idea of a sick, sick joke. Hey, by the way, Neil Young's got nothing on you." She says talking about his tux."

"Yeah?" Chris smiles cheekingly.

"Yeah."

Emily walks up to them looking distressed and concerned. "Lorelai, have you seen your father?"

"No."

"He promised me he'd be here by now."

"Wait. You didn't come together?" Lorelai asks.

"I swear, if he misses this..."

"Well, Mom, did you call him?"

"Of course I called him. I would go this long without calling him."

Christoper looks up behind Lorelai and spots Richard walking in. "Emily, he's here."

"Where?" Chris points behind them. "Oh." She walks over to Richard. "Where have you been?"

Lorelai turns back around to face Chris and grimaces as she listens to her parents argue in public. "I can't look. Did she bean him with the baby's breath?"

Chris watches with a scared look in his eyes. "No, they're just energetically practicing their sign language."

"Oh, God."

"Okay, I think this is a really good time for a martini. Hello." He calls out to the bartender. "Thirsty people here." Lorelai walks behind the bar and starts mixing up the martini for Chris. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Steve won't mind." She tells him.

"Little tip, never a good idea to let people know you're on a first-name basis with the bartender." Lorelai laughs as she hands him his drink. "Wow. This is really something."

"What?"

"You and I together at a debutante ball."

"Ha. Yeah."

"Just like it would have been sixteen years ago."

"Fancy dress."

"Sneaking booze."

"Parents acting crazy."

"You look great." Chris compliments her.

"I'm so glad you're here."

"So am I. I just wish my our other daughter would be happy, too." Lorelai looks sadly at Chris, but before she could say anything an announcement for the fathers to go up to the staging area upstairs. "Show time. You gonna be alright?"

"Absolutely." Lorelai assures him.

Chris takes one more sip of his drink. "I'll see you later." He says before walking away.

In town, Luke had to go get a few groceries and things for the diner and for himself so he brought Lauren along to help him.

"So, how often do you buy stuff for the diner?" Lauren asks curiously as she carries one bag in hands.

Luke has a couple, too. "About one a month considering how soon things start to clear out, but lately it has been once a month which is good, but kinda bad, too."

Lauren nods. "I think this is so cool. To have your own business. I mean, you get to do whatever you want. You can leave when you want, sleep when you want, you can not open the place if you're not feeling like it."

"But then how would I pay my bills or feed you, your mom, and you sister everyday if I don't want up?" Luke jokes with her.

Lauren shrugs as she really thinks about it. "I'm going to have to get back to you on that one." She tells him.

"Okay." He laughs. They walk quietly for awhile. Luke thought it was a bit weird considering Lauren wouldn't stop talking since she got to the diner. "Whatcha thinking about?"

Lauren looks up at him and grins. "Luke, how long have you known me?"

"Oh, well, you know that. Ever since you were born." He tells her. "Why?"

"I don't know. I was just trying to think of a time that you were never around."

"Think of any?"

Lauren chuckles. "No. You have always been there even when we never asked. You even went to my kindergarten graduation."

"I was there when you first started walking, too." Luke tells her.

Lauren's eyes widen with surprise. "Were you really?" She asks him.

Luke laughs. "Yeah. You had just dropped Rory off at school, so she was coming in for some coffee before work. She set you down on the blanket I kept around the store for when you came, so that you could play with your toys. Well, you stood right up and walked over to your mom and pointed to the coffee she had." Luke smiles as he remembers. "Your mom didn't stop crying and, well, neither did you until you got a sip of the coffee which of course your mother gave you." Luke says as if he was still annoyed about what Lorelai did.

"That's so cool." Lauren says as she smiles at the memory. Her mom had never told her that story, so it wa cool when someone who isn't really your family has awesome stories about you that you've never heard before. "I'm sure my mom was happy that you were always there, huh?"

"I guess so." Luke shrugs. "I mean, I supplied the coffee."

Lauren laughs. "I wish you were my dad." She says letting it slip easily off her tongue. It didn't phase her by what she said to Luke. Lauren just continued to talk about whatever while Luke stood there still trying to process what she just said to him.

Upstairs in the staging area, Rory is standing in line as she awaits her moment of walking out and coming out into society as woman when Dean walks up to her.

"Hey. Just wanted to see you before you became a proper lady of society." He jokes.

Rory smiles up at her boyfriend. "So what do you think?" She asks him about her dress.

"I think you look like a cotton ball."

"Why, thank you, Jeeves."

"But a really cute cotton ball." He says sweetly when Chris walks up.

"Dad." Rory says.

"I'll meet you downstairs. Good luck." Dean tells her as he walks away.

"Okay."

Chris gets into his position just as the announcements for everyone to take their seats comes through the speakers suddenly making them both pretty nervous. "Last chace to shimmy down the drainpipe." He whispers to Rory.

"Do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"Just don't let me fall."

"Right back at you."

Downstairs the host of the evening is standing in the staircase, looking out to everyone, as she speaks. "Good evening. On behalf of the Daughters of the American Revolution I would like to welcome you to our annual debutante ball." Lorelai looks around the room for her parents who seemed to have disappeared. "Oh this brings back so many memories. I myself came out in this very hall in 19...well, let's just say number of years ago." She laughs along with everyone else. Lorelai gets up when she sees her parents in the back still arguing about something.

"I think you're being irrational." Emily tells Richard. "Just come sit down."

"I'm going to finish my drink." Richard says stubbornly.

"You won't be happy until you've spoiled this evening?"

Lorelai jumps in. "Uh, guys, there's a lady up there with a rock the size of Neptune, talking about the debutantes of ancient Greece. It's a lot easier to fall asleep if you're sitting down. Trust me."

"I will sit down when I am ready to sit down." Richard says rather loudly.

"Richard, lower your voice." Emily whispers sternly.

"No, I will not lower my voice." He says much louder than before. "I paid a fortune to be here, and I will speak as loudly as I like."

"You're embarrassing us, embarrassing Rory."

"Embarrassing Rory? This wasn't Rory's idea." He tells her. "This was your idea. This whole ridiculous evening was your idea."

"You don't want your grand-daughter preseted to society?"

"To hell with society!" He says loudly causing a few people to look back at him. "Yes, I'm talking about you!"

Lorelai has enough and grabs both of them. "Come on, that's it." She says as she drags them out of the room and into the hallway. "Are you two completely out of your minds? There's a ceremony going on in there. Young girls in ugly dresses and stupid fans are parading around in circles for whatever reason, and you two are ruining it."

"I didn't want to come here. You knew that." Richard tells Emily.

"Well that's too bad. We have a social responsiblity."

"I am so tired of hearing you say that."

"People expect us to be certain places and do certain things. We can't just withdraw from all that."

"Do you know what I'm going through at work?" He asks.

Emily rolls her eyes. "Your whole life isn't that damn company, Richard!"

"I have told you what I'm going through, but you don't seem to hear it. You don't listen to me or anybody."

"That is not true!"

"It is. Isn't it true?" He asks Lorelai. "Has she ever listened to a word you've said?"

Lorelai hesitates for a moment. "Hey, well, people listen in different ways." She answers. "Right? Some people listen with their ears and some people listen with not their ears. But that doesn't mean some listening hasn't happened in some form."

"I have listened to you, Richard. I know exactly what is going on."

"Really?" Richard says surprised. "What?"

"You lost an account."

"What?" Lorelai asks.

"No. I didn't lose an account. I was taken off an account." Richard tells them. "I was taken off an account that I brought into this compeny ten years ago."

"There are other accounts, Richard."

"I have been in charge of that account for ten years!" He yells growing very frustrated with this whole thing.

"How can you be so angry? Yes, they took you off that account but they also gave you a promotion."

"Oh, Emily." Richard laughs.

"You said they moved you upstairs to a larger office and gave you a new title and a better parking space."

"Emiy, damn it. I am being phased out."

"You are not."

"What do you mean I'm not? I invented 'phased out' for this company. Don't you think I did the exact same thing to Allen Parker?"

"Allen Parker retired."

"Allen Parker was phased out. I now have his office. I now have his parking space. You know what happens from here? I lose more accounts slowly, but surely. They will put a younger man on them with me to be trained by the best. Then one day, they'll call and ask me to let that young man take a meeting without me, to see how fast he's learning. And then, suddenly, that young man is given that account. And this happens again and again and again until I am nothing but a symbolic figurehead that they roll out for banquets and group pictures." Richard explains to the worried looks of Emily and Lorelai Gilmore. "And then, one day, Emily I will be asked to leave."

"Well, so what." Emily says putting her foot down.

"Excuse me?"

"Dad, I don't think Mom meant exactly..." Lorelai starts but Emily interrupts her.

"So what if that's true?"

"...or maybe she did."

"There are other options."

"I don't want other options." Richard tells her. "I want to get up every morning and put on my suit and go to my office and do my work, like I've done everyday for thirty years. That's what I want to do. That's the only thing I want to do."

Rory walks up from behind them. "Um, excuse me. Hi." She says as they turn towards her. "Sorry to interrupt, but I'm next." She quickly turns away and heads back to her spot.

Richard and Emily ignore what just happened and turn back to the entrance of the ballroom and leave Lorelai standing there thinking about everything that just happened before following them quickly to see her daughter.

"Lorelai Gilmore." The lady announces. "Daughter of Christopher Hayden and Lorelai Gilmore." Rory comes down holding her dad's arm. She couldn't stop smiling and looking around at everyone. She was pretty sure she wasn't suppose to move much, but it was all so interesting. They go all the way downstairs and Chris lets Rory do her thing as she curtsys and grabs Dean's arm next as he leads her to their spot.

"That should have been you up there." Emily tells Lorelai sadly. Lorelai looks at her mother. "Nothing's turning out the way it was supposed to." Emily walks away as Lorelai watches her. Was Emily that upset that Lorelai isn't following in the footsteps of heself? She was actually glad she wasn't or she would be the one fighting with her husband outside their daughter's debutante ball.

Back in Stars Hollow, Christopher, Lorelai, Dean, and Rory are walking down the sidewalk. Everyone is still dressed up.

"Did you know that you're considered a hot dad?" Rory asks Christopher.

"Hah!" Lorelai laughs loudly.

"Really?" Chris asks.

"Libby said it's too bad you're my real dad becuase if you were my step-dad, I could steal you away from Mom." Rory explains.

"That Libby's got a good life ahead of her."

"Well, I was very proud of all of you." Lorelai tells them. "You made it through the entire ceremony with a straight face. Almost all of you."

"I'm sorry, but that fan dance was more than I could take."

"Hey, I need burger." Lorelai says, tapping Rory on her shoulder. "And I need my other daughter."

"I need a burger, too. Dean?" Rory asks.

"Honestly, the only thing I can think of is taking off this tux." Dean tells her.

"Hey, watch it. You're talking to a lady now." Lorelai jokes.

"Well, how about if I do it at home?"

"Better."

"Thanks again for going with me." Rory says sweetly.

"Tomorrow, you stary paying." Dean reminds her. He leans closer and kisses her on the lips. "Bye."

"Bye." Everyone says back.

"And then there were three." Lorelai says.

"Actually, I have to get back to Boston in the morning, so I'm gonna call it a night, too." Chris tells them.

"What? Not even time for fries?" Rory asks sadly.

"I'll get up a little early and have coffee with you before I go." Chris promises. "Deal?"

"Deal." Rory hugs Christopher before he walks away.

"Honey, go ahead and order for us. I'll be there in a sec."

"Kay." Rory walks away leaving Chris and Lorelai there alone.

"I just wanted to tell you how amazing you were tonight. Really, you completely came through for her."

"She deserves it. They both deserve it."

"I haven't always given you a lot of credit in the past, but I'm giving you credit not. Big credit. Major credit. Buy yourself a sofa."

"Thanks. I will." Chris laughs

"You know, um, I happened to be looking through some old maps this afternoon and I couldn't help but notice that Boston is not that far away."

"You needed a map to tell you that?"

"I also noticed that, that I-84 is a very good road. Solid, paved. And I put this information in my pretty little head. I was thinking, if you wanted to maybe drop by occasionally it wouldn't be too difficult."

"You realize I'll be driving the Volvo?"

"Actually, I'm coming around to the Volvo. And I'm pretty sure the girls will definitely love it. And I wouldn't mind, either."

"That is a tempting offer, but I really have to get back." He says a little disappointed.

"To work?"

"To work and to someone."

"Oh." Lorelai says taken back.

"I know, I should have told you."

"Oh, no, that's fine. It's totally your business."

"I meant to, but...Lor, it's just that you and I are so connected..."

"Chris, please. I get it. I think it's really great. I really do."

"Thank you. Okay, so I'll see you back home."

"Yes, you will." Lorelai smiles. Chris walks away leaving Lorelai standing there pretty embarrassed. She watches Chris walk further away before she heads to her girls. Lorelai walks into the diner and catches Rory eating a burger without her and Lauren sitting next to her picking at her sister's fries. "Hey!"

"What?" Rory asks.

"After all you've been through tonight, I come in and find you eating like that?" Rory puts her pinky finger. "There you go." Lorelai smiles.

"Being a lady is hard." Rory tells her before she takes another bite.

"Hi, Mom." Lauren says to Lorelai.

Lorelai leans closer into Lauren and kisses her right on her cheek. "Hey, kid. I missed you today. I had no one to help me point and laugh with."

"I'm sorry."

"Did you have a good time with Luke?" Lorelai asks as she looks around for him.

"Yeah, I did. I learned a lot about the diner business. Are you sure you want to open your own business? It's pretty hard."

Lorelai laughs. "I'm glad you had fun."

"Well, Rory, did you have fun?" Lauren asks grinning towards her sister.

"Well, the fan dance was humiliating. I'm never doing a curtsy again. But having Dad around was great." Rory tells her.

"I guess." Lauren shrugs.

Lorelai pulls Lauren into her and kisses her again on her forehead, lovingly. "He's got a new girlfriend." Lorelai tells them.

"Yeah, Sherrie." Rory tells them.

"Poor girl's named after a Journey song. That's gotta be rough."

"He seems happy." Lauren chimes in.

"He does. He really does." Lorelai agrees.

Luke comes over and puts a burger in front of Lorelai. "So, back from the ball,"

"Yes. I left behind a glass slipper and a business card incase the prince is really really dumb."

"Good and desperate thinking." Luke tells her.

"Thank you. And thank you for keeping Lauren. I know she can be hand full." Lorelai jokes as she nudges her daughter playfully.

Luke smirks at the two. "She was great. She was lot of help around here unlike my nephew who I've barely seen today, but she was great. She's been fed and everything."

"Well, thanks for that. I wasn't planning on feeding her today." Lorelai jokes again.

Lauren rolls her eyes and smiles. "Luke tried forcing me to eat broccoli." She tells her mom as she makes a disgusted face.

Lorelai smiles and looks at Luke. "Yeah, and you should be ashamed of yourself." He tells Lorelai.

Lorelai looks at her daughter. "I am so sorry you had to go through that, babe."

"It's okay. I don't think I was around them much to have nightmares." Lauren jokes back.

Luke rolls his eyes and walks back behind the counter. He then notices Jess come downstairs dressed just like him in plaid and a backwards baseball cap on and he starts wiping down the tables. Rory and Lauren start laughing as they watch Luke go up to Jess. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Working." Jess tells him.

"So you think this is funny?"

"I'm sorry, I thought this was the uniform."

"Okay, you know what? That's fine. Have your little joke. Doesn't bother me at all." Luke lies. "You just go over there and clean off that table. I'm ignoring you. You do not exist." Luke walks away and leave Jess to clean the rest of the tables.

"Okay." Jess says contently as he continues his job.

Luke keeps turning back and looking at Jess. Now it was bugging him. "That's it. Get upstairs and change."

"Whatever you say, Uncle Luke." Jess looks back at Rory and smiles before he heads back upstairs.

"It's Luke!" Luke yells. "Just Luke. Or even Mr. Luke. In fact, don't address me at all!"

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren continue their laughing as they finish their dinner and Luke walks to the back to blow off steam.

The next morning, Lauren came back into her room after seeing Christopher off. She and her dad still weren't on the best of terms but she figured for her mom and sister, she would at least be nice and tell him goodbye. But as she walks over to her bed she notices an envelope sitting there on her bed. She sits down and opens it and pictures start to fall out along with a note. '_Lauren, your mom has made sure every year, through every crazy, dramatic, exciting time to take pictures of the moments she'd know I wouldn't want to miss. These are the pictures she has sent me. Don't worry. I have copies. Your Dad.'_Lauren smiles as she begins to look through the many pictures that were stuff in the envelope. There were pictures of her first sip of coffee, her first day of school, when she learned to ride a bike, and all sorts of other things. Christopher knew that this wasn't going to fix everything, but he just wanted Lauren to realize that even when he wasn't there when he wanted to be, he was there anyway. Lorelai did not want Chris to miss out on important milestones when it came to their kids.

_Keep On Playing Even If It Breaks Your Heart_

Thanks everyone for the amazing reviews. They make me so happy to see that everyone is still reading them. Please continue to review!


	28. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk into the diner and are surprised when they see how many people are there.

"Wow. Busy today?" Lorelai asks. "Has Luke been advertising?"

"He gets good word of mouth." Lauren tells her.

They walk over to an empty table and sit down. "We have to start spreading bad word of mouth so we can always have a table."

"Well, that would be wrong, but sure." Rory says. "Vermin?"

"Or no portable water. That'd scare them away."

"Or confuse them away."

Lorelai looks over and sees Luke talking sweetly to an old lady. "It's so weird seeing him talking like that."

"Like what?" Rory asks.

"Just all friendly. He's usually only good for a couple of gruff monosyllables, then he's off."

"He is the master of the monosyllable." Rory agrees.

"He never flirts with any of the women. Do you notice that?"

"He's flirted with you numerous times." Lauren tells her as Rory nods her head in agreement.

"Don't start."

"Hey, flirt with him now. We need coffee." Rory tells her.

Lorelai picks up the napkin in front of her and starts waving it up in the air. "Oh, Luke." She says in a very high-pitched voice. Luke just glares at her. "We are just dying for some refreshments."

"Keep your pants on." He yells at her.

Lorelai sighs. "He can turn it off and on so fast."

"Hey, I found a cd in the front seat of our car. Did you lose one?" Rory asks, curiously.

"Mm, not that I know of, but I'm kinda sloppy with them."

"So you didn't hide it?"

Lorelai grins. "Why would I hide a CD?"

"I don't know. Bay City Rollers."

"It's not a Bay City Rollers cd." Lauren tells her sister.

Lorelai and Rory quickly turn towards Lauren with a suspiciously look. "How do you know?" Rory asks her.

Lauren hesitates as she looks back and forth from her sister and mom. She was also trying to figure out an escape incase things got bad. "I know what's not hidden under the seat."

Rory laughs. "Because you know Barry Manilow is under that seat."

Lorelai starts laughing as well. "Mom, made me hide him." Lauren tattles.

Lorelai gasps just Luke walks up with the cofee. "Where's Barry Manilow?" He asks.

"Under Mom's seat." Rory tells him.

"Okay, I confess I made Lauren hide Barry Manilow."

"You confess!"

"He was very big when I was very small. And it's the live version where he does a medley of his commercial jingles."

"Don't worry. Everyone's allowed a guilty pleasure." Rory says. "But I just can't believe you making Lauren listen to it, too."

"Hey, I kinda like it." Lauren tells her which just makes Rory laugh a little more.

Lorelai rubs her youngest's back supportively. "Hey, don't laugh at us considering the girl who the Bryan Adams poster above her bed for two years." Rory stops laughing and gives her mom an evil look. "Do you have a guily pleasure, Luke?"

"No." He tells her.

"Are you into music?"

"Sure."

Lorelai turns away. "Monosyllabic Man strikes again."

"We'll have two muffins, please." Lauren says.

"You got them." Luke walks way leaving the three alone once again.

"Do you think he'd dated anyone since Rachel?" Lorelai asks them.

Rory turns to look at Luke. "I don't know. Where would he meet anyone? He's either here or in his apartment."

"Maybe he has a secret life. Maybe he's got a chippy stowed away in Mt Pilot. I say he's a bachelor for life."

"I say there's someone for everyone." Lauren says as she takes a sip of her coffee.

Rory starts laughing unexpectantly. "What?" Lorelai glares.

"Barry Manilow." Rory tells her.

"Hey, stop!"

"'Looks like we made it.'" Rory sings.

"Oh, yeah? Spice Girls."

"Duran Duran."

"Dido."

"Olivia Newton-John."

"The Macarena." Lorelai laughs. "You and Lane for hours and hours, for weeks on end." Lorelai starts demonstrating.

"Hey, we were mocking. You can't mock the mocking."

"Alright. It's getting ugly. Let's stop."

"Let's be friends again."

"Alright." Lorelai puts up her coffee mug and Rory does the same as they cling them together.

Lauren just sits there in the middle of them giving them both weird looks. "You guys are weird."

At the house, Lorelai and Lauren walk back into the house through the front door.

"I'm going to be late." Lauren tells her mother.

"What happened?" Rory asks when they enter the kitchen.

"The car won't start." Lorelai says.

"What?"

"I don't know what happened. It's just dead. I turn the key, it makes a horrible sound."

"What kind of sound?" Rory asks as she put the juice back into the fridge.

"Like.." Lauren makes an aggressive mean sound.

"But less feminine." Lorelai tells her.

"That's the battery." Rory says.

"Well, what did I ever do to make the battery mad?"

"Let's see. You've kept the radio on all night, killing the battery."

"You've kept the light on all night, you've kept the door open which keeps the ceiling light on all night killing the battery." Lauren adds in.

"Okay, well, I've done multiple things to make the battery mad." Lorelai walks over to the counter and picks up the phone.

"Are you gonna walk?" Rory asks.

"I'm wearing heels." Lorelai points out.

"Change your shoes."

"I'd have to change my outfit."

"Do it."

"I'd have to walk upstairs."

"Suddenly I'm living with Zsa Zsa Gabor." Rory says as she rolls her eyes.

"I'm gonna call Michel. Can you walk Lauren to school on your walk to the bus stop?" She asks while she dials the number to the Inn.

"Sure." Rory starts taking books out of her booksack. "This thing is too small." She says frustrated.

"Independence Inn." Michel says as he answers the phone at the Inn.

Lorelai walks over to the table where Rory is unpacking her stuff and Lauren is standing there waiting. "Hold on, Michel. That backpack is not too small."

"Miniscule."

"Just take your schoolbooks and leave the others." Lauren suggests.

"I need all of my other books."

"You don't need all these." Lorelai says looking through them.

"I think I do."

"Edna St. Vincent Millay?"

"That's my bus book." Rory grabs the book and puts it into the bookbag.

"Uh, huh. What's the Faulkner?"

"My other bus book."

"So just take one bus book." Lauren tells her.

"The Millay is a biography. Sometimes on the bus, when I pull out a biography and I think to myself, 'I don't feel like reading about a person's life' then I'll switch to the novel. And if I'm not into the novel, I'll switch back." Rory explains.

"Hm. Still there, Michel?" Lorelai asks through the phone.

"Yes, I-" He says frustrated.

"Hold on." Lorelai interrupts. "What is the Gore Vidal?"

"That's my lunch book."

"Uh huh. So lose the Vidal or the Falkner. You don't need two novels."

"Vidal is essays."

"But the Eudora Welty's not essays or biography."

"Right."

"So, it's another novel. Lose it."

"Nuh uh. It's short stories." Rory smiles as she stuffs that book into the bag.

"Ugh. This is a sickness. Michel?"

"I am growing very old." He tells her.

"Come pick me up."

"I'm already here."

"Put Carol on the desk and pick me up."

"I'm not speaking to Carol. She ate my low-fat cheese."

"Michel, come pick me up and I will buy you some cheese. Just get over here."

"Fine."

Lorelai hangs up just as Rory happily finishes putting the books in her bag and is able to zip it right up. "Ha! I made it all fit. Edna, Bill, Gore, and Eudora, all safe and sound."

"Cool. You forgot your French book."

Rory turns around and grabs the book from the shelf. "I know. I'm carrying my French book."

"You so thought that French book was already in there." Lauren laughs as they three of them walk to the front door.

"I did not."

"You have a problem."

"No, I don't."

Lorelai hands Rory her coat. "You're gonna tip over backwards from the weight of that backpack."

"No, I'm not."

"I'm gonna have to buy you a forklift. Bye."

"Bye!" Both girls say as they walk out and Lorelai smiles as she watches them leave while she waits for Michel.

At Chilton, it was lunch and Rory was walking happily to her regular table with her food. She puts her backpack down and takes out her lunch book and her mp3 player. A lady walks over to her and taps Rory on the shoulder, startling her a little.

"I startled you. I didn't mean to." She tells Rory.

"That's okay. I'm easily startled."

"I'm Mrs. Burdiness, the guidance counselor. Your name's Rory, isn't it? Rory Gilmore?"

"Yes. Hello." She says awkwardly as she puts her hand out to shake the ladies.

"I'd love to sit and talk to you. Can we do that?"

"Sure, anytime."

"How about after you finish your lunch?"

"That soon?" Rory asks.

"I think soon would be good."

"Okay. What's this about?"

"We'll talk about it then."

"Not even a hint?"

"See you in a little bit."

"Right." Rory says as she watches the lady walk off. She was still so confused. She didn't think she did anything wrong. "Right."

After lunch, just as scheduled, Rory walks into the guidance counselor's office.

"Hello, Rory. Have a seat." Mrs. Burdiness tells her.

Rory smiles softly and sits down in front of the desk. "Thank you."

"So don't worry about being late for your next class. I'll write you a note if you want."

"Okay."

"I know from your records you're a stickler for punctuality." She tells Rory as she reads her file.

Rory nods her head, agreeing. "I am a stickler, yes. I only slipped one time last year. I hit a deer. Actually, he hit me. Or she did. Or not me, my car. But then he or she ran away and I think it turned out okay." Rory explains. "I didn't see it again so I can't definitively say. But I did look for him or her." Rory takes a deep breath as the counselor just sits there listening. "It's a big story for me. I'm surprised I don't tell it better."

"Why don't we get to the reason I asked you here?"

"Okay."

"Headmaster Charleston brought you to my attention a few weeks ago. He's worried. After observing you a bit, I'm worried, too."

Rory looks surprised. "You've been observing me?"

"We've been concerned about your social behavior here at school."

"What about it?"

"You don't seem to interact much with other students."

"I do, sometimes. In class, all the time."

"But rarely outside of class. At lunch, you're always alone."

"That's when I catch up on reading."

"And that Mp3 player makes you very unapproachable."

"You approached me." Rory tells her. She was starting to freak out about what the counselor was telling her. They were all watching her and Rory didn't even know it.

"And you almost jumped out of your skin. What does that tell you?"

"That I'm jumpy. On the Fourth of July, forget it, I'm a wreck. And when the Stars Hollow orchestra begins to play in the gazebo with the guy banging the cymbals, it drives me nuts."

"Denying a problem doesn't solve a problem, Rory. Unless something changes, this could affect your future."

"But I don't understand. I get good grades. Isn't that enough?"

"You know it's not. Rory, when we make recommendations to universities on behalf of a student, that student's social skills are a big part of it. Well, I assume you want to go a university."

"Absolutely."

"Well, universities don't look likely at loners."

"But I'm not a loner." Rory tells her. She was growing very frustrated with this whole conversation.

"What do you think a loner is?"

"Loners are those guys that you see walking around wearing, I don't know out-of-date clothing, bell-bottoms. And they tend to carry a duffel bag with God knows what's inside. That's a loner."

"Loners comes in all shapes and sizes. Even pretty girls. Just try to improve, Rory. Mix it up with others. You may even enjoy it. Start with lunch."

"I don't suppose there's a lunchtime reading/walkman-listening club I can join, is there?" Rory asks sarcastically. The counselor just stares at her. "I guess that's a no." She sighs.

Later that day, Lauren is just getting home when the phone rings. She runs over to it and picks it up.

"Hello?"

"Lauren?" A boy's voice says on the other side.

"Who's this?" She asks, confused.

"It's Alex."

Lauren's eyes widen. "Alex, why are you calling me?"

"Look, please don't hang up." He says quickly. "I'm in a home in Hartford. And I knew you would be home at this time before your sister and your mom."

"Creepy."

"I just wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" Lauren asks, annoyed. "I can't trust you, Alex. Not after what you and your brother did to me."

"No, no. Lauren, I didn't mean for all that to happen. I really really like you. My brother is just.. not a good guy and I should have never brought you back to my house."

"Then why did you kidnap me?" Lauren asks, not buying it.

"I can explain everything if you just come and see me. I can give you the address and everything."

"I can't go and see you, Alex. Not after what you did. Plus, my mom would never allow it."

"Please, Lauren. I want to apologize to you in person and explain everything. You have my number so call me back if you decide to come. Which I hope you do. I have to go. Bye!" Alex hangs up the phone before Lauren can say anything. Lauren hangs up the phone slowly, trying to figure out what just happened. Should she go see him? Lauren knew if she did and her mom found out, then things would not be looking so good for her on her end, but on the other hand, Lauren was curious to why now, all of sudden, Alex was getting in touch with her now. She was actually thinking about going. Lauren wanted to know what he had to say to her.

Later that day, after Rory got home, Lorelai and Rory are sitting outside on the porch talking about what happened at school today.

"So, what is she expecting you to do?" Lorelai asks, curiously.

"She said mix it up." Rory tells her.

"What does that mean?"

"I guess, going up to strange kids at school and saying: 'Hey, mind if I awkwardly butt in where I don't belong and don't wanna be?'"

Lorelai shakes her head in disbelief. "The whole thing's ridiculous. Chilton is a cult."

"Lorelai!" They both turn to where Kirk is trying to fix Lorelai's jeep. "Do you know what this is?" He asks, showing her a piece of the jeep.

"No."

"Damn."

"I don't know. Maybe there is something wrong with me." Rory tells her mom.

Lorelai sits up and looks at her daughter with sadly. "Don't say that."

"Maybe I am a loner. You were mocking my backpack today. I might just be one step away from carrying a mysterious duffel bag."

"Oh, no! Don't you go doubting who you are, how you should be. How dare she do this to you?" Lorelai was getting angry by this whole thing. She always taught her kids that it is okay to be who you are, and now she had someone telling Rory it wasn't okay. Ridiculous.

"It wasn't just her. The whole meeting was Charleston's suggestion."

"Well, good. It's time I called on old Schnickelfritz Charleston to tell him to stop messing with my kid's mind!"

"Mom." Rory says a bit unsure.

"I don't like this. Schools like Chilton try to stamp out every vestige of individuality. I won't let that happen."

Kirk walks up to them. "It's all fixed. I found a loose terminal. I reconnected the battery and jumped it. It's set to go."

"Oh, thanks, Kirk." Lorelai smiles.

"No charge for the time I spent underneath the car."

"That's great, Kirk."

"And I just want you to know that I overheard and you're absolutely right. I carried a duffel bag and ate lunch by myself my entire school career and I turned out just fine." Kirk says before walking away.

Rory looks back at her mom with a horrified look on her face as Lorelai does the same. "I'm still going down there." Lorelai tells her.

At Chilton the following day, Lorelai decides to make her appearance at the school as early as she can to talk to Charleston.

"Ms. Gilmore is here." Charleston's secretary tells the Headmaster before sending her in.

"Hello, Mr. Charleston." Lorelai says as she walks into his office.

Charleston walks over to her and shakes her hand. "Ms. Gilmore, good to see you."

"Good to be here."

"Now, I checked my records to remind myself why I asked you in, only to find you'd called this meeting."

"I did." She says as they both take their seats.

"I'm surprised. We don't see you often. We'd forgotten what you look like." He jokes.

"Well, I'm pretty much the same. Rosy-cheeked, strong of bone, sly of wit."

"How nice. So why did you want to see me?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about Rory, and this ridiculous accusation about her being a loner and how that's something bad." Lorelai explains.

"Well, it is bad." He tells her.

"No, it's not bad. It's just her. I raised my kids to do what they want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. And I don't see how reading a book or listening to an Mp3 player is hurting anyone."

"It's hurting her."

"I respectfully disagree."

"That doesn't surprise me, based on my research."

"What research?"

"When I saw your name on the appointment list, I decided to have a look at the file."

"Ah, yes, Rory's file's been of a lot of interest lately, hasn't it?" She says, annoyed.

"I wasn't talking about Rory's file." He says, surprising Lorelai. "I was talking about yours."

"I have a file?"

"You most certainly do."

"It's tiny." Lorelai says as she examines the folder on his desk.

"It's very thin."

"That's good. It means I haven't gotten into trouble." She smirks.

"On the contrary, a thin file for a parent indicate lack of participation."

"Now, wait a minute, I've participated in stuff."

"You attended a bake sale." Charleston reads.

"And I stold stuff."

"Then promptly left."

"I was busy."

"Without fraternizing with the other parents at all."

"Busy, busy, like a really tall bee."

"Like mother, like daughter."

"Okay, hold on." Lorelai says sternly.

"Ms. Gilmore, active participation in Chilton activities for a parent is vitally important."

"But.."

"This is a list of organizations sponsored by Chilton." He takes out some papers and hands them to Lorelai. "Parent groups dedicated to certain specific tasks. Any one of them would be honored by your participation."

"Okay, my schedule is..."

"We're all tremendously busy." He interrupts. "I hope you're not too busy to do what's best for you, or what's best for Rory, are you?"

"No."

"Excellent. Let us know what it'll be."

"I will." She stands up, but hesitates. "May I go?" She asks him.

"Yes, you may."

"Okay." Lorelai laughs.

"I'm glad you came in today. It was a good idea."

"Yes. I'm just full of good ideas."

At the house, Lorelai is sitting at the kitchen table reading the papers that Headmaster Charleston gave her when Rory walks in. She stops when she sees her Mom.

"Hey."

"Hey." Lorelai says, without looking up.

"Hey." Rory says again, but this time she walks into the kitchen.

"Yeah, look Fat Albert. Get me a soda?"

"Mom, what are you doing here? You were suppose to meet me in my Latin class after meeting with Headmaster Charleston." Rory tells her as she grabs the soda from the fridge and sits down.

Lorelai looks up at her daughter. "Oh, my, God. I was. I totally forgot. I'm so sorry."

"Mom, come on, what happened? Did you talk to him?" Rory asks, impatiently.

"I did. I told him he was completely out of line with this treatment of you, that you're not a loner freak, you have plenty of friends. And you don't own a long black leather Matrix coat. And they should fall on their knee socks everyday that you deign to show up at that loser school." Lorelai says with anger.

"And?"

"Then he yelled at me."

"He what!?"

"He pulled out a file and told me I was a bad Chilton Mom."

"He did not." Rory says not believing it.

"And that I don't participate in school activities."

"Well, you work."

"And I don't make posters."

"You have no artistic capabilities."

"And I don't chaperon school dances."

"Does he know you got pregnant at sixteen?"

"Basically, I'm not doing my part to help further your educationaly future."

"So we both got busted. Great."

"Now, I have to pick a group or a cause or sponsor a club or something." Lorelai says as she reads the list.

"This sucks." Rory says as she grimaces at the stuff in front of Lorelai.

"But, hey, I've been thinking. I mean, the whole reason we did this Chilton thing is for you to get into Harvard, right?"

"Right."

"And these fanatic that run your school, they are the ones that write the letters to the fancy colleges saying things like, 'Hey, she's keen, look at her,' or 'Have you seen the 'L' tattoed on her forehead? Cause it sure is a big one.'"

"So you're saying we should just go along with this?"

"Yeah, go along with it. Talk to some kids. I'll hang out with their moms and we'll get into Harvard, take over the world, and buy Chilton and turn it into a rave club. What do you say? Deal?"

Rory smiles. "Deal."

"Oh, look, the Chilton Cheer Society wear matching hats. Go Harvard." Lorelai smiles sarcastically as Rory grimaces at the thought.

The next day, Rory decided to go along with what her mom said. So, at school during lunch, Rory walks in and goes to her usual table before she notices a group of girls sitting behind her. She had never really talked to them before, so she grabs her stuff and makes her way over to them.

"Hey." She says loudly, making everyone at the table turn her way.

"Hey." The redhead says back. She seemed to be the leader of the group, but Rory didn't seem intimidated at all which meant that Lorelai taught her very well.

"There's a bad draft where I usually sit, kind of like a big downward gust. Not exactly 'Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore,' but it's still uncomfortable especially when you're just gotten your hair to behave. So can I sit here?" Rory asks as they all continue to stare.

The redhead looks around at the table, but quickly turns back to Rory. "Yeah."

"Thanks." Rory says, gratefully, as she takes a seat in front of the redhead. "Nice table. It's much more level than the one over there."

"Your name is Lori?"

"Rory."

"Right. Rory."

"What's yours?"

"Francie." The girl next to the redhead answers.

"You're Francie?" Rory asks.

"No, she's Francie. I'm Ivy."

"Francie's spokesman."

"I am a very important person and everyone knows very important people never speak for themselves." Francie explains.

Rory nods her head. "I did not know that, but I do now."

"That's Azure, Lily, Celine, Lana, Asia, Anna, and Lem." Francie says introducing everyone to Rory.

"Lem." Rory repeats.

"Short for Lemon." The girl next to her says.

"Oh, sure."

"We were just discussing homecoming. Thoughts?" Francie asks, curiously.

"Great movie. Oh, wait. That was Coming Home. Sorry."

Paris walks by, behind them, but stops when she notices Rory sitting with the group of girls. "I truly believe the whole homecoming dance ritual should be put to sleep." Francie tells the group.

"Or at least assigned a new color scheme." Ivy says.

Paris backs up and stares at them. "Rory, huh? Do they call you 'Ror?'"

"Not unless provoked." Rory tells her.

Francie laughs. "No nickname?" Ivy asks.

"Actually, Rory is a nickname. My full name is Lorelai." Rory explains.

"Lorelai." Lem says. "That's a weird name."

"Well, Lem, what can I say?"

"Sounds Southern. Are you a belle?" Francie asks.

The bell starts to ring signalling lunch is over. "No, but apparently I command them." Rory jokes.

All the girls starts packing up their stuff to leave for class. "Well, see you later, Your Highness." Francie says before walking away and leaving Rory at the table feeling pretty accomplished with herself.

As she walks down the hall to her next class, Paris pops up in front of her, scaring her a little. "God! You're like a pop-up book from hell."

"You were sitting with the Puffs. How did you do it?" Paris asks.

"The who?" Rory says, confused.

"The Chilton Puffs. You were at their table."

"I don't know. I just sat down."

Paris shakes her head not believing it. "Nobody just sits down with them. You have to be invited."

"Paris, it's not the Costa Nostra."

"No, they're the Puffs." Paris says a little more serious this time. "The most influential sorority at Chilton."

"Chilton has sororities?"

"Only ten worth mentioning. And the Puffs have been number one for at least the last fifty years. My mother was a Puff, my aunt was a Puff."

"I thought only colleges had sororities." Rory says, still not getting over the sorority thing.

"And the connections you make with them last the rest of your life." Paris continues. "My cousin got her internship at the Supreme Court because of Sandra Day O' Connor."

"She was a Puff?"

"Yes. She was Puffed in 1946, became the president in '47 and in '48, she moved the group to the very table you sat at today."

Rory was now feeling intimidated. "God.."

"It was a controversial move then, but she was just that powerful."

"I had no idea."

"What did you say about me? Did you tell them you hated me?" Paris asks.

"I didn't mention you."

"Because I've been killing myself trying to get invited in. I spent all of last year sucking up to Francine Jarvis."

"You mean Francie?"

"You call her Francie?"

"No, someone else did." Rory says quickly when she notices Paris' face falling in confusion and worry.

"I've helped her with her homework, secured her prime spot for parking, organized her locker, scrunched up the plastic strands on her pompoms to make them fluffy. I have done everything except a manicure. But, by God, if I had any talent with an orange stick, I would've done that, too."

Rory takes a deep breath. "I know I'm not the first to say this to you, but you're insane."

"Okay, look." Paris sighs. "I know you and me, we-"

"Shouldn't be around eachother armed."

"Yes. But you have to understand I have to get into that group. I just have to. My family's name and reputation, not to mention my entire future all depend on me getting into that group."

"It's just a clique, that's all."

"Look, all I'm asking is, please don't say anything horrible about me. Don't tell me that you hate me."

Rory rolls her eyes. "Paris, come on, I'm not in their group. They don't care what I say."

"They let you sit at their table through lunch. You're in." Paris argues.

"Paris."

"You know what? Nevermind. Do what you want. I don't care." Paris says, before storming away and leaving Rory very confused.

Later that day, Lorelai and the girls pull up at the grandparents' house,

"Who the hell names their kid lemon?" Lorelai asks as they get out of the jeep.

"Someone really into citrus." Lauren tells her.

They walk to the door. "Crazy, crazy, people."

"It's just so weird that the one table I sit down at is home to the secret society." Rory tells them.

Lorelai rings the doorbell. "I know. It's like waking up one day and realizing everyone in your family can pull their face off."

"Yeah, it's exactly like that." Rory laughs.

The maid opens the door. "Your mother would like you to head out to the patio." She tells them. "We're barbecuing tonight."

They walk in slowly. "Thanks." Lorelai tells her as they walk towards the back door.

"Does Grandma have a barbecue?" Lauren whispers.

"I don't know. Maybe she keeps it in a secret room with the paper napkins and the mismatched sheets." They walk outside and are completely surprised. "Wow. She really is barbecuing."

"Cool." Rory and Lauren both say as they walk closer.

"What's up, Poppin Fresh?"

"Corn!" Rory says, excitingly, as they each take something from the already made food.

"Nice. Thank you." Lorelai tells the cook while they sit down and eat their corn.

Emily walks out and is stunned by what she is seeing. "What is this, a refugee camp?" She asks the girls. "Come inside and eat at the table."

"Mom, the whole point of barbecuing is to eat outside."

"Animals eat outside. Human beings eat inside with napkins and utensils. It you want to eat outside go hunt down a gazelle. Make your decision. I'll be inside." Emily turns around and walks back towards the house.

Lorelai turns back to her girls. "What are the odds of finding a gazelle here?"

"Slim to none." Rory tells her.

"Okay, let's go." Lorelai says.

Lauren relunctantly gets up. "I really wanted to eat outside." She whines as they head for the door Emily went into.

When they walk in, the maid is there to take their coats before they sit down. "I'm extremely disappointed in you." Emily tells them.

"Hold on, Mom." Lorelai hurries to take her coat off, and hands it to the maid. She sits down, with her corn, and looks at her mother. "Okay, go ahead."

Rory and Lauren make their way over to their own seats. "I had lunch with Bitty Charleston today." Emily announces. "And she told me what happened with you and the headmaster."

"What?" Lorelai looks at Rory. "Does someone do nothing but hide under his desk with a tape recorder?"

"After all we've gone through to get Rory in that school and then humiliate all of us by not being involved? That is just incomprehensible."

"Hey, she wasn't involved either." Lorelai says, pointing over to Rory.

"Wow, just sitting here." Rory says in defense.

"You are a grown up." Emily reminds her. "Set an example. If she's not involved with school, then she learned it from you."

"Yeah." Rory agrees.

Lorelai glares at her daughter. "How hard is it to help out just once in a while?" Emily asks. "Join a group, attend a meeting. And all for the sake-"

"Mom, stop already." Lorelai interrupts. "Please. I have joined a group, okay?"

"You have?" Emily says, surprised.

"Yes."

"You have?" Rory and Lauren both ask.

"Yes."

"Which one?" Emily asks.

Lorelai stares blankly at her mother, clearly just coming up with one from the top of her head. "I'm gonna join the Booster Club, okay? The Booster Club. I'm going to boost."

"Well, the Boosters are a very fine organization."

"That's why I picked them.

"They do good work for the school."

"All went into the picking process."

"And the matching swearshirts they wear are just darling." Rory and Lauren both smirk at Lorelai who just smiles awkwardly as she looks down at her plate.

"I bet I'm looking really good right now, huh, Grandma?" Lauren says, smiling at her Grandma. Emily just shakes her head, laughing, as she continues to eat.

Since Lorelai just blurted unexpectantly about what group she was going to join for Rory's school, little did she know that a meeting for the Booster Club was just a couple days away and she had to be there. So, at Chilton, Lorelai is walking down the hallway looking for the right room.

"We're certainly not doing it like last year." A lady says.

"God, was that awful." Another grimaces.

"It wasn't that bad."

"Wasn't that bad?" The woman at the head of the table asks. "When we finished paying for everybody's stomach to be pumped there was no money left to buy bleachers."

"Well, the salsa band was wonderful."

"This is giving me a migraine." The annoyed woman says.

"I vote we take a break." A younger woman tells them.

Lorelai walks in after hearing the commotion. "Hi. Sorry to interrupt."

The woman at the head of the table smiles back at her. "It's all right. Can we help you?" She asks.

"Yes, actually. This isn't the Booster Club, is it?"

"Yes, it is."

"Oh!" Lorelai smiles. "Thank God you're not wearing sweatshirts." She says remembering what her mother told her at Friday night dinner.

"Excuse me?"

"You know what? Never mind." Lorelai walks closer to them. "I'm Lorelai Gilmore. Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, please, you haven't missed a thing. So far, we had coffee, debated Carolyn Masters nose job."

"Too pug." A woman says to her.

"Too smushed." Another adds.

"And we started arguing about our fall fundraiser."

"I suggested we take a break." The younger one says.

"I ignore the suggestion. And now here we are. You're up to date. Have a seat." The woman smiles at Lorelai and points to an empty chair.

"Lorelai Gilmore." The woman that Lorelai sits next to says recognizing the name. "You're Emily's daughter."

Lorelai sits down. "Uh, yeah. You know my mother?"

"Very well. We're on the Philharmonic Committee together. She told me to keep an eye out for you."

"That's nice." Lorelai chuckles.

"She wasn't sure you'd show up."

Lorelai takes a deep breath and changes the subject. "So, fall fundraiser. What do we do?" She asks.

"Well, last year, we had the usual luncheon with the silent auction and a salsa band." The head woman explains.

"A terrific salsa band." The woman next to Lorelai tells her.

"But every guest ended up in the hospital with food poisoning before the auction started, and we wound up losing money."

"Whoops."

"Yes, it's quite a whoops, isn't it? Anyhow, this year, we've decided to do a fashion show."

Lorelai smiles with entusiasm. "That sounds fun!"

"Well, Aubrey here workd at Saks." She says, pointing to the younger woman.

"Used to work at Saks." Aubrey corrects her.

"Sorry. Used to work at Saks. And she got several designers to donate their clothes. Now we're just trying to find a suitable caterer and location and someone to plan the event."

"It's all going very well." The redhead says sarcastically.

"I still say we apprach Chateau Memsie." The woman next to Lorelai tells him.

"That space is too small, Mena." The head woman says.

"How about something more young and fun?" Aubrey asks. "You know my stepdaughter, Kimberly..."

"Sarah." One of the women corrects her.

"Right, Sarah. Anyhow, she told me about this new club called The DIgs.." Aubrey starts explaining.

"She's been married a month and can't remember the names of her stepchildren." Mena whispers to Lorelai.

"...so the booths are in these pits, and there's sand everywhere..."

"Stop her." The redhead begs the head woman.

"I don't think that's exactly what we're looking for."

"Um, I run an Inn." Lorelai tells them.

"You do? Which one?"

"The Independence Inn. It's in Stars Hollow."

"Oh, I've been there. It's lovely."

"And we have a terrific chef who's never once hospitalized an entire function." Lorelai chuckles. "And I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but we do functions there all the time."

"Who's your function coordinator?"

"I am, actually. Since it's for charity I could get you a good price."

"I'm sorry, I forgot to ask. Are you from heaven?"

Everyone laughs. "You like the idea?" Lorelai asks.

"I love the idea. I love it so much, we can finally take a break Aubrey's been dying for." Everyone breathes out in relief and starts standing up. "Well, this is very exciting." The woman tells Lorelai. "Would you mind if I come out there tomorrow to take a look at the place? You know, make sure it's big enough for the runway."

"Yeah, sure. I'll be there all day. So, a fashion show, huh? Are we gonna get any famous models?"

"Excuse me?"

"To model the clothes. Any chance I'll finally see Kate Moss eat something?" Lorelai jokes.

"Oh, no." The woman laughs. "We're the models."

"We? Who's we?" Lorelai asks, hesitantly.

"We. The women in the room. Me, you. We."

"Me?"

"Yes. By the way, welcome to the Boosters. We're thrilled to have you." The woman smiles and hugs Lorelai tight.

"Thanks." Lorelai smiles. "That's great." The woman walks away and leaves Lorelai standing their gringing at the thought of her walking down a runway to model clothes. She was sure going to get laughed at now.

The next morning, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking down the sidewalk in town.

"HA! HA! Yours is worse than mine." Rory teases her mom.

"Ugh. They totally just snuck that modeling thing in." Lorelai tells them.

"My mom's a model." Lauren laughs. "Maybe Rory will get to date Leonardo DiCaprio now."

"Plus, now I have to plan the whole stupid thing."

"Lorelai Gilmore. Nope, doesn't sound model-y enough." Rory says to her sister. "You need something that stands out more."

"How about Waffle?" Lauren asks. "We could call you that and say you're from Belgium."

Lorelai takes out her cell phone and starts dialing a number. "I'm crabby. I need to do something about it. Hey, Mom." She says over the phone.

"Hello." Emily says as she comes down the stairs of her home.

"So I went to my first Booster meeting last night. Did Bitty tell you?"

"No, she did not." Emily smiles.

"Oh, well, maybe she's still stuck under that desk. You might wanna send someone out there." Lorelai jokes.

"Well it's certainly nice to hear you're finally getting involved."

"Yes. In fact, we're planning a charity fashion show next weekend and I volunteered to organize it."

"Well, good for you."

"Yes, and since I know how concerned you are about how Rory's perceived at Chilton I knew you'd want to be involved, so you're one of the models."

"Excuse me?" Emily says surprised.

"Yeah, so it's next Saturday. Be there at four, and we'll provide hair and make-up."

"Lorelai, you can be serious."

"We'll need your measurements, also."

"This is ridiculous."

"Mom, you said you wanted me ot be involved. I'm involved." Lorelai tells her. "Now don't you want to do your part to ensure Rory's future?"

"Alright." Emily says not pleased at all.

"Start measuring." Lorelai smiles as she hangs up the phone very pleased with herself.

"You feel better now?" Rory asks.

"Waffle's very happy." Lorelai grins at her daughters.

At school, Rory walks into the cafeteria, tray in her hand, and goes to her regular table. Francie sees her and quickly gets up and walks over to her.

"Sit with us, please." Francie says as she makes her round behind Rory and goes back to her seat at her table.

"Uh, okay." Rory grabs her things again and follows Francie.

"Here she is." Francie mumbles to the other girls.

Rory sits down and takes the seat she had before next to Lem. "Welcome." Lem says, happily.

"We talked. We find you fascinating." Francie tells her.

"Like the monkey habitat." Ivy says.

"So we've decided to extend an invite to you. You can eat here anytime you like."

"Wow. That's nice of you. Thanks." Rory says appreciatively. "So, can I ask about this whole sorority thing?" Rory asks as she picks at her food.

"Pardon?"

"Sorori-what?" Ivy gimaces.

"I thought you guys..."

"We've no idea what you're talking about." Lem interrupts.

"That's right. After all, what's the point of a secret society if it's not a secret?" Francie asks.

Paris walks into the cafeteria and sees Rory, again, sitting with the Puffs. She decides to linger around the doorway to listen in. "The whole school apparently knows about it." Rory tells them.

"Well, no one has proof. It's just a folflore."

"Like Snow White and Rose Red." Ivy says, giving examples.

"Or Mariah Carey's crackup."

"Have you heard her fan message recently?" Lem laughs. "She's fine and is currently staring at a really beautiful rainbow."

Francie looks behind her shoulder and notices Paris standing there as she pretends to read a book. Francie turns back to Rory. "Friend of yours?" She asks, curiously.

"Paris? Oh, well..." Rory hesitates.

"Too intense." Ivy says.

"Way too intense." Lem agrees.

"She comes from a long line of us, though." Francie tells them.

"You know, Paris, while, yes, a little intense is also very smart." Rory says, trying to talk nicely about Paris to them even though it was hard to, but she wanted to show Paris she wasn't the evil person she was making her out to be.

"So I drop a box of matches on the floor, she can tell me how many there are?" Francie asks, sarcastically.

"She's editor of the paper, amazing writer, plus funny."

Francie and Ivy begin to laugh. "She's funny?" Ivy asks.

"Yeah, hilarious." Rory lies. "I mean, the times that we have spent laughing together I tell you, she's a regular Gary Mule Deer."

"She asked you to talk her up, didn't she?" Francie says, realizing what was going on.

"No, not at all."

"Right."

"No, really. I think she's actually thinking of joining another non-existent group."

"What?" They all look at Rory with a scared look in their eyes. "But her family's fully puffed."

"I don't know. Maybe I heard wrong. But I think that's what I heard her say."

"A voluntary defector." Francie says in a panic to Ivy.

"Francie.."

"I know." Francie turns to Paris. "Paris?"

Paris looks up. "Yeah?"

"I think the wall can hold itself up just fine, don't you?"

"What?"

"You should sit."

"Sit?"

"Here."

"Or here." Ivy offers.

"Or anywhere, for that matter." Lem tells her.

"Well..." Paris looks at Rory with confusion.

"Unless you've got somewhere else to be. Another table, perhaps?" Rory asks.

"Another table?"

"No, you have to sit right here. Come." Francie tells her sternly.

Francie pushes everyone over and Paris walks over with a smile on her face and acting like none of this was a big deal. "Okay. I guess I can sit. For a little while, anyhow."

"Okay, so, have we discussed homecoming yet?"

"Not to my knowledge."

Rory smiles happily and she begins to her food as she listens to everyone talk. Paris smiles towards her grateful that Rory did this big thing for her.

At the Inn, Lorelai is walking and running quickly through the place. She was trying to plan everything as fast as she could with little mistakes. She walks into the lobby and sees some guys carrying a flowers in.

"In the dining room. And don't drip water on the floor, please." Lorelai walks behind the front desk. "Michel, did-"

"Five minutes ago." He interrupts.

"What about-"

"He brought the wrong color. I sent him back."

"What!? When will he-"

"Twenty minutes tops or I'll hunt him down and shave his beard."

"Good. Now we need-"

"Yes, thanks for reminding me."

"Anything-"

"No."

"Okay, well, I'm going in the dining room. Come get me if you need me to finish a sentence."

"Will do."

Lorelai walks into the dining room and goes over the guy who is setting up the runway. "Hey, how's it coming?" She asks, smiling down at him.

"Working on it." The guy tells her.

"This cannot tilt."

"I know this."

"Women in heels will be walking on it. Make it not tilt." Lorelai begs him.

Lorelai walks away from him just as Sookie walks over to her in a panic. "The lettuce is dry."

"What does that mean?"

"How attached are you to salad?"

"It's free to see anyone."

"I don't want to make a salad with dry lettuce." Sookie tells her.

"What's the alternative?"

"Soup."

"Fine."

Sookie smiles and turns around. "Okay, great." She says, happily again.

Lorelai goes to walk away, but then realizes something. "Uh, Sookie?"

"Yeah?" Sookie turns back around.

"Did we pay for the lettuce already?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"See if you can put it in the soup."

"Gotcha."

They both turn away and go their separate ways. Lorelai jumps up excitingly when she sees Luke and his toolbox. "Oh, thank God! You brought Bert."

"Right here." Luke tells her.

"My men. Follow me." She says, leading him over to the runway.

"By the way, you do tell people that you're the one that named my toolbox, right?" Luke asks.

Lorelai laughs. "Toolbox. Dirty."

"Oh, geez."

Lorelai looks down at the guy working on the runway. "Okay, move."

"What?" He asks.

"I want Luke to look at it."

"I put this thing together."

"Yes. And I loved your work in Pisa. Now get out of the way, please." The guy rolls his eyes and walk away from them.

"Okay, so what seems to be the problem?" Luke asks as he looks down at the tilted runway.

"The problem...that's not funny." Lorelai says, realizing Luke is just joking.

"I like it when you're stressed." Lorelai sighs and as she bends down with Luke to get a better look. "Man, he put this up all wrong."

"Can you fix it?"

"I don't know. I'll see."

"You can fix it." Lorelai smiles confidently.

"You can say it all you want, it doesn't make it true."

"You can fix it." Lorelai repeats.

"Not with you hovering, I can't."

"Okay, I'm leaving. And you can fix it." Lorelai walks away and just runs into Eva, the head woman from the table. "Eva, hi."

"God! The place looks wonderful." Eva tells her.

"Thank you. Let me show you to the room where we're all getting ready."

"Alright."

Lorelai leads Eva towards the room. "Fix it yet?" She asks as they pass Luke.

"The moron used the wrong supports."

"Please tell me you can fix it."

"If I told you I couldn't, would you accept it?"

"No."

"I can fix it."

"Thank you." Lorelai walks ahead of Eva, who is staring back at Luke. "So, we're right back here." She turns around when she notices Eva not following her. "Eva, the room's right back here."

"Him."

"Who?"

"Him. There. Man with tools. Who is that?" She asks still staring.

"That's Luke."

"Luke? I like Luke."

"What?"

"Oh, he's adorable. And he looks strong. Is he strong?"

"Oh, I don't know. I don't think he's gonna be in a sideshow anytime soon but he can get the lid off a pickle jar." Lorelai jokes.

"Is he single?"

"Well, yeah, he is single." Lorelai confirms.

"What kind of women does he like?"

"I don't know. The ones with heads." Eva looks at Lorelai. "You know, I don't really know what Luke's taste in women is."

Emily walks in just in time to end their conversation. "Lorelai."

"Oh, Eva, why don't you just go in the back, go to the right, you'll find the dressing room. I'll be there in a sec." Eva smiles and takes one last look at Luke before finally leaving. Lorelai walks towards her mom. "Hi, Mom."

"The place isn't nearly done yet." Emily tells her.

"Mom, why don't you just go in the back and get ready?"

"Did you see the clothes? What am I wearing?"

"I don't know. I had them hang them in the room." Lorelai grabs her mom by the back and leads her towards the dressing room.

"I hope they're not tasteless or zebra-striped or spandex." Emily says.

"Well, one good way to find out is to go on back and take a peek."

"You have to get ready, too."

"In a sec."

"If I'm doing this, you're doing this." Emily tells her as Lorelai just smiles and nods her head. "I mean it." Lorelai turns away and leaves her mom. She sees the runway is fixed.

"Ah! You fixed it." She says happily.

"Yeap. For the time being." Luke tells her. "But I'm gonna stick around to make sure nothing happens."

"Oh, okay." Lorelai says, thinking about Eva.

"What?"

"What?"

"You don't want me to?"

"I didn't say that."

"Any reason I shouldn't?"

"It's fine."

"Because I'm just doing this for you. I mean, if this thing goes and someone breaks their neck..."

"Luke, stick around."

"Alright, if you insist."

Lorelai smiles and heads to the dressing room where the women are changing. She sees Emily just standing around. "Hey. Why aren't you dressed yet?"

"I was waiting for you."

"Oh, my God. You're a paranoid woman."

"I'm Emily Gilmore." Emily says, walking up to the person who is giving out the clothes.

"Okay, here you go." The lady says, handing it to her. "Where's Lorelai Gilmore?"

"Right here." Lorelai says, stepping up.

The lady also hands Lorelai her's. "You two are together."

"What?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"You're the mother-daughter team."

"No, I'm-"

"I have the outfits for one mother-daughter team. Your names are on the outfits. You're it."

Lorelai opens the zippers and gasps when she looks at what she is going to be wearing. "Oh, my God."

On the bus, in Hartford, Lauren walks off and looks both ways at where she is at. She wasn't exactly sure where she was suppose to meet Alex. So, she just started walking until she found where there was a safe place to wait. But as she was walking, a hand comes up and grabs her by the shoulders making her jump. Lauren turns around and sees that it's just Alex.

"Alex, you scared me!" Lauren yells.

"I'm sorry. Thanks for coming." Alex tells her.

Lauren noticed that he looked a little different. He had some scars outlining his face that she had never seen before. He was either in a fight or whoever he was staying with was beating the crap out of him. "Alex, I can't stay long. My mom is going to be finished with her function soon. What do you want?"

Alex sighs. "Let's go talk. There's a coffee place across the street right here. We can talk there."

Lauren looks over and sees that the place is actually pretty busy. "Okay." She agrees and follows him towards the cafe.

Back at the Inn, the fashion show is just getting started.

"I want to welcome you here to the Chilton Booster Club's Annual Fall Festival Fundraiser where all proceeds from the evening go directly into the refurbishing of the Chilton auditorium." The lady at the potium announces to the Chilton crowd. "But enough about the kids. Tonight is about us. And without further ado, ladies and gentlemen Saks presents a fabulous fall fashion extravaganza." Everyone starts applauding as Eva makes her way on the stage. A different woman comes up after another and finally it's Lorelai and Emily's turn. They are both dressed in red. Emily is in a pants suit, and Lorelai is wearing the almost same exact top as Emily, but with a skirt. They come on stage and start walking together at the same time down the runway. Emily was actually having a blast with it which was surprising Lorelai considering Emily was against it. Emily was working on stage, putting her hands on her hips, and smiling to the crowd. Lorelai gives her a weird and awkward look, but starts to do the same. They both spin around and Lorelai glares at her mother who begins to dance on the stage. Lorelai starts laughing at how ridiculous they both must look, but they were having fun. They give one last turn before walking to the end of the runway and turning one last time to give the crowd a pose. The crowd goes wild as they make their way off the stage.

At the cafe, Lauren is sitting in front Alex. He was acting really strange and uneasy, and she could definitely tell that he was scared about something.

"Alex, why am I here?" Lauren asks him. They hadn't talked since they walked, and they were starting to waste time.

"Lauren, I asked you here so I can explain exactly what happened."

"I know what happened, Alex, I was there."

"I know you were there, but you need to know that none of that was my idea. Yeah, I wanted you to be my friend and hang out with me, but Jake kept telling me that I had to force you to because you would never hang out with me even if I begged you." Alex explains.

Lauren sighs. "Alex, that's not true. Your brother's an idiot."

"I know that now. I also wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for what he tried doing to you. It wasn't right."

Lauren was suddenly feeling uncomfortable. She hasn't talked about that in a long time. "No, it wasn't. Where is Jake anyway?"

Alex shrugs. "I don't know exactly. I heard he ran away from where he was at. He calls me sometimes." Alex says, sadly.

"Alex, what you and your brother did, I don't think I will ever be able to truely forgive you. You hurt me so much. I was scared for the longest time. I'm just twelve. I shouldn't be going through that."

"I know."

"No, I don't think you do." Lauren says with anger as she shakes her head. "You both put me through hell." Lauren looks outside and sees that it's getting dark. "I have to go." She says as she grabs her things. "My mom is going to be home soon and she's going to wonder where I'm at. Plus, the bus ride is a 45 minutes ride back home. Bye, Alex." Lauren gets up and walks out of the cafe, but Alex was not ready for her to go yet. He runs out the cafe and follows her.

"Lauren, wait!" He yells, as he catches up with her turns her around forcefully.

Lauren pushes Alex off of her. "No, Alex! I came and we talked. I heard everything that you needed to say, but that's it! I don't ever want to hear from you again! Ever!" Lauren turns back around and starts walking away, but Alex was not letting it go without a fight. She grabs Lauren by her bag and forcefully pushes her to him, but just as he goes to grab her more, someone pushes him back and makes him fall to the ground. Lauren turns back around and sees Jess standing beside her looking at Alex.

"Stay away from her." He tells Alex.

Alex just stares at Jess. "This is between me and her. Mind your business." Alex yells back at him.

Lauren just stood there looking at Jess. She couldn't believe he was here right now. "She is my business." Jess tells him before turning to Lauren. "Are you okay?" He asks her.

Lauren nods her head. "How did you know?"

"I came to the bookstore over here. They have a better selection and while I was walking to the bus stop, I seen you." Jess explains to her. "You shouldn't be out here by yourself."

Lauren smirks. "I'm not anymore."

Jess smirks back and looks back at Alex, who managed to get himself up. "I mean it. Don't get in contact with her again. I heard about what happen and if I find out you are trying to talk to her or I see you near her, I was personally rip your head off. Understood?" Alex nods his head and walks away. "Let's get you back home."

Jess puts his arm around Lauren's shoulder and they walk back together to the bus stop. "Thanks, Jess."

"No problem, kid."

At the Inn, the fashion show was finally over and the place was clearing out. But Lorelai sat at a table with Emily, and two other women from the show while they talked about the night.

"Well, I must say this was definitely better than the salsa band." Mena tells them.

"The people loved it. Did you hear them?" The redhead asks Lorelai who just laughs. "God, who picked that music?"

"That'd be me." Lorelai tells him.

"Terrific. The whole thing was terrific."

"Thank you."

"And hiring that actor to play a horrible, rude, annoying Frenchman, what a riot." Mena laughs, talking about Michel.

"Yeah, I thought that'd be fun." Lorelai jokes.

"If you'd plan all these things, we wouldn't have anymore stupid meetings." The redhead tells her.

"Oh, come on, don't you want to see how long it takes for Aubrey to finally learn that kid's name?"

"Yeah, you're right. Okay, I'll see you at the next meeting." The redhead and Mena stand up and congratulate Lorelai again for her success with the fashion show.

"Thanks. Bye" Lorelai smiles as they both walk away leaving Emily sitting there smiling at her daughter. "What?" Lorelai asks when she notices. "What are you looking so 'ha-ha' about?"

"I'm not looking 'ha-ha.'" Emily says.

"Yes, you are."

"Alright, whatever you say."

"Come on, Mom. Fess up."

"Big success tonight."

"Seemed to be." Lorelai shrugs.

"The ladies were thrilled. They adore you."

Lorelai chuckles. "Yes, well, that's because I'm adorable."

"Funny, isn't it?"

"What's funny?"

"How nicely you seem to be fitting into the world that you ran away from." Emily tells her. Lorelai looks away. She didn't have anything to say to something like that. It's true. She did run away from it, and maybe she could have actually fitted in, but it's not what she wanted her kids to be in. "Goodnight, Lorelai. Congratulations." Emily says, sincerely, as she stands up and walks away.

Lorelai turns her head and sees Luke talking to Eva. She was bringing that world into the one she kept so hidden and safe in, and suddenly she somehow still managed to not be happy in it.

Later that night, Lorelai walks into the house where Rory is laying on the couch reading a book.

"Is that you?" She yells.

"Nope." Lorelai yells back as she walks into the living room.

"How was it?" Rory asks as she sits up to see her mom.

"Oh, fine. It ran smoothly and the food was amazing. Michel only made three people cry."

"How was the fashion show?"

"Oh, you know, I walked up and down the ramp, looked pouty and sexy and now I'm ready for rehab. Is your sister sleeping?" Lorelai asks as she goes into the kitchen.

"Yeah." Rory tells her. "She came in about two hours ago."

"I brought you some Booster cake."

"Put it in the fridge, please. How's Grandma?"

"Good." Lorelai says, walking back into the living room with the cake in her hands.

"I'm assuming that's your piece of cake and mine is safe in the fridge."

"You're cute."

"Uh-huh. So, what'd you wear?" Rory asks. She wanted to know about everything.

Lorelai glares at her oldest. "Look at the time. I'm going to bed." She sets the cake down and turns to the stairs.

"Nobody took a picture of you?"

"No. Can you believe that?"

"You're holding on tightly to that purse." Rory says as she notices the purse clutched tightly under her mom's arm.

"I really love this purse."

"You have pictures in there."

"You calling your mother a liar?"

"Yes, I am."

"Yeah, well, that's why I ate your cake." Lorelai hands the purse to Rory who takes it with excitement. She opens it, while Lorelai folds her arms looking very unhappy, and begins looking through the photos.

"Oh, my god!" Rory laughs.

"Be nice."

"You look like Nancy Reagan."

"Now, how is that nice?"

"I don't believe this. You look so completely different. Elegant, understated."

"Yes, well, I was wearing underwear with propellers if that makes you feel better. I'm going to bed." Lorelai puts her hand out for Rory to give her the photos.

"I'll send the Secret Service up." Rory jokes as she hands them back to her.

"Oh, by the way, I would put on your good pajamas, you know, the cute one with the cakes on them, and brush your hair and put on a little lip gloss." Lorelai says as she heads up the stairs.

"Why?"

"You're being kidnapped tonight." Lorelai runs up the stairs and into her room while Rory quickly gets up and runs after her.

"Excuse me?"

"I got a call today from Francie." Lorelai tells her.

"What?"

"Yes, she said she and her friends would come in while you're sleeping, wake you up, kidnap you, and take you out to breakfast in your pajamas."

"Why would they do that?"

"Apparently, it's fun." Lorelai guesses.

"That doesn't sound fun." Rory says, with worry.

"She told me to leave the key under the mat and money on the table." Lorelai says as she starts getting herself ready for bed.

"And you said yes to this insanity?"

"Hey, I told you not to become a soc, but you didn't listen."

"I can't believe you'd let some strange girls come traipsing in and take away your first born, your precious baby girl, and off to God knows where in the middle of the night."

"If it's someplace with doughnuts, bring me one, okay?" Rory reaches over and takes the pictures out from Lorelai's purse. "Hey!"

"Christmas cards." Rory says while she quickly makes her way out of her mom's room.

"More like your grandmother everyday!" Lorelai yells.

Late that night, Rory is sitting on the couch, reading the book, when she hears brakes from a car stop in front of the house.

"Mom, my kidnappers are here!" She yells.

"Okay, have fun!"

Rory runs out the living room and goes into her room. She is dressed in her cake pajamas, looking very pretty for someone who supposely just woke up, and jumps right into her bed to act like she is sleeping. "Get the light." Francie says as she and the group of girls walk into Rory's room.

"Surprise!" They all yell.

Rory gets up and acts like she had no idea what is happening. "What's going on?"

"Rise and shine." Francie tells her as she takes the blankets off of Rory.

"You can grab your shoes but no socks." Ivy tells her.

"Wow, this is totally unexpected. I'm completely surprised." Rory lies.

"Okay, let's move. We still got a couple more girls to get."

Rory hurries and jumps out of bed. She grabs her things and stops when she sees Paris looking back at her. "So, that's how you look when you've just woken up?" Paris asks. She had pimple cream on her face and her hair was in a headband and a messy bun, and she is wearing a long night gown.

"Um, yeah."

"Nothing in my life is fair."

At Chilton, Francie, Lem, and Ivy are leading the blindfolded girls through the hallway.

"Okay, a little further." Francie tells them. "Okay, that's far enough." They stop in front of a door. "Ladies, here on this spot, tonight in this place where so many others have come before you we invite you to join us."

"Ladie, remove your blindfolds." Ivy tells them.

Everyone takes their blindfolds off and looks around the room. "We're at Chilton." Rory says.

"Keys, please." Ivy hands Francie the keys.

"What are we doing at Chilton?"

"Will you please be quiet." Paris begs her. "You're being puffed."

"What you're about to do and say will remain forever between members of the Puffs, and only the members of the Puffs.

Everyone starts walking in except for Rory when she sees the sign on the door. "This is the headmaster's office. How did she get the keys? I'm sure he didn't give them to her."

"Stop it. We are making very important social contacts here." Paris tells her.

"Hey, I'm not looking for social contacts. I have friends. I'm fine."

"Oh, how nice it must be to be you. Maybe someday I'll stumble into a Disney movie and suddenly be transported into your body. And after living there awhile, I'll realize the beauty of myself. But until that moment, I'm going to go in there and become a Puff. Now get out of my way." Paris storms passed Rory and into the office.

In the headmaster's office, Francie and Ivy are lighting candles and set them on the headmaster's desk. Francie points to the bell in front of them. "The historical bell of Chilton, 120 years old. Every member of the Puffs has stood here, under the cover of night to pledge her lifelong devotion to us." Francie picks up the candle and sets her other hand on top of the bell. "I pledge myself to the Puffs. Loyal I will always be. A 'P' to start, two 'F's' at the end." Rory looks over at Paris who is mouthing the chant to herself. "..and a 'U' sitting in between."

"Anne Sexton, right?" Rory jokes.

"Once you've finished your oath, you will ring the bell three times.

"Rory?" Ivy calls.

"Yeah?"

"You first."

Rory looks around at everyone staring at her before she walks to the bell. "Um, I pledge myself to the Puffs."

"You have to hold the candle." Francie interrupts her.

Rory grabs the candle and starts again. "I pledge myself to the Puffs. Loyal I'll always be. A 'P' to start, two 'F's' at the end, and a 'U' sitting in between." She says quickly and grabs the thing that rings the bell and hits it twice just as the door opens.

"I wouldn't do that again, Ms. Gilmore." The headmaster says in the entrance, with two cops, and all the girls turn around.

Lorelai and Lauren are walking down the hall and passing up all the parents and kids. They see Rory standing there and walk over to her quickly.

"What happened?" Lorelai asks with worry. "The reception on the phone sucked." She leans in and kisses Rory lovingly on the cheek. "All I heard was 'Rory, Chilton,'' and 'Get down here.' Who's butt do I have to kick?"

"We didn't go to breakfast." Rory tells her.

"What are you talking about?"

"We came here, broke into the headmaster's office as the big initiation."

"Those stupid girls." Lorelai says as she looks down sadly at her daughter.

"Part of the inititation was ringing a bell. So that's what I was doing when security came. They called you."

"That's what you got busted for?" Lorelai asks, confused. "Ringing a bell?"

"Mhm."

"That's it? Bell ringing?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Well, were you at least smoking a Cuban cigar?"

"Mom."

"No. I mean, bad girl. How many times have i said not to ring bells? They can dent or scratch, and they make dogs crazy. Who do you think you are? The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Are you French? Circular? No."

"I'm walking to the car now." Rory says unamused.

"Wait. Hold on. How much trouble are you in? Should I talk to the headmaster?"

"No, I think it's gonna be okay."

"Okay." Lorelai turns around and sees Lauren drooping slowly to the ground in her sleep. "Hey, hey." She says quickly, grabbing her youngest and pulling her to her side. "We're going."

"Finally." Lauren whines.

Lorelai wraps her other arm around Rory and they start walking. "Was it a big bell at least?"

At school the following day, Rory walks in with her food and happily walks to her usual table. She sits down and takes out her book and her Mp3 player. Another girl that was being initiated walks in and goes over to Rory's table.

"Do you mind?" She asks Rory.

"No."

"Thanks." The girl sits down in front of Rory and takes out her own book to read. Rory looks over and couldn't help but smile. She didn't need to be in a sorority. Everything is good just like it is.


	29. Letting Go

It was another Friday night and another Friday night dinner with the Grandparents. Everyone was actually eating peacefully. There wasn't an argument or anything that broke out just yet, but it was just the middle of the evening.

"How's the meal?" Emily asks the girls.

"Tasty." Rory tells her.

"Very tasty." Lorelai agrees. "New cook?"

"Yes, Marisella. She's introduced us to some wonderful dishes so charmingly specific to her native country." Emily looks over at Lauren who was being very quiet, which was unusual for the young girl. "Lauren, is everything okay over there? Are you not enjoying the food?"

Lauren looks up at her Grandmother. "No, Grandma, everything's fine. The food is great."

"Well, you're not speaking. That is very unusual."

Lauren smiles. "Nope. Just enjoying the food that much." Lauren lies. Truth was her arm was hurting her. Ever since she went to Hartford and Alex grabbed her, her arm had been hurting. She was developing an ugly bruise which was getting really hard to hide from her mom and sister.

"Alright then."

Lorelai looks her youngest over and could see she was sitting very uneasy, but she decided the place and time was not good to start anything up. "So, what country is she from?" She asks her mom, changing the subject.

"A little one, next to Mexico."

Lorelai looks at Rory. "How charmingly specific." She says sarcastically.

"Too bad Grandpa's not here." Rory tells them. "He likes weird food."

"Where's he eating his weird food tonight? Argentina? Morocco?"

"Akron." Emily answers.

"Ohio?" Rory asks.

"Yes."

They were stunned that it wasn't some big fancy place like it usually is. "Get out of here." Lorelai says.

"I will not 'get out of here.'" Emily tells her.

Lorelai laughs. "No, I didn't mean really get out of here. I mean.."

"Why is Grandpa in Akron?" Lauren hurries to ask before her mom explained herself to Emily, who would still not understand.

"I don't know."

"It was just a saying." Lorelai continues.

"They sent him to deal with a problem with their local office." Emily explains.

"A saying, like 'save me,' or 'get me out of here.' Things like that."

"Would you like a mirror in front of you so you can see yourself during this conversation?" Emily asks.

"Sorry. Dad's in Akron."

"Yes. The amenities are atrociously lacking. He had to eat at a coffee shop last night." Emily tells them. She was very worried about her husband and his well being. "The whole thing's insulting. He's miserable."

Rory looks at her grandmother, sadly. "I hate that he's miserable."

"So do I. We really ought to do something."

"Yes, I agree."

Lorelai stares hard at Rory. "Warning, warning."

"I'm glad you said that. I thought of a wonderful way to cheer him up."

"Cool. What?" Lauren asks suddenly interested.

"Danger, Will Robinson, danger!" Lorelai says, quickly to her both her girls.

"An oil portrait of you and your sister for his study." Emily says excitingly.

"An oil portrait?" Rory repeats as she looks at her mother.

"I tried. Have fun." Lorelai tells them.

"It could hang right over his mantel. He'd just love it." Emily says.

"I guess that would be okay." Rory tells her.

"Mom, please don't make them do this." Lorelai begs.

"She just said she would."

"Fine, but don't make them sit and pose for it. Paint it from a photo."

"A photo? That's what they do at malls."

"I'll sit. It's fine." Rory tells them.

"Yeah, I'll do it, too." Lauren says.

"Just because your experience was bad doesn't mean Rory and Lauren's has to be."

"Mom, you have portrait, too?" Lauren laughs.

"They never finished." Lorelai smiles proudly.

"There painters started and they all three quit." Emily tells them.

"Why did they quit?" Rory asks.

"She wouldn't stop scowling."

"I was going for a Billy Idol thing."

"The one from Italy had some sort of breakdown." Emily says.

"It didn't hurt Van Gogh. The guy should thank me."

"A year later, I swear I saw him rummaging through our recyclables."

"Well, we're happy to sit." Rory tells her Grandma. "It it's for Grandpa, why not?"

"Wonderful. I'll set it up first thing in the morning." Emily smiles.

"Psst." Lorelai calls for her girls. "If you want, I can teach you the Billy Idol. Most people focus on the lip thing, but the eyes are just as important-" Emily slams the salt shaker down on the table making Lorelai stop talking. Lorelai glares at her mother, but turns back to Lauren who is smiling evily. At least she had one daughter who would follow her antics.

At the diner, Lorelai had asked Luke for his help with how to open up their own Inn. So, now she and Luke are sitting at a table discussing everything while Jess walks around pouring coffee, well, he was suppose to be.

"So, first thing you and Sookie would do is incorporate." Luke tells her.

"Wow. Sounds so bigtime." Lorelai says as she begins to write in her notepad.

"Not really. It just means you're a single business entity. You'll both be officers and shareholders and you'll get to make up a name for your company."

Lorelai grimaces. "I'm terrible at coming up with names. When we first bought our house, Rory and I wanted to name it. You know, like Jefferson named his place Monticello, but all we could only come up with was 'The Crap Shack.'"

"Nice."

"Coffee?" Jess asks as he walks over to them.

"Oh, yeah, thanks." Lorelai smiles at Jess. "How are you, Jess?"

"I'm not bleeding or anything." He tells her.

"Then it's gonna be a good day."

"It's 7:45." Jess tells Luke.

"So?" Luke says.

"So do you want me to go to school, or you want to openly defy child-labor laws?"

"Go." Jess sets the coffee pot down on the table and walks away. "Stay out of trouble."

"I guess I'll call off the chickie run at the salt flats." Jess says.

"Out!"

"Wow. So much love." Lorelai says as she watches them.

"So, do you guys have a site in mind for the Inn?"

"Yes." Lorelai smiles widely.

"Great. Where?"

"You've seen picture of it. The Rachel property."

"Oh, right."

"Right. Sorry."

"It's okay."

"I just meant, Rachel took the pictures, and the pictures kind of got us into the place. So we started calling it the Rachel property because it made sense, and then it became a habit. But, now, out of respect for you, I'm gonna stop using her name and think of another name to call it. Let's see. 'The Crap Shack' is taken."

"It's okay." Luke chuckles. "Call it what you want."

"So who taught you about all this business stuff? Your dad?" Lorelai asks, curiously.

"Please. My dad didn't have a checking account till I got taller than he was. He bought this land with cash, built this place himself. Didn't have a bookkeeper, accountant, or anything."

"Wow. So you had no one showing you the ropes."

"Nope. I figured I had to dive in on my own, fail it that's my destiny and forget what the experts say."

"That is exactly my philosophy. Exactly. Except I'm not on my own, I'm diving in with Sookie. And failure is not even a choice of destinies. And I'm consulting any expert who will listen to me. Otherwise, it's identical."

Luke smiles and looks down at his watch. "Well, I should be getting along. You gonna write this meal off?"

"Why?"

"We talked business." Luke tells her. "You gotta be thinking about these things."

"No, I mean, 'Why? I'm not paying for it." Lorelai jokes. Luke exhales. "Exactly."

"You're gonna do fine." He assures her.

At the Inn, Lorelai is just getting back from her meeting with Luke and is now in the kitchen talking to Sookie about what they discussed.

"It shouldn't be too flashy." Sookie tells her. "How about something historical, like 'The Paul Revere?'"

"Oh, that could work."

"What could work?" Michel asks as he walks in.

"We're thinking up names for the inn we're gonna open.." Lorelai tells him.

"If you want simple, something like 'The Country Rose.'" Sookie says.

"That's pretty good."

"we could like the front path with multicolored roses."

"Or 'The Inn by the Hallow.' Kind of long?"

"But nice."

"How about 'The Money Pit?'" Michel asks. "Or 'The Outhouse?' Go international."

Lorelai and Sookie both roll their eyes. "Go back in your hole."

"Or 'The Inn Heading for Bankruptcy?' Kind of long, but nice."

"You would have no dreams, rain on those who do."

"I say this because I care about you. It's risky, what you are doing. And most new businesses go down within two years."

"I say if we down after two years it'll be the most exciting two years of our lives." Lorelai says proudly.

"Same here. Boredom sucks!" Sookie yells.

"Fine. Proceed blindly." Michel tells them. "Here." He hands Lorelai some paper. "This came in ten minutes ago. It does not involve The Independence Inn. Therefore, delivering it was beyond my offical obligations so I am taking an extra long lunch break." Michel walks out while Lorelai reads through the papers.

"He's so genuine." Sookie says sarcastically.

"Oh, my God." Lorelai says, excitingly.

"What?"

"It's the title search for the Rachel property. Guess who owns it?"

"Tell me it's not that bastard Donald Trump."

"Fran."

"Fran from Westin Bakery?"

"Sweet little Fran, the cupcake lady." Lorelai shows her. "Not some cigar-chomping, dirty-dealing city slicker."

"Oh, that's good! Hey, 'The Country Slicker.' Funny name, cutesy idea."

"Eh, it's a little much."

"It's way too much."

"I'll call Fran."

"'Fran's Old Place.' It'll be like Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. People will be trying to figure out who Fran is. Or 'The In Inn.' It's an Inn that's in with the in-crowd." Lorelai just smiles and nods her head. "I'm gonna go sit down."

"Do that, sweetie." Lorelai walks out of the kitchen and Sookie goes over to her desk.

In the middle of town, Taylor Doose is walking through, just looking at his mail, when he comes upon a crime scene sign, hanging around the entrance of his market, that is going around a trace of a chalk body in the sidewalk. He looks around and sees no one which makes him completely panic.

At Westin's Bakery, Lorelai is sitting at a table just as Sookie runs in.

"Honey, I am sorry. Am I late-late, or just late?" She asks as she sits down.

Lorelai smiles. "Two pieces of carrot cake, and rum ball."

"Ugh. I am so sorry. I swear, I meant to be on time. But I was prepping the raspberry glaze for tonight's dessert, and it struck me: I made blueberry glaze for the souffle I made last Tuesday, and this is Tuesday. And a lot of locals come every week on the same night every week. And I just didn't want to serve them a similar dessert even though it's a completely different berry."

Lorelai looks away, trying to not look so unterested, but she couldn't help it. "I need another rum ball."

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're a perfectionist. And that attention to detail is why people call you 'the maestro.'"

Sookie gasps. "Really? Who call me that?"

"The people who eat the rum balls." Lorelai says, pointing to herself.

Fran walks up to them. "So, ladies, how are doing here?"

They both smile up at her. "We're doing great, Fran." Sookie tells her.

"That's wonderful."

"Fran, could Sookie and I talk to you for a couple minutes?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, of course. Marjorie can handle things." Fran sits down in front of them both, as she holds onto her hip.

"Fran, are you okay?"

"It's this bum hip. It needs to be replaced. Again. And I have this awful angina."

"Oh, we're so sorry to hear that." Sookie says sincerely.

"So, I know you didn't come here to listen to me gripe, so tell me what's on your mind."

Lorelai laughs nervously. "Okay, well, Fran, we understand that you own the old Dragonfly bed and breakfast, that whole property out there."

"Yes, I do. It was my parents' business."

"It's a beautiful place." Sookie tells her.

"Oh, it's used to be. But it's in such disarray now."

"Yes, it is. That's kind of why we're here." Lorelai says. "We'd actually like to buy it."

"Buy the Dragonfly?" Fran asks, confused.

"Yes. We'd like to buy it and make it beautiful again and we're prepared to make you an offer right now."

"Oh, my." Fran looks at both women nervously. "This is a surprise."

"See, Sookie and I are going to start our own Inn and we've been searching for the perfect place."

"Your own Inn?" Fran asks with excitment.

"Yeah."

"Oh, how wonderful! You are going to be so successful."

Sookie smiles with so much happiness in her eyes that she looked like she was about to cry. "Thanks, sweetie."

"That means so much, like we have your blessing." Lorelai says.

"But I can't seel you the property." Frank tells her.

"What?" Sookie says as her face drops in shock.

"Home come?" Lorelai asks.

"I just couldn't." Fran says, sadly. "You know, I have no siblings and no children and, in a way, that place is really the only family I have. I'm the last Westin left, so I plan to own it forever."

"Forever?"

"Forever and ever?"

"That's a very long time."

"A very long time." Sookie repeats.

"I'm so sorry."

"Fran, may I ask..." Lorelai looks at Sookie hesitantly.

"Go ahead, honey, ask me anything you want."

"Well, what happens to the place if you...if forever isn't quite forever?"

"I don't understand, dear. All I know is that I can't sell the place."

"Oh, no, I don't mean selling it. I mean you would keep it forever, but what happens once you're no longer in the position of physically controlling the property?"

Fran is still looking at them with so much confusion. "How could that be?"

"Oh, well, if you..."

Lorelai looks to Sookie for some help. "Take long vacation."

"Yes, take a long vacation. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"And when you're on that vacation, the property is just left sitting there. What happens then?"

"I don't enjoy vacations." Fran tells them. "I toured the California Gold Country ten years ago. It was hot, and the bus smelled."

"Okay. I mean a longer vacation than a trip to California." Lorelai tries explaining again.

"To a different place." Sookie adds.

"What kind of place?" Frank asks.

"A place out there." Lorelai tells her.

"Way out there, Fran."

"Europe?" Fran asks.

"I mean, the ultimate long vacation." Lorelai tells her.

"Yeah, Fran, see, eventually we're all gonna take the same long vacation." Sookie explains.

"And with that being the case you might want to sell the property now and enjoy the money."

"I'm very sorry, but I can never sell the place."

"Thanks for your time, Fran." Lorelai says sadly.

"Yeah, thanks, Fran."

"Bye, now." Fran gets up and walks away.

Outside, Lane and Rory are walking down the sidewalk.

"So, Janie Fertman's trying to be my friend again." Lane tells Rory.

"Yikes. What kind of vibe were you giving her?"

"Oh, my patented Keith Richards, circa 1969, don't-mess-with-me vibe with a 1000-yard Asian stare thrown in."

"That should do it." Rory stops walking when she sees a cop car and group of people surrounding Taylor's market. "What's happening up there?"

At the market Taylor, among a group of people, are watching the cop investigate what is on the ground.

"Just try to calm down, Taylor." The cop tells him.

"Calm down? Why should I calm down? I want action, not words!"

"We're gonna get to the bottom of this, I promise."

"A crime was committed right in front of my store!"

"Now, we can't say that for sure yet."

"How come you can't say that for sure? This is a police tape. You're the police. You own the tape."

"Taylor, we've contacted everyone in the precienct. No one knows anything about this."

"Well, what do I do? I've got a dead body right in front of my store!"

"No, you have a chalk outline of a dead body in front of your store. Look, my partner's doing a head count to see if anybody in town is missing. Until then, just hang tight." She says as she walks away.

Rory and Lane walk up to Dean who is also standing in front of the market. "Hey." Rory says to him.

"Hey."

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. I got here, and this is what I found." He tells her. Lauren runs up, quickly, and stands in front of them.

"Cool!" She says as she stares down at the ground.

"I told Taylor is looked fake, but he didn't believe me."

"And you have such an honest face." Rory says.

Dean shrugs. "Well, he must not love me as much as you do."

Lauren fakes throwing up. "Okay, you two are offically sickening." Lane tells them before she walks away.

"Everyone's accounted for." The cop says walking back up to Taylor. "Looks like this is just an elaborate prank."

"It looks so real. Where'd they get the police tape?" Taylor asks.

"Kids have their ways."

Lauren looks up and sees Jess across the street watching the whole thing. She taps Rory on her arm and nods her head towards him. "Who'd be depraved enough to pull a stupid prank like this?" Taylor asks.

"Hard to say."

Rory looks up and sees Jess also. Lauren was smiling at him, completely impressed by the prank, but Rory on the otherhand, was mad that he did this.

Back at the Inn, Rory is sitting in the kitchen at Sookie's desk going over receipts, while Lauren helps Sookie stire some stuff.

"Mom, you're not writing what you purchased on the back of these receipts." Rory tells Lorelai.

Lorelai finishes pouring her coffee and walks over to her daughter. "Oh. Just put 'cooking spray and sponges.'"

"Okay. And when an auditor wants to know why you need such large amounts of those?"

"Then I drop my pencil, and put the scoop-neck sweater that I'm now making a mental note to wear, to good use."

"Well at least you've got a solid plan."

"I had a dream last night about us and Fran." Sookie tells them.

Lorelai walks over to her youngest and Sookie. "Oh, what was it?"

"Well, it was in the future, and we were all old: you, me, Rory, Lauren, Jackson, Michel, everyone, gray hair, walking around with canes and we're all kind of ailing. I had those big cataract glasses on. You were hard of hearing. You kept going, 'huh?'"

"Oh, that's attractive."

"It's you kids and your rock 'n' roll." Rory jokes.

"But what, ho! Here walks up Fran. And guess what? She looks exactly the same, even better." Sookie says almost angry.

"That's not fair." Lorelai whines.

"That woman is gonna live forever."

"Not necessarily. Did you look up angina? I forgot to."

"Yeah, it's nothing major."

"You guys have got to stop talking like this." Rory tells them.

"Like what?" Lorelai asks.

"We love, Fran, remember? Fran is great."

"No, of course we love Fran. We just want to know what God's plan is for her, that's all." Sookie says.

Lauren hops of the stool she is standing on and stands in front of her mother. "The stirring is complete. You're welcome." She says as she bows her head.

Lorelai laughs as Sookie curtsy's. "Thank you very much."

Michel walks in. "I would advice at least pretending to look busy. The boss is here."

Rory and Lauren both perk up. "Mia!" Rory says, happily.

"You're kidding. When?" Lorelai asks him.

"I just spotted her walking in."

"Let's go." Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand and follows Rory out of the kitchen.

In the lobby, the girls walk in and see Mia.

"Mia!" Rory runs up to her.

"Oh!" Mia meets her and quickly grabs Rory and Lorelai in a hug leaving Lauren stuck in the middle.

"Did we know you were coming?" Rory asks.

"I didn't know I was coming."

"This isn't a surprise inspection?" Lorelai asks.

"That's exactly what this is. Ready?" Mia asks as they all three stand tall next to eachother as Mia walks around them. "You're too thin, as always."

"But we eat." Lauren says.

"And you three are just too beautiful."

"Yes, that's true. We often feel guilty monopolizing the amount of beauty we possess." Lorelai says.

"And I don't see you enough, which is my fault, so you pass." Mia hugs them one more time before she finally focuses her attention on Lauren. "And I haven't seen you since, hmm, you were how old?" Mia says, acting like she is thinking.

"Since I was nine." Lauren says with a smile and her hand on her hip.

"Oh, you are just like your mother." Mia laughs, shaking her head. "So, are you three too busy to sneak out with me for a walk?"

"If it's okay with the boss." Rory tells her.

"It's a demand at this point."

"Let's go." Lorelai says. "Michel, hold down the fort."

At Luke's the four of them walk in.

Mia looks around. "Look at this place. Exactly the same."

"I made him paint it a few months ago." Lorelai tells her.

Luke looks up from the toaster he is trying to fix and smiles when he sees Mia. He goes over and quickly develops Mia in a hug. "Nice to see you, Lucas."

"You're the only person that can call me that, Mia."

"I know this."

"I'm saying it for other who plan to try it later." He says looking over at Lorelai.

"Whatever, Lucas." Lorelai says with an eyeroll.

"Mia, you know anything about toasters?"

"Not a damn thing."

"Well then, sit down and let me get you some coffee."

Luke moves away and they go sit at the corner table. "So, Mia, how's living in Santa Barbara?" Lorelai asks.

"Horrible. Did you know the sun shines all the time out there?"

"They've written songs about that." Rory tells her.

"Well, no one told me that's how it was. Half my wardrobe is obsolete."

"Oh, drag. Hey, you know that blue coat?" Lorelai asks.

"You're not getting it."

"Right."

Jess walks in and sees Luke working on the toaster. "You're making that worse." He tells Luke.

"Big help. Thanks."

"Luke nephew." Lorelai says to Mia.

"Luke, that's your nephew?" Mia asks Luke.

"He's Liz's kid." Luke tells her as he brings over the coffee. "Jess, this is Mia. She owns the Independence Inn."

"Huh." He says.

"That's, 'Hello, nice to meet you,' in slacker."

"You don't need me down here, do you?" Without waiting for an answer, Jess just walks away and out the door.

"I'm sorry, Mia. He's just.."

"Oh, please." She says, waving it off. "Forget it. You weren't exactly talkative yourself when you were his age."

Lorelai smiles. "That's right. You knew Luke as a boy."

"I can't imagine Luke as a boy." Lauren says.

"Can we change the subject?" He asks.

"He would help people carry groceries home." Mia tells them.

"Oh, how very boy scouty of you." Rory says.

"For a quarter a bag." Mia adds.

"Oh, how very John Birch Society of you." Lorelai says.

"He was never without his skateboard for a time." Mia says as she looks back at Luke, who was standing there awkwardly.

"Were you any good?"

"I could hold my own." He tells her.

"And there was that year you wore the same shirt everywhere you went."

"I don't remember that." He says quickly.

"Maybe something flannel." Lorelai says.

"No, it was from that TV show, that famous one." Mia says trying to remember.

"It's not important." He says.

"Star Trek. That's it."

Lorelai gasps as Lauren and Rory start laughing. "Oh, my God." Lorelai says.

"Stop it." Luke glares at her.

"You were a Trekkie?" Rory asks.

"I was not a Trekkie."

"Ooh. I believe denying you were a Trekkie is a violation of the Prime Directive." Lorelai tells him.

"It was a gift from my aunt. I wore it to make her happy."

"I've never wanted to make any aunt that happy."

"Did I say something I shouldn't have?" Mia asks.

"Oh, no, Mia, that's okay. I just have to cancel everything I scheduled for the next three months, cause I'll still be laughing my ass off." Lorelai says, making everyone laugh again.

"Luke, I need to talk to you right now." Taylor says, storming into the diner.

"What is it, Taylor?"

"I have conducting a thorough investigation of all the people who may have inadvertently been witness to the phony murder at my store last night."

Luke rolls his eyes and walks back behind his counter as Taylor follows. "There was a phony murder?" Mia asks the girls.

"Yeah, the town's too dull to work up a real murder." Lorelai tells her.

"Luke, are you gonna listen?" Taylor asks.

"What's this got to do with me?"

"Three people have reported seeing Jess in that area late last night, skulking, lurking."

"There were a lot of people out last night. I know because I fed them. I'll give you their names to add to your suspect list."

"Another person witnessed Jess walking out of an arts-and-crafts store two days ago with what appeared to be chalk."

"You appear to be bugging me."

"What are you gonna do about it?" Luke says, annoyed.

"About what?"

"About the results of my investigation."

"Nothing, but thanks for the info."

"You have to do something. People want action!"

"People? Meaning you."

"Not just me. I speak for the Stars Hollow Business Association, the Stars Hollow Tourist Board, Neighborhood Watch Organization, and the Stars Hollow Citizens for a Clean Stars Hollow Council."

"All of which are you."

"So are you going to act?"

"Yes, I'm gonna act like you never came in here."

"Fine, have it your own way." Taylor says in frustration. "But I warn you, there's gonna be a lot of unhappy people at the SHBA, the SHTB, the SHMWO, and the SHCCSHC."

"F-I-N-E!"

"Ugh! You are impossible!" Taylor turns away and starts heading towards the door, but stops when he sees Mia sitting down and is instantly embarrassed. "Oh, Mia."

"Nice to see you, Taylor." Taylor smiles and continues to leave. "Oh, I've got to get out of Santa Barbara. I miss the small-town theater. And I miss you. Hey, do you realize it was fifteen years ago, almost to the day?"

"Yes, it was." Lorelai smiles.

"What was?" Rory asks.

"To the day when this skinny little teenage girl showed up at the Inn. She had this tiny little thing in her arms." Mia explains.

"A little thing named Rory." Lorelai says as she pinches Rory's cheek.

"Okay, no physical re-enactment." Rory says waving her mom's hand away.

"You marched up to me, looked me in the eye, and said: I'm here for a job. Any job."

"Well, IBM had turned me down for the CEO slot, so I was desperate." Lorelai jokes.

"Work experience, none. Recommendations, non. Skills-"

"Besides flawlessly applying mascasra in a moving car, none."

"Not one thing to recomment hiring her. Just that..how do I put it and reamin a lady? That 'who cares?' look in her eye. So I gave her any job. The other maids hated you."

"Yeah, well, they were so slow."

"You were special."

"Mia, why don't you move back here?" Lauren asks. "We miss you."

"Or at least visit more. You never come at all." Rory tells her.

"I don't have to. Your mom has made me redundant." Mia tells them.

"I have not." Lorelai scoffs.

"Don't be humble. The inn is beyond covered. It's never run this well or been this successful. That inn is like your place now. Without you, I wouldn't know what to do. I'd be lost."

"Lost, yeah." Lorelai repeats.

"Yeah." Both Rory and Lauren repeat.

"You look sad now. Why?" Mia asks.

"Nothing." Lorelai shrugs and takes a quick sip of her coffee to avoid the topic they were all avoiding right now.

The next day, Lorelai walks into the kitchen, of the Inn, where Sookie is preparing some food. She was frustrated with the whole Mia thing and what happened yesterday.

"In all the excitment, I hadn't thought about telling Mia." Lorelai tells her best friend. "What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you."

"I feel terrible. I should have told her before. I should have told her the day the idea occurred to us. She deserved that. After all she's done for me." Lorelai phone starts to ring. "Hello?" She answers.

"Lorelai, your daughters are being impossible." Emily tells her. "They won't pose in an appropriate manner."

"We're trying to, Grandma." Rory whines as she and Lauren try to position themselves like their Grandmother wanted them to, but it was pretty difficult to do for a long period of time.

"Yeah, it's really awkward." Lauren tells her.

"Let me guess how you're posing them. They're in a silly gown, on a silly chair, you have Rory sitting in the chair with both of her hands raised in some silly way, and Lauren is sitting on the side of her with both of her hands raised as well."

Emily looks over at the girls. "No, just the one hand is raised, and none of it's silly."

"Pick a simpler pose, Mom."

"This is the simplest, and it wasn't my choice."

"And your choice is?"

"I wanted the swan to sit regally aside Rory's throne."

"Swan?" Lorelai asks. "Throne?"

"Oh, now you have a problem with swans and thrones."

"Because swans and thrones scream one thing, Mom: Siefried and Roy."

"Who?"

"Make a change, Mom."

"I suppose you'd have them sitting and reading a book?"

"Now, that sounds great."

"Oh be serious!"

"I am! That's a completely natural pose for my daughters. And a pinting of them reading that's gonna be hung in Dad's study seems just crazy enough to work." Lorelai explains.

Emily sighs. "Well, maybe it's not such a bad idea."

"Give it try, and let them lower their arms."

"You both can lower your arm." Emily tells the girls.

Rory and Lauren both breathe out in a relief as they put their arm down. "Thanks!" Lauren says.

The swan squeels scaring them. "I think he's just hungry." Emily tells them. "We're going to lose the swan." She yells at the swan person.

"Good going, Mom." Lorelai smiles. "Bye." Lorelai hangs up and looks back at Sookie. "So, how do I do this?" She asks. "How do I tell Mia that I'm leaving?"

"Get her drunk first?" Sookie suggests with a laugh.

"Oh, I can't believe it. I'm gonna let down the one person in my life who was there for me when I needed it the most. I'm great, aren't I?"

Later that night, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, and Mia are walking through town to get to the town meeting.

"We're late." Rory tells them.

"We're not late." Lorelai says.

"The last time we were late, Taylor said there would be consequences." Lauren tells her mom.

"He did not. He said there would be severe consequences."

"Mia, what time is it?" Rory asks. "Are we late?"

Mia laughs. "I hope so."

"Mia." Lorelai says surprised.

"I'm sorry, but it's been two years since I've been to a town meeting and I want some controversy."

They walk by the diner and Lorelai sees Luke locking up. "AHA!" She scares him making him jump up and turn around.

"Geez! Don't sneak up on me like that." He tells her as he walks over to them.

"Yeah, boy, I was lucky you had your phasers on stun." Lorelai jokes about Star Trek.

"Well, at least we're not late." Lauren tells them. "Luke's never late."

"Actually, we're two minutes early." He tells her.

"We should get a price for being on time."

"Luke, let's go back to the diner and get pie as our reward." Lorelai begs him.

"Then you'd be late." He says.

"A funny conundrum, but I want pie."

"You're harassing me now."

"I'm not harassing you. We're your groupies. Luke, you're so dreamy. Be my guy." Lorelai says in a high pitched voice.

"No, be my guy." Rory says copying her mom.

They walk up to Mrs. Patty's. "I'm bringing up the need for more police protection." He says as he opens up the door where the meeting has already started.

The girls and Luke walks in and are surprised. "I think we're late." Mia tells them.

"What's going on here?" Luke asks Taylor.

"Nothing." Taylor hesitates.

"Meeting was supposed to start at eight. It's a minute to eight."

"Oh, you might as well be honest with him." Patty says to Taylor.

"Honest about what?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"If you must know, there was a special issue that the business community had to deal with first so we decided to start early." Taylor explains.

"I'm in the business community, and I wasn't told about it." Luke says. Everyone starts looking around nervously. "Taylor?"

"Alright, fine!" Taylor says, giving up. "You weren't invited, Luke."

"And why is that?"

"You weren't invited because we are dealing with the Jess situation."

"The Jess situation?"

"If this was the Wild West, we'd be diving into the water trough about now." Lorelai whispers as she lures her girls around to the empty chairs to sit down.

"Damn it, Taylor!" Luke yells.

"Luke, honey, calm down." Patty says.

"After all, this is all your doing." Taylor tells him. "If you hadn't so cavalierly dismissed the issue we wouldn't have had to do this. I lost business because of what your hooligan nephew did."

"How was business lost, Taylor? You had to open late that day, your customers just came back later."

"No so. When Mrs. Lanahan couldn't buy her head of lettuce for her lunch she drove straight to Woodbury to buy lettuce from a competing market. Isn't that right, Mrs. Lanahan?" Everyone turns around to Mrs. Lanahan who is sitting in front of Lorelai sleeping. "Mrs. Lanahan." Taylor calls out again.

"You really shouldn't be driving anymore." Lorelai whispers to her.

"Word has it that she was telling other Doose's Market shoppers that Woodbury lettuce is crisper. That's business flying out the door."

Luke shakes his head, furiously, as he walks up towards the front of the room where Taylor is and takes out his wallet. "Fine. How much is a head of lettuce? $1? Oh, let's go crazy. Give me five heads." He says as he slaps a five dollar bill on Taylor's potium.

"This goes well beyond a head of lettuce, young man. The charges against your nephew are numerous. He stole 'Save the Bridge' money."

"He gave it back."

"He stole a gnome from Babette's garden."

"Pierpont was returned, too."

"He hooted at one of my dance classes." Patty adds in.

"He took a garden hose from my yard." Fran says from the crowd.

"My son said he set off the fire alarms at school last week." Andrew tells them.

"I heard he controls the weather and wrote the screenplay to Glitter!" Lorelai shouts out.

"I think it's time for me to pipe in." Bootsy says as he stands up.

"Yeah, that'll be good." Luke says sarcastically.

"I have every right to pipe in, Luke. I'm a local entrepreneur."

"You took over your father's newsstand. Doesn't make you an entrepreneur."

"And you took over your old man's hardware store."

"And turned it into a diner."

"Big whoop! Who can't fry an egg?"

"Let's keep things moving here, boys." Taylor tells them.

"I never liked the look of that kid from the second I saw him."

"Unbelievable!" Luke yells.

"Boys, the bottom line here is that there is a consensus among townspeople who are in agreement that Stars Hollow was a better place before Jess got here." Taylor says.

"So this half of the room gets the tar, and other gets the feathers?" Luke points out.

Taylor sighs. "There hasn't been any talk of tar and feathers, although-"

Luke walks back towards the back and turns back around. "Look, I've lived in this town my entire life longer than most everybody here. I've never bothered anyone, I've kept to myself, and I've done the best I could. I pay my taxes and I help people when I can. I haven't pitched in on decorative pageantry town stuff because it all seems insane to me, but I don't get in the way of that, either!"

"What's your point, Luke?"

"His point is.." Lorelai looks up at Luke. "Do you mind?"

"Be my guest." He tells her.

Lorelai gets up and stands next to Luke. "His point is if there's a problem-"

"And I'm not saying there's a problem." He interrupts.

"Right. But if there is, give him time to deal with it before you storm his diner."

"Right, what I'm dealing with, being a problem that I don't necessarily agree that I even have!"

"Right."

"I didn't get that last part." Taylor says, confused.

"Lay off him." Lorelai tells everyone. "because what you're all doing stinks."

"I'm done here. I'm done with all of you. Oh, and I was gonna stay open later in case anyone wanted to eat after the meeting. Forget that!" Luke turns away and storms out of Miss. Patty's with no second thoughts.

Outside, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, and Mia walk out.

"Well, I must say, that was quite exciting." Mia tells them with a big smile.

"A little disturbing. I think the whole town needs field trip." Lorelai says.

"You think Luke's okay?" Lauren asks.

"I think he will be. He just needs to cool off a little."

"Hey, I'm gonna go check on Dean. He's been scraping the outline off the cement for two days." Rory tells them.

"Good idea. There's nothing like your face on his to make the cleaning process go faster." Lorelai jokes.

"I'm going to go Elizabeth's for awhile." Lauren tells them.

"She's all yours, Mia." Rory says as she and Lauren walk off.

"Oh, I am just having the most wonderful time." Mia tells Lorelai who just smiles back at her. "And I am so proud of you, Rory, and Lauren. You three have just come so far."

"Yeah, we have." Lorelai says, sadly. "Um, Mia, I need to talk to you about something."

"Of course. What is it, honey?"

"Well, uh, it's really hard, and I should have brought it up ages ago but Sookie and I are thinking of making a change."

"A change?"

Lorelai stops walking and faces Mia. "We're going to open our own inn." She finally admits.

"Ooh."

"We've talked about it for a long time, and it seems like the time is right. And, oh, Mia, I love the Independence Inn, and Sookie loves it, too. And we both love you so much."

"I know."

"But it just feels like something we need to do. You hate me."

"No, I don't." Mia laughs.

"I'm letting you down. I'm walking out. Being ungrateful."

"Lorelai, stop. Do you think I was naive enought to thing that you'd work for me forever?" Mia asks. "You and Sookie have more talent for this business than I do and I'm very good." Lorelai turns away embarrassed. "You're going to open an incredible place. And if you don't let me help you in any way I can, then I'll be very mad."

Lorelai smiles happily. She felt so relieved to hear that come out of Mia's mouth. "Of course we need your help. We'd be lost without your help."

"Good." Mia says excitingly. "I was just wondering, what's the time frame for this big move?"

"Well, we're waiting for this perfect location to free up. That's all that's delaying us, but I promise you'll have plenty of notice and I'll be there to find replacements and train them."

"Oh, yes, that's very sweet of you, but I'm wondering if you could possibly make it sooner rather than later." Mia says, surprising Lorelai.

"What?"

"Well, you see, your leaving gives me the perfect excuse to finally sell the place."

"Sell that place?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, I get offers all the time, lucrative ones, but I never even considered it because, oh, of course I love the inn, but I couldn't do that to you. And now that you have this big change coming up in your life it might be time for one in mine."

"Oh." Lorelai says, trying to think of the right words to say. "Good." She lies. She was actually hurt and surprised that Mia was actually considering selling the Inn now. Her home. Her first home.

"Actually, it's very good." Mia smiles.

"Okay. Well, good." Lorelai says again.

They begin to walk again, one happy, and the other not so happy. Lorelai just couldn't wrap her mind around someone else owning the Inn. It was strange. It didn't feel right.

As Rory leaves Dean at the market, she stops when she sees Lauren and Jess talking outside of the bookstore. She was confused when she seen Lauren laughing and Jess actually smiling. She hadn't ever seen Jess really smile since he had been here and it was weird. But then Rory gasps when she sees Lauren lean in and hug Jess before running away. Jess just smiles and starts walking back to the diner. Rory just stood there, staring at no one, wondering what possibly Jess and Lauren have been talking about. It was weird, and a little eery. She had to make sure nothing was happening between them because she did not want to punch Jess in the face if it was.

The next day at the Inn, Lorelai is sitting at a table working on name tags for a function she was putting together at the Inn. Her mind was still set to last night when Mia told her about selling it and it was really putting her in a weird mood. Sookie walks up happily to her and shows Lorelai and piece of paper.

"So, I'm working on the menu for the Duncan wedding." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai takes it and looks at it. "I can't read that."

"I know." Sookie grabs it back. "I had it all typed up neat to begin with, but on the drive to work I got an inspiration. I started writing in the new stuff. And it ain't easy writing and driving. Hey, how did your talk with Mia go?"

"Fine. Good." Lorelai lies. "She took it like you said she would: classy."

"She is classy. Good. That's a relief. It's a relief, right? You said she took it good?" Sookie asks when she notices Lorelai somber look.

"Yes, she did." Lorelai confirms.

"But you look upset."

"She's gonna sell the inn."

"You're kidding." Sookie says, surprised.

"No. She says she gets offers, and this might be fortuitous timing for her." Lorelai says with anger.

"Well, great. Everybody wins." Sookie says, clearly not getting it. "That's good. Look happy. Okay, this does not look happy."

"I just don't understand how she can do this."

"What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is she's not gonna sell it to another Mia. It's gonna be a big chain, they'll come marching in with their business models, and their architects and designers, and change everything, the place will lose all its personality and charm." Lorelai explains.

"Well, I hope they don't, but our place is gonna be full of charm." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai looks up at Sookie bitterly. "You don't care what happens here?"

"Of course I do. But it's not up to me. I can't control that. The only thing we can control is what our inn's gonna be like."

"I guess."

"You guess what?"

"We'll see."

"We'll see what?"

"It's just shortsighted to write off this place when we haven't even bought Fran's yet. And, hey, we don't know if we will." Lorelai says, getting up and walking away with the tray of name tags.

"We don't? Why wouldn't we? Lorelai." Sookie runs after her. "Is this about Fran's life expectancy-"

"No, Sookie, it's about the fact that we haven't looked at other places. And we don't know if that's the right one. We have to be very practical about this."

"But it's the perfect location. We all said so."

"Well, you can't get emotionally attached to our decisions about this inn." Lorelai tells her. "This is business. You've got to stay detached."

"But we're all so not detached." Sookie says as she follows Lorelai to each table that she is putting name tags on. "Okay, do you have another location in mind?"

"Not really."

"Do you wanna look for a new location?"

"Oh, yeah, like I have all this time to go looking for other locations."

"Well, I don't know. Should we try to buy this place?"

Lorelai laughs. "This place is five times what we can afford."

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know. It's on hold, I guess."

"Okay, it's been on hold for years. We were moving forward."

"Yeah, well, I'm looking at the economy right now and I'm thinking the timings not good." Lorelai tells her.

"Okay, that's not fair because I don't know anything about the economy."

"Oh, well, good thing you hooked up with me, because it's not looking good." Lorelai says sarcastically.

"Okay, what happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"We had a vision, we had a plan. You're the one that got this ball rolling again and then I jump on the ball, we're rolling on the ball together, and then you hopped off the ball, and I'm still on the ball! And I'm confused, because I see our vision. And you saw it, too, up until today."

"Well, I know you would like things to be simple and straight forward, but unfortunately, things are more complicated."

"Okay, that's why we'd be partners. If something gets heavy for the one person the other one's there to pick up the slack."

"Yes, well, that's great in theory, but I've got to tell you my back is aching from all the slack I'm taking up." Lorelai argues.

"What did I do that's so wrong?"

"Let's not get into this stuff!"

"No, get into it!" Sookie argues back, taking the name tags from Lorelai and setting them aside.

Lorelai takes a deep breath. "Well, you're not the most reliable person in the world, or the most punctual."

"You've always known that."

"Yes, but getting into business, it's not so cute. It could hurt us. You were late for the Fran meeting. You're constantly changing menus, even after you've started making it."

"I don't believe this. Before, it was kudos for attention to detail. I was 'the maestro.'"

"That's fine for an established place like the Independence, but you do that at our place, it could wipe us out. Profit margins in a new business are slim, Sookie."

"Stop! Now you're talking down to me."

"I'm not talking down to you. I'm trying to explain."

"Yes, you are, and I don't know why you are, but I don't want to start crying in front of you because it'll give you one more thing to point at to say, 'She's took emotional and weak to go into business with.' So I'm leaving. And I'll see you tomorrow if I can remember to show up." Sookie storms off leaving Lorelai alone to think about what just happened. She had never yelled at Sookie before, and it's not like she really even meant to take it out on her, but she did, and she now she was feeling bad.

Outside, on the square, Dean and Rory are walking down the sidewalk.

"Hey, I've got to drop by the market." Dean tells her.

"But it's your day off."

"Yeah, it's to get my paycheck. If I don't get it by four, Taylor locks it in a safe. And it's on some kind of timer. And when I complain, he lectures me on promptly putting checks on the bank and my head hurts from all the nodding I do, even though I don't listen-"

"Go. Go." Rory laughs.

"I'll just be a minute." Dean walks into the market leaving Rory alone outside jus as Jess walks up to her.

"Should you be standing here all alone?" He asks her. "I hear this is a dangerous corner."

"I'm fine." Rory says, annoyed.

"Feeling succient today?"

"Pretty much."

"Did I do something to offend you?"

"Me? No. You might want to ask that same question to Luke."

"Meaning?"

"You've got this whole town down on him."

"How did I do that?"

"You how how."

"I'm familiar with the blue-book laws in this town so you could be talking about a lot of things. Dropping a gum wrappers, strolling arm in arm with a member of the opposite sex on a Sunday." Rory points to the ground where the trace of a body is still at. "Ah. What about it?"

"You did it." Rory says. "The whole town knows you did it. They had a meeting about it."

"You actually went to that? Those things are so To Kill a Mockingbird."

"Yes, I went, and Luke went. And when he got there, they ganged up on him. They all want you gone."

"Bummer."

"And he's defending you and paying Taylor back for his lettuce losses. Now Luke's a pariah, all because of you." Jess just looks away. "What a shock. You don't care about any of this."

"I didn't say that."

"And whatever you have going on with my sister better stop."

"What are you talking about?"

"She's twelve, Jess. She a little too young for you." Jess starts laughing. "Why are you laughing? This is not funny."

"As you just said, Lauren is twelve, I would never do anything like that. She is like sister to me."

"No, she's my sister, and you shouldn't have anything to do with her."

"I helped her out with something, okay?" Jess says.

"With what?"

"Now that's something you are going to have to ask her about." Jess turns around and walks away from Rory, leaving her thinking.

At the Grandparents, Lorelai is hurrying to the door as her girls follow her.

"I wonder if Grandpa is still in Akron." Lauren says, wondering.

"Well, for Akron's sake, I hope he's moved on to Boise." Lorelai says, ringing the bell. The maid opens the door. "Hi, we're the daughter and the grand-daughters." She says, walking in taking her coat off and handing it to the maid.

"You are majorly crabby." Rory tells her.

"I just have a headache."

Emily comes towards them. "Oh, good! Come. It's all done, it's great." She leads them into Richard's study where the picture of Rory and Lauren is. "What do you think?"

"It's freaky." Lauren tells her.

"Freaky?"

"Just seeing me up on the wall like that." Lauren explains.

"I like it. It's good, I guess." Rory says. "We should just take ourselves out of the judging process." Rory tells her sister.

"I think Richard's gonna love it. It's perfect. Don't you think?" Emily asks Lorelai who just nods her head. "You gotta admit, it turned out better than you thought."

"Yeah."

"Well, come on. Say a little more than that."

"It's great, Mom. It's just a notch below Rembrandt."

"Well, you don't have to take that attitude."

Lorelai grimaces at her mother. "What do you want from me? I'd light some sparklers and jump up and down, yelling 'yay' for the painting but I'm out of sparklers, and my feet hurt too much to jump. But next week, when I have more energy, I'll write a love sone for the chandelier!"

Without saying anything, Emily just walks out of the room. "Mom." Rory says.

Lorelai rolls her eyes and follows Emily into the kitchen. "Hey, how dare you walk away from me when I'm being a world-class jerk to you?" Emily ignores Lorelai and continues pouring tea. "The painting's great, Mom, really."

"Thank you."

"I really like it. It's so natural that they're reading, which is great. And they're not sitting next to a goose, which is good, and Dad is gonna love it. It's a good thing you did here."

"You can be so harsh, and I don't know where it comes from, or what I've done." Emily tells her, sadly.

"You did nothing."

"I must have done something."

"It's just been a bad week. Sookie and I were moving forward with plans to open our inn and we had a huge fight. And we've never had a huge fight, let alone a fight. Awful things were said. It started when Mia showed up for a visit and I told her about our plans." Emily tenses up when she hears Mia's name. "She's talking about selling the Independence Inn, and it wigged me out." Lorelai explains. "It's stupid. I don't know. But it was our home for so long, mine and Rory's. It's just weird to think that it wouldn't be there and Mia wouldn't be there, and I wouldn't be there. And I just got very upset. Anyway, I'm rambling. The painting if really great. Will you accept my apology?"

"Yes, I will. I've had bad days, too."

"Thank you."

"We should get back to Rory and Lauren." Emily says as she walks off.

At the Inn, Sookie is in the kitchen cooking when Lorelai walks in.

"Hi." She says, as she looks at Sookie who was not giving her any attention.

"Hi."

Lorelai smiles and walks closer to Sookie." Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing: comfort food?"

"I thought it would be good with the weather changing. But if you don't think it's right, I can make something else. Although, I'm on a schedule and on budget, so a change would throw things off. Your call."

"No, everything looks great. Hey, Sookie."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about what happened. I said stupid things, and I said them for reasons that have nothing to do with you, I hate myself for doing it, and I know you do, too, and I am sorry."

"It's okay."

"No, it's isn't. You are a brilliant chef and to do things differently from how you do them now is ridiculous. You don't tell a great violinist to hold his bow differently. You don't tell a great cymbal player to crash his cymbals differently. You just let them play."

"There are great cymbal players?" Sookie asks.

"Theoretically."

"Okay, well, it's okay."

"I want to go ahead with our plans. Forget my freakout. Pretend it didn't happen." Lorelai begs. "Let's move forward."

"Well..."

"You don't want to move forward?"

"I do, but I need your promise you're not gonna lost it on me again." Sookie says, sternly as she turns to Lorelai.

"I promise." Lorelai says, quickly.

"'Cause I couldn't take losing a business partner and my best friend in one fell swoop. It'd be too much."

"Sookie, I will place my hand on whatever you want and swear that you can trust that I will not lose confidence in our dream."

"That's good enough." Sookie laughs. "Cause I know you don't like to put your hand on things."

Lorelai starts laughing as well. "We're gonna give it our best shot."

"And if we go down after two years-"

"Oh, it'll be the most exciting two years of our lives." Sookie happily hugs Lorelai tightly as they celebrate the plans on the new inn while in the front Emily walks in slowly and sees Mia talking to a customer.

The customer walks away and Mia turns towards Emily. "Hello. Can I help you?" She asks, Emily.

"No, thank you. I just-"

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to meet the woman who helped raise my daughter." Emily says bitterly.

"Emily." Mia says, surprised.

"Yes, I'm Emily Gilmore."

"I wanted to meet you, too, for a very long time."

"That's nice."

"Would you like to sit down? Or have something. Have lunch with me, won't you?"

"No, thank you. You have a lovely place here. It's a beautiful hotel. Not a home, but still a beautiful hotel."

"Sometimes home is where your hat is."

"Or where your family is."

"Yes, that, too." Mia agrees. "You sure you don't want some tea? Tea usually makes things like this less awkward. There's things to hold and stir."

"I don't know why I came here."

"You wanted to meet me."

"After all these years, it makes no sense."

"I expected you to come eventually."

"Did you? And what did you expect to say to me when I did come?"

"When Lorelai showed up on my porch that day with a tiny baby in her arms, I thought to myself: 'What if this were my daughter and she was cold and scared and needed a place to live? What would I want for her?' And then I thought, 'I'd want her to find somebody to take her in and make her safe and help her find her way.'"

"That's funny. I would've wanted her to find someone who would send her home. I have to go. I'd appreciate if you didn't mention this to Lorelai."

"I won't."

Emily walks towards the front door and opens it before stopping. "Do you have pictures? From back then?"

"I'll send you a box full tomorrow." Mia tells her.

"Thank you." Emily says as she continues out of the door.

At the diner, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are all sitting down eating breakfast.

"Man, it's such a relief to have that Sookie thing fixed." Lorelai tells her girls.

"I know. I hate fighting with friends." Rory tells her.

"That's what enemies are for." Lauren adds.

"And God knows we have our share of those."

"People who eat crunchy food with their mouths open." Lorelai says.

"People who dog-ear library books." Lauren continues.

"People who spit when they talk."

Rory gasps and grabs her eyes. "Oh! You got me in the eye!"

"I did not."

"You totally did."

"You're full of it." Lorelai and Lauren laugh.

"Luke, where's my toast?" Rory asks.

"It's gonna take awhile. My big toaster's broken, so I got stuck with just this dinky one." Jess walks over and presses down on the big toaster, making it work again. "How did that happen?" Luke asks as he does what Jess did.

"You're gonna break that." Jess tells him.

"It was broken before."

"Well, it must've got better."

"Inanimate objects don't usually get better. Did you fix this?"

"Please."

"Jess?"

"I have no idea what you're babbling about. I don't fix things."

"But yesterday-"

"I've got school." Jess interrupts as he walks away from Luke. He and Rory lock eyes before he walks out of the diner and smile at one another.


	30. Comes and Goes

Lorelai walks through the front door with a stack of movies in her hand.

"Hello!?" She calls out for her girls.

"In the kitchen!" Rory yells.

Lorelai puts all her stuff down in the foyer. "I couldn't make up my mind so I got The Shining and Bringing Up Baby." She says as she takes her jacket off. "Now, I know you're thinking: One's a movie about a homicidal parent, and the other one's..." Lorelai walks into the kitchen to find Sookie, Rory, and Lauren standing in front of the table looking at Lorelai when she walks in. "Hello." Lorelai says again this time with a smile as she stares at the three creepy smiling back at her.

"Hi." Sookie says.

"Hi, Mom." Lauren says.

"What'd you break?" Lorelai asks.

"Nothing. The broiler. But this came for you and Max." Sookie says as she and the girls move to the side to show off a big wrapped present.

"We're thinking it's a wedding present." Rory tells her.

Lorelai walks over and sets the movies down on the table before she looks the present over. "Hm. Lorelai Gilmore and Max Medina." She reads. "Guess news doesn't always travel fast."

"Are you gonna open it?" Sookie asks.

"No." Lorelai quickly says.

"But aren't you curious?"

"No, just leave it there. I'll take it back tomorrow."

"But there's not a return address." Rory tells her mom.

"Well, isn't there a card?" Lorelai asks as she digs through the huge bow that is on top of the box.

"No." Lauren answers. "Maybe there's one inside."

"With a return address on it." Sookie says, hoping Lorelai would open the present now.

"But that means you'd have to open it to find out." Rory tells her.

"Fine." Lorelai says, annoyed. This was the last thing she wanted to do with anything her and Max. "Give me a knife."

Rory smiles and walks towards the utensil drawer. "This is so exciting." Sookie squeals, but stops when Lorelai gives her a look. "Maybe not."

Rory walks over and hands Lorelai the knife. She cuts a slit in the center and they all four start ripping the paper off. "And ice-cream maker!" Lauren yells.

Sookie hugs the machine. "A Musso Lussino 480."

"Somebody sent a fascist ice cream maker?" Lorelai asks.

"Italian design, stainless steel body, chrome finish.."

"And no card. Perfect."

"Oh! Jackson just got in his apple crop. We can make cidar ice cream!"

"Yes, we can using his ice cream maker. But IL Duce here is going back." Lorelai says crushing their excitment.

"To where?" Rory asks.

"Maybe it's an orphan." Lauren tells her mom sadly.

"That's right." Sookie agrees. "We'd be giving it a home."

"Okay. Once again, I bring up the face that this is a wedding present." Lorelai starts explaining again. "And as I am not getting married, neither God's law nor Emily Post allows me to keep this."

Rory stares curiously at her mom. "But isn't there a rule about late presents?"

Sookie gasps. "Like, if it arrives after a certain date, the giver forfeits all rights of return."

"Exactly."

"Nice try." Lorelai tells them.

"It's true. I saw it on Martha Stewart. She was doing one of those double programs. The first half was on massaging your dog." Sookie laughs. "And she had this chow, and she was rubbing it-"

"Sookie."

"But the second half was about gifts, and she said if it arrvies after ten weeks-"

"Eight." Rory corrects her.

"Eight weeks, you don't have to return it."

"Okay." Lorelai sighs. "Clearly this is shaping up to be on of those moments that St. Peter will show on the big video screen when I die and I, for one, don't want to see us staggering around with ice cream slathered all over our faces while my soul hangs in the balance. So until I can find out who sent this, no one goes near it." Lorelai picks up a video. "And we're watching The Shining." She says as she walks to the living room leaving the three girls to stare at the lonely ice cream maker.

"I bet Max would let us keep it." Sookie tells them sadly.

A couple days later, Lorelai still hadn't figured out who sent over the ice cream maker and since she found it she had been calling people nonstop and now two days later she was still calling, and still no luck. So, now, she is sitting on her couch, going through her address book, and dialing numbers.

"Aunt Bobbie, hi!" She says through the phone. "It's Lorelai, Richard and Emily's girl. Um, I'm the one with...Yeah, that's right. Wow, you don't hear the word 'wedlock' much anymore." Lauren comes downstairs and plops down on the couch next to her mom. "Huh, really? The Bible said all that, huh?"

"I'm home!" Rory yells when she walks into the front door.

"Did it mention me by name? I mean, okay, I'm just kidding. So, judging by your Billy Graham impression.." Rory walks over and hands them both coffees, and sits on the other side of Lorelai. "I am guessing you didn't send me an ice cream maker so maybe you could just give me Aunt Clarissa's phone number? Oh, no,I hadn't heard. That's terrible. Uh, huh. Oh, then I guess she had it coming, didn't she? Listen, I'd love to chat about who else in the family is currently or soon to be headed for Hell, but I've got to run. So I promise to call in the next twenty years, okay? Bye-bye." Lorelai hangs up. "How scary is that my parents are turning out to be the normal one in the family."

"No luck?" Rory asks.

"I still have the Pennsylvania Gilmores. So, how was your day?" She asks.

"I have to perform Act Five of Romeo and Juliet with Paris, Madeline, and Louise."

"Really?"

"Paris has appointed herself as director."

"Nice." Lorelai laughs.

"What part are you playing?" Lauren asks.

"Don't know yet. She's still mulling over the screen tests. We'll find out tomorrow."

"Screen tests?" Lorelai and Lauren laugh.

"Twenty-four takes."

"I so want a copy." Lorelai smiles.

"Forget it."

"Sell it on the internet. Make a fortune." Lorelai says standing up. "First we brought you Pamela and Tommy Lee. Now prepare yourselves for the crazy antics of Rory and the Bard!" She says walking to the kitchen.

"Oh, and I told Paris you'd make all of our costumes. So she wants to have a concept meeting with you tomorrow at three."

"What?"

Lauren picks up the address book and starts looking through it. "Yeah, she needs a resume and samples of your previous work and referrals."

Lorelai walks in eating cool whip out of the bowl. "And my bare butt to kiss."

"If you think that'll set you apart from the other applicants, yes."

"Hey, I didn't know there was someone in our family named Bunny." Lauren tells them.

"Oh." Lorelai says sadly. "Cross her off the list."

"Poor Bunny."

The phone starts ringing and Rory answers it. "Hello?"

"Hey."

"Henry, hi."

"Am I late?"

"No, right on time. Hold on."

Lorelai grabs her things. "Hey, I'm heading for class. There's pizza/Luke's money on the table for dinner for you and your sister."

"Thank you."

Rory starts dialing her best friend's number. "Hello, Mrs. Kim. This is Rory. May I please speak with Lane?"

"Lane is studying."

"Wait, Mama!" Lane yells as she runs down the stairs. "Mama, is that for me?"

"Why?"

"Well, I was just expecting a call from Rory, and I-"

"You do your Math? History?"

"Yes."

"Biology?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm not taking Biology. I took it last year."

"And that's it? One year and you know all there is to know? Tomorrow we look into private school."

"Mama, please, the phone?"

"Five minutes. I'm counting." Mrs. Kim hands Lane the phone and Lane walks away from her mom.

"Hello?"

"Lane. Hold on." Rory tells her as she connects Henry through. "Henry?"

"Here."

"Lane?"

"Here." Lane smiles.

"Okay, guys, talk to you later."

Lorelai walks back over to her daughters. "Okay, I'm gone. Hey, can you two do me a favor? Make some of those calls for me."

"Do you think you are maybe going a little too far with this?" Rory asks.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I know you want to return the ice cream maker, but you did make an honest effort to contact the person that sent this-"

"It's called closure, hon. I need it, okay?"

"Okay." Rory looks at the address book. "Uncle Randolph."

"Bye! Love you!" Lauren yells to her mom.

"Love you, babe!" Lorelai then walks out and leaving the girls to do her dirty work.

At the college, it is Lorelai's break and she is getting coffee and food just as a young man walks up to her.

"Once again, ladies and gentlemen, she takes the last burrito." He says.

"And hello to you, too." Lorelai smiles.

"Week after week. How do you do it?"

"I told you, correct change. Go in for that dollar-bill nonsense you'll be standing there for ten minutes watching it."

"And here I thought you had a special relationship with this vending machine."

"Only in the sense that it keeps me alive." Lorelai takes a bite of her burrito and walks over to a table.

"I actually had a theory on that." The guy says as she follows her.

"Uh-oh."

"Ever since we were children, we got our nourishment from our mothers."

"Oh! Okay. Are you trying to gross me out so I can't eat my buritto?"

"And now we're getting it from machines."

"Your point being?"

"I think it's a conspiracy getting us ready for the day when we'll all be raised by machines. No human contact whatsover."

"You know my mother, don't you?"

"The Twilight Zone marathon was on all week."

"So all this is a way of saying you want to look at my notes on the reading." Lorelai smiles.

"Such preception."

"And in one so young and beautiful. Frightening, isn't it?" Lorelai asks as she takes out the notes.

"You know, I feel bad doing this every week."

"Really? I'd have thought you'd have gotten used to it by now."

"Come on, Lorelai. I've got to pay you back somehow. How about you let me take you out to dinner one night?"

Lorelai was taken back by that offer. "Dinner?" She asks.

"Yeah, maybe even somewhere that doesn't require correct change. Unless you're firmly into the coin thing. Then I know a good Automat."

"Oh, I don't know."

"I was kidding about the Automat."

Lorelai laughs. "No, an Automat is fine. It's just, my schedule's kind of crazy for the next couple weeks."

"Okay. It was just a thought. But if you suddenly get an opening, give me a call." He takes out his card and hands it to her.

"Great. Sure. Thanks. Enjoy the notes."

"Thank you." He says, standing up. "Enjoy the burrito."

At Chilton, Rory walks into the cafeteria where her group is meeting to go over the play.

"Hey." She says as she walks up to Madeline, Louise, and another guy.

"Hey." Madeline says back as she continues to read her magazine.

"Where's Paris?"

"She'll be here in a minute. She said she had to get some things."

Rory looks over at the guy. "Hi. I'm Rory."

"Brad. From third period Shakespeare."

"He's the answer to our 'lack of boys' problem. Isn't that swell?" Louise says.

"Well, maybe we should start." Rory suggests.

"Without Paris?" Madeline says unsure.

"That could be lethal." Louise tells them.

"We could a least decide on what motif we want to do."

Paris walks in with a big box in her hands. "We're doing traditional Elizabethan." She tells them.

"Elizabethan? I thought the point was to-"

"The point is to get an 'A' not to make Romeo and Juliet into a Vegas lounge act. Besides, we have the death scene. It's classic. It's famous. Who are you?"

"I'm Brad.. from the third period Shakespear, ma'am." Brad says scared.

Paris starts handing out scripts. "Okay, I want everyone to read the chapters on acting I photocopied out of Houseman's memoirs tonight. Everyone will be off-book by Friday and if you plan on missing rehearsal, you'd better bring a coroner's note." Paris takes out a sword and sets it on the table.

"Tell me you didn't just have that lying around." Rory says.

"We're short on boys. That makes you Romeo." Paris tells Brad. "Louise, you can play the friar."

Tristan walks up to them. "Well, well, the gang's all here."

"This is a meeting."

Tristin pulls up a chair next to Rory. "Yeah, sorry I'm late."

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Prof. Anderson forgot to include me when she made up the groups. So she told me to pick one."

"Fine. You have four other acts to choose from. Take your pick."

"Yeah, well, Summer's in Act One, Beth and Jessica are in Act Two, Kate's in Act Three, and Clair, Cathy, and Mary are in Act Four. This is the only one free of ex-girlfriends." Tristan explains.

"So we're being punished for our good taste?" Paris asks.

"Oh, Paris, you hurt me. Do you no longer have any need for me at all?"

"Yes, we have great need." Louise tells him. "You can be our Romeo."

"Brad is Romeo." Rory reminds her.

"Put in your other contact, Grandma. Tristin is Romeo. Brad can the second guard on the left."

"No." Paris says sternly.

"She's kind of right, Paris. Tristin was born to be Romeo." Madeline tells her.

"Hey, I'm the director and I'll decide who's born to be what. And Brad is Romeo."

"Hell hat no fury like a woman scorned." Louise whispers.

"What'd you say?"

"Just perhaps someone's letting her personal feelings interfere with leadership."

"My only feeling is I don't want to give the most important part to someone who can't even manage to stay in school."

"I'm just going to say one thing. 50% of our final grade."

"Is there going to be any scratching, or is it just a verbal thing?" Tristina asks them.

"What do you think about this?" Paris asks Rory.

"Well.." Rory looks at Brad. "How are you at speaking in front of a lot of people?"

"I tend to throw up." He tells her.

"Fine. But I swear, you flake on this, and you'll pray you got suspended." Paris tells Tristin.

Tristin looks down at his beeper that's going off. "I've got to run. Are we done here?"

"Rehearsal tomorrow night." Tristin turns away and leaves.

"Good. So now Brad can be Friar Tuck, and I can be Juliet." Louise says.

"Wrong. Juliet's supposed to be chaste."

"Then-" Madeline begins.

"And she had more than three lines."

Paris looks over at Rory. "No." Rory says.

"Too late."

"Can't be. We haven't done anything yet." Rory argues.

"You're Juliet. You're the best public speaker here. You have the waif thing down, and you'll look great dead. Next order of business."

At the Inn, Lorelai walks into the kitchen holding the ice cream maker in her hands. She puts it in front of Sookie.

"I remember you." Sookie laughs as she points to the ice cream maker.

"I am donating it to the inn." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, honey, that's very thoughtful."

"Yes, it is."

"But we have an ice cream maker, a professional one." Sookie tells her. "See, that means we can make enough ice cream for everyone in the Inn whereas this little guy-"

"Fernando."

"Fernando, try as he might, can only make enough ice cream for you."

Lorelai sighs. "So we don't need him here?"

"No, we don't."

Lorelai walks over to the coffee. "Can't you find some use for him? I mean, he's new and shiny. It's not his fault he's part of the other life I almost had, but don't have now, and kind of don't want to be reminded of."

"I guess I can put my change in him."

"Thank you!"

"Honey, can I say something?" Sookie asks.

"Shoot." Lorelai walks back over to Sookie.

"I'm a littler concerned about you."

"Why?"

"You just seem very emotional about this ice cream maker."

"I am not."

"You named the ice cream maker."

"I name everything."

"You didn't name the toaster."

Lorelai stands there for a second thinking. "Poppy."

"You just made that up."

"I did not."

"Alright, but admit it. Poppy is a damn good name for a toaster."

"It's been quite a while since you and Max broke up."

"I'm fine, Sookie."

"Okay, you're fine. But are you moving on?" She asks.

"Yes, I'm moving on."

"Well then how many dates have you had post Max?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You're hibernating."

"I'm not hibernating."

"Yes, you are. How many dates have you been on?" Sookie asks again.

"I was engaged, Sookie. You don't just get over that."

"But you went through your mourning period. And you said it was over."

"It was. Is."

"Well, are you at least putting the vibe out there, so they'll know you're available?"

"Okay, look, it it'll make you feel any better, I just got asked out the other night."

"What? You're kidding. Who is he?" Sookie says surprised.

"Some guy from my business class."

"Business class."

"He's a pretty cool guy, actually. He's cute, funny. He's a little younger, but he's very sharp. You know, we have this little bit going about me stealing his burrito."

"Ooh. 'Stealing his burrito.' You kids." Sookie nudges Lorelai.

"No, like a real buritto."

"You've stolen his burrito." Sookie laughs.

"Okay, forget the burrito." Lorelai says a little freaked out.

"Fine. When are you guys going out?"

"Well, I didn't exactly say yes."

"Why not? You've already got the skirt."

"Because I don't know. What if it doesn't work out? And the class will be weird and it'll definitely screw up our burrito bit."

"Oh, honey, come on, every guy doesn't have to be 'the guy.'"

"I know. Isn't it too soon for the transition guy?"

"Don't think of him as the transition guy. Think of him as the pre-transition guy."

"A pre-transition guy? You're allowed that?"

"Absolutely."

"Wow. I've got to read the rule book more carefully."

"So?"

"So I will call him later tonight."

"Great! That's so great!" Sookie jumps up and hugs Lorelai happily.

Later that night, Rory is sitting in the living room just as the phone rings.

"Hello?" She answers.

"Two other groups are rehearsing in the Grant Hall even though I reserved it way in advance and confirmed the reservation twice. But, whatever. They're going to be there, I don't want them spying on us." Paris tells her.

"I don't think the ending to Romeo and Juliet isn't exactly a secret."

"Hello, our interpretation?"

"Right."

"I went on a website called . It's in your town."

"There's a ?" Rory asks, confused.

"Have you heard of it? Is it big enough? The site says it's 720 square feet."

"You know, I'd rather just rehearse somewhere else."

"Look, I got enough to be worried about without you being embarrassed of where you live."

"I'm not embarrassed. I just want to keep my school life and home life separate."

"Tough. Madeline and Louise are on their way. See you in half an hour." Paris says, hanging up.

Rory quickly hangs up and looks upstairs at her mom, who is coming down. "Have you seen my bag with the beads and the fur that looks like Stalin's head?" Lorelai asks her daughter as she looks around the room and sees it near the phone cord. "Ah!"

"We're rehearsing here now." Rory tells her.

"What?"

"Our Shakespeare. Paris didn't want anyone spying on us, so now we're rehearsing in Stars Hollow. This sucks."

"At least you don't have to drive to Hartford. Oh, and Lauren can stay with you now instead of alone. Perfect. Hey, why the face?"

"It's just Tristin is in our group."

"Yeah, you told me."

"Right. So Tristin, he's in our group, so that means he's...well, and Dean lives here, so this sucks."

"Okay, you know what? I'm going to need a few more vowels here."

"I have to tell him."

"Tell who?"

"Dean."

"Tell Dean what?"

"That Tristin and I, that we kissed at the stupid party. I have no choice. Because if Tristin sees Dean, he'll tell him and then it'll be worse, because it'll be like I kept it from him."

"Okay, just calm down."

"Which I was." Rory says ignoring her mother. "I was keeping it from him. I can't believe it. Now I have to tell him."

"You're right." Lorelai finally says.

"I am?"

"Mhm. I think you should tell him."

"Of course. I have to."

"Then, at the play, right as Tristin enters to find you dead and pull out the vial of poison to kill himself Dean can leap from the audience and rip his head off adding a level of reality few productions have seen before. You'll get an 'A,' the actors studio will go nuts, you'll have James Lipton asking you what your favorite swear word is. It's a great plan."

"You, not helping." Rory says rolling her eyes and going into the living room to pout.

"To prevent a homicide? Yes, I am." Lorelai follows.

"I have to tell him. I don't have a choice."

"Okay. Fine. Try it out on me first." Lorelai says as she sits down in front of her. "Pretend I'm Dean. If you're going to tell him this, you bettwe have down what you'll say."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Rory sits up and takes a deep breath as she looks at her mom. "Dean."

"Rory." Lorelai says in a deep voice. Rory gives her a look. "Sorry. Serious now."

"Okay, Dean. Remember last year, when we had broken up and we weren't together anymore because we'd broken up?"

"That's good. Mention it three times. Keep going."

"And there was this party, and I went, and Tristin was there. And somewhow, I'm not really sure how, we ended up in a room together, and we kissed."

"You and Tristin?"

"Uh-huh."

"On the hand?"

"No."

"Cheek?"

"No."

"He kissed you, or you kissed him?"

"Both."

"So you kissed him?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"I already told you three times. When we were broken up." Rory yells at her mom.

"Not a good idea to yell at him right now."

"Sorry."

"When during the break up?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how long after we broke up did you kiss Tristin?"

"Uh, just the night after we broke up."

"The night after I told you I loved you?"

Rory stares blankly at her mom. "Yes."

"The next night, after I told you I loved you, you kissed Tristin?"

"I'm a terrible person!"

"Hold on." Lorelai says. She didn't mean to get Rory worked up like this.

"He's absolutely right. He told me he loved me and the next night, I got and kiss Tristin."

"That was me, not Dean." Lorelai reminds her.

"I hate myself."

"You didn't do anything wrong. You were hurt and confused and broken up. You did nothing wrong." Lorelai assures her.

"Tell that to Dean."

"No because we're not telling Dean anything."

"Mom."

"Listen to me. I know you are Miss. Honesty. I have seen the banner in the closet. But this kind of honesty will only make you feel less guilty and it's going to hurt Dean very much." Lorelai explains. "It's possibly going to screw up the really good thing you have going now. Do you want that?"

"No, I don't."

"Alright, then. Relax. Be calm. Everything will be fine."

"Okay."

"I've got to go. Can I ask you one more question? Do you think my hair looks cool?" She asks in a deep voice.

"Bye." Rory says rolling her eyes at her mom's ridiculousness.

"Cause some days I wake up and I'm, like, 'Cool.'" Rory sits up and pushes her mom off the couch. "Some days, I'm, like, 'Could be cooler.'"

"I won't wait up for you."

"Like today I got up and I was like 'Left side cool, right side not so cool."

"Bye."

"Bye." Lorelai laughs.

At the studio, Paris is standing inside already as Rory, Lauren, Louise, Madeline, and Brad walk up.

"Hey." Rory says.

They look in and see that Patty has a class going on. "What's with the cacoon?" Louise asks.

"Where's Tristin?" Paris asks looking around. "He said he was coming with you."

"He's here." Madeline tells her. "He just went over to the market."

"What?" Rory asks.

"He needed cigarettes just incase we didn't already know that he was bad." Louise tells them.

"Who's this?" Paris asks as she looks down at Lauren.

"This is my sister Lauren. She is hanging out with us for awhile." Rory says. Lauren just gives them an awkward smile. "I'll be right back." Rory runs off leaving Lauren with the group.

"I didn't come here to babysit!" Paris yells towards Rory.

Lauren looks up at Paris. "Yeah, I don't like you."

At the market, Dean is busy stocking the shelves just as Tristin walks up to him.

"Excuse me, stock boy, could you tell me where I could find the shortening?" Tristin asks Dean, who quickly stands up. "Now that is a fine looking apron. I mean, really sensational." Tristin laughs.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, to be honest, there's something I wanted to ask you." Tristin reaches behind Dean and grabs two bags of flour. "In your professional opinion which one would make my cakes fluffier?"

"You drove all the way here just to be a jerk? There aren't enough people who can't stand you in Hartford?"

"Oh, no. I'm here for Rory."

"What?"

"The play, Romeo and Juliet?"

"What about it?"

"I'm Romeo. She's Juliet. Come on, she must have told you." Dean rolls his eyes. "She did tell you, didn't she?"

"I think you'd better leave."

Tristin puposely drops one of the bags of flour on the floor which makes it break open. "Oops! I am so sorry. I am such a klutz. Here. Let me." He takes out some money and drops that on the floor, too. "This should cover it."

"You know what? I hope for Rory's sake that you got an understudy." Rory runs in and goes straight to the guys.

"Dean, hi. I need to talk to you." Rory says, quickly.

"What is he doing here?" Dean asks her. "I got something to settle with this guy!"

"Outside, please." Rory pushes Dean towards the door.

"Alright! I'm outside."

"I'm really sorry I didn't tell you before, but Tristin-"

"Is playing Romeo and your Juliet. I heard." Dean finishes.

"He wasn't even in our group at first, then no one else wanted him, then Paris moved our rehearsal to here, and I didn't have time to tell you." Rory explains quickly.

"You and Tristin get thrown together a lot."

"It's just a project, that's all. Nothing more."

"You and Tristin playing Romeo and Juliet? Perfect. Really amazing." He says sarcastically.

"I know you hate it."

"Yeah, I really hate it."

"But we do the scene on Sunday, then it's over." Rory promises. "And it's back to, 'Tristin? Who? I don't know Tristin.'"

"You must mean that young boy who got mysteriously strangled by a Doose's Market apron one night."

"I heard about that. Awful. They say drugs were involved." Dean smirks. "Please, don't be mad. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

"Sorry about what? You didn't choose to do this with him, right?"

"No, I didn't."

"Then what do you have to be sorry for?"

"That I didn't tell you about the rehearsal. And that No Doubt is touring with U2. I know you're extremely disappointed in Bono."

Dean laughs. "Alright, so when's this thing over?"

"Sunday."

"Okay." Dean leans in and kisses Rory. "I'm going to walk around the block. Just get him out of the market."

"Right away."

At Luke's, Rory and Lauren decided to go their to eat after Rory's rehearsal. Lorelai walks in to find them both eating.

"Thank goodness you ordered. I am starving." Lorelai tells them as she sits down across from Rory.

Lauren and Rory both look at their mother with a confused look. "What are you doing here?" Lauren asks her.

"I thought you went to dinner." Rory says.

"I did go out to dinner." Lorelai tells them as she steals a fry from Lauren's plate.

"Then why are you eating mine?" Lauren asks.

"Well, he took me to this darling little place called Mini's. Very hip, very chic, very small portions."

"So how'd it go?" Rory asks.

Lorelai grimaces. "Well, we talked about the things we had in common, and then the salad came."

"Not a soul mate?"

"He's never seen Abfab."

"Definitely not a soulmate."

"Plus, he's outdoorsey. Remember that Meryl Streep movie where she and her family take a rafting trip and then psycho Kevin Bacon forces them to take him down the river?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, that's his dream vacation, minus Kevin Bacon."

"Wow."

"Whereas mine is Kevin Bacon minus the river. So.."

"Okay, moving on." Lauren tells her not wanting to hear about her mother's thoughts about Kevin Bacon.

"But I must say, I'm really glad I went tonight." Lorelai smiles.

Her girls look up at her with a similar smile. "Yeah?" Rory asks.

"Yeah. I mean it was fun to kind of get dressed up and have a freshly laundered man open the door for me. And the best part about it was, it was no big deal. We laughed a little, we hugged goodnight. I'll never date him again. But I do believe the burrito bit will live on. It was a totally casual date. I am now officially a casual dater."

"That's great."

"And we can celebrate by getting you your own plate of fries." Lauren tells her mom as she turns around to look for Luke. Lorelai then notices the very large bruise covering her twelve year-old's arm and it was very purple and green. "Hey, Luke, another round!" She yells.

"Coming right up." Luke yells back.

"Lauren, what the hell happened to your arm?!" Lorelai asks as she pulls Lauren's arm closer for her to look at it.

Lauren winces in pain at her mother's cold touch on her bruise. "Ow. Mom, I was playing soccer. It's not big deal." Lauren lies.

"That looks like a big deal." Lorelai shows Rory Lauren's arm and she gives her the same frightened look her mom gave her.

"Did one of the girls do that?" Rory asks, suspiciously.

Lauren looks down at her food and pushes her arm back away from her mom's grasp. "Yeah. She elbowed me, but I'm fine."

"If you say so, but when we get home you're going to ice that." Lorelai orders her.

"Whatever." Lauren mumbles.

Rory is still looking suspiciously at her little sister when he mom draws her attention back. "So tell me about the big rehearsal." Lorelai asks Rory.

"We got off to a shaky start." Rory tells her. "And Louise acts like she's the priest in a Madonna video. But by the end we were not half bad."

"Good. Good."

"Tristin ran into Dean."

"Bad. Bad."

"It's okay, though. I pulled them apart without bloodshed and explained it all to Dean."

"You explained it all to Dean?"

"I told him Tristin wasn't supposed to be in our group and Paris moved the rehearsal to Miss. Patty's at the last minute and that's why he didn't know about it."

"Oh. That version of 'all.'"

"But Dean's fine now?"

"He's fine." Lorelai repeats.

"He's fine."

Luke brings over a plate of fries and coffee for Lorelai. "You want a burger, too?"

"No, I'll just have half of hers." Lorelai points to Lauren.

"One burger, please." Lauren smiles up at Luke.

"You look all dressed up." Luke says, noticing Lorelai's attire.

"Do I? Because I feel very casual." Lorelai says, smiling up at Luke proudly. Before Luke could walk away, though, Lorelai grabs Lauren's arm again. "Hey, Luke, does this look like no big deal?" Lorelai asks as she pulls Lauren's sleeve up to show Luke the huge bruise.

Lauren tries to fight back, but Lorelai was holding tightly. "You're going to give me another one if you keep holding onto me like that."

Luke looks closely at it. "Where the hell did that come from?" Luke asks Lauren.

"Soccer. I'm fine." Lauren groans.

"You need to ice that. Make sure she ices that." Luke tells Lorelai.

"You got it." Luke walks off and Dean walks into the door.

"Hey." He tells them.

"Hi." Rory says. "You just got off work?"

"Yep." Dean walks over and sits on the side of Rory.

"Hey, Dean, you want some fries?" Lorelai asks.

"No, I'm going home for dinner. "My mom made fried chicken, and she saved me some."

"Oh." Lorelai says in awe. "You have a cookie mom."

"That's so nice." Lauren smiles.

"Well, she may make chicken, but is she a casual dater?"

"I hope not. She's married." Rory laughs.

"Do I want to know what you're talking about?" Dean asks.

"Nope." Luke says passing by.

"My mother casually dated tonight." Rory tells him anyway making Luke look up.

"Congratulations." Dean says

"Thank you very much." Lorelai smiles.

"So I was just wondering what time rehearsal is tomorrow."

"Five. Why?"

"Well, it's my night off, and I thought maybe I'd come and watch."

"Watch what?"

"Watch you."

"Watch me do what?"

"Rehearse." Dean chuckles.

"Oh." Rory looks up at Lorelai who is giving her a questioning look. "Dean, I think you'd be really bored watching rehearsal."

"Yeah, you would really would. I had to go there today and I swear I fell asleep twice watching them." Lauren tells him as she tries to help her sister out.

"Well, I won't be bored." Dean says.

"We don't even know our lines yet. You should come on Sunday."

"That's a good idea. After all, Sunday's the day of rest and that's what you'll be doing. Resting." Lorelai jokes.

"I'll come on Sunday, too."

"But if you're going to go on Sunday, you don't want to spoil it for yourself."

Dean laughs. "Why? It's not like I don't know how it ends."

"Okay, look.."

"Rory, I'll sit in the back, you'll die, and I'll walk you home. It's no big deal, right?"

"Right."

"Good. So, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeap, you sure will." Dean stands up and gives Rory a quick kiss before he walks out.

"Oh, yeah. He's fine." Lorelai tells her daughter who is sitting there looking nervously about tomorrow.

The next day at Chilton. Rory walks down the long hall and sees Tristin talking by some lockers with his friends. She walks over to him.

"Excuse me, Tristin, can I talk to you for a second?" Rory asks him.

Tristin sighs. "I'll meet you guys later, okay?" His friends walk away. "I'm all yours."

"I need to talk to you about something serious."

"Serious? I'm intrigued." He opens his locker as Rory continues.

"Dean's coming to rehearsal tonight."

"Wow. Are you sure they can spare him? What if there's a run on baked beans?"

"Can't you shut up for five seconds, please? Thank you. Look, as I said, Dean's coming to rehearsal tonight and I'd like you to pormise you won't say anything about what happened."

"What happened?" Tristin asks playing confused.

"At the party?"

"At the party?"

"You and me, at Madeline's party? Tristin! You had just been kicked to the curb by Summer and I found you sulking on a piano bench, and I sat down, we talked and then we kissed." Rory explains the events.

"That was you?"

"You know what? Forget it." Rory walks away frustrated, but Tristin follows her.

"Hey, Rory-"

Rory turns back around. "There's no point in talking to you. I knew, yet I tried. Won't happen again."

"You don't want me to tell Dean that we kissed."

"By George, I think he's got it." Rory says, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, if that's what you want."

"It is."

"Although he's going to find out anyway."

"What?"

"Oh, come on, you know that when we kiss on stage it's going to be obvious it's not the first time. I'm a good actor, but I can't hide that kind of passion."

"Look, things are really good for me and Dean, and I don't want anything to mess that up. Especially not something that meant nothing to me and I wish had never happened in the first place." Tristin gives Rory a surprised look because he obviously did feel something.

"So things are going good for you two?" He asks.

"Yeah, they are."

"Good. That's good." Tristin turns back around and goes to his locker, but this time Rory follows him.

"So what do you think?" Tristin puts back his books. "You just took those out."

"I changed my mind."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think I'll recover from the great romance between you and the Beav."

"A lot of stuff's been going on with lately, huh?"

"Meaning?"

"Just, you know, the car thing, the suspension thing. A lot of drama."

"Well, I get bored easily."

"Just doesn't really seem like you."

"And you know me?"

"I know that you don't get suspended for dumb pranks."

"I pulled stuff like that before I knew Duncan and Bowman."

"Well, if you did, you didn't get caught. You're getting caught a lot."

"Your point being?"

"They aren't the best people to be hanging out with. They're not as smart at you. They don't have what you have going."

"You know I'm gonna have to bail before we get to the hugging part." Tristin interrupts jus as the bell rings. "And ask your boyfriend to remind me when it's coupon day, okay?"

At the diner, Lorelai and Rory are sitting at the counter eating. Rory wasn't in much of a eating mood.

"Taking pity on your burger?" Lorelai asks her.

"I'm not hungry."

"Honey, you've got to eat. You're going to kill yourself in a couple of hours. You really need your strength."

"Ha ha."

"Maybe Dean won't even come tonight."

"He'll be there. There aren't enough monster truck rallies in the world to keep him away."

Lauren runs in and sits next to Lorelai. She was dressed in her practice gear and didn't even bother hiding the bruise anymore since her mom and sister knew. They just didn't know the real way she got it. "Hey, I'm hungry." She says, reaching out to take the rest of her mom's fries.

"Hey, this afternoon we are going to engage in some intensive retail therapy to bring your sister out of this funk."

"Cool. I need some new shoes." Lauren smiles.

"Lorelai?" Lorelai looks over at the guy she went on her date with and he was obviously with his parents. He looked so different that she didn't even recognize him.

"Yes?"

"Hey, it is you! This is Lorelai. She's the girl I told you about." He tells his parents.

"Oh, Paul!" Lorelai laughs remembering now. "I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you with the hat. What are you doing here?"

Lauren and Rory both look at their mom and the guy in confusion. "Getting some coffee." He tells her.

"In Stars Hollow?"

"Well, you know, you talked so much about the town the other night, especially Luke's place. So, my mom's crazy for coffee. I thought I'd bring them for breakfast."

"The other night?" Lauren turns around to look at her mom, curiously.

"Paul's referring to the casual Wednesday." Lorelai tells her daughters. "Oh, Paul, I want you to meet my daughters, Rory and Lauren."

"Hi. Nice to meet you. Hey, these are my parents, Dory and Sid."

"Nice to meet you." Dory says.

"You ordering?" Luke asks.

"Luke?" Paul asks. "Are you Luke? Is this Luke?"

"Yes, that's Luke." Lorelai laughs awkwardly.

"Oh, man! Mom, Dad, that is Luke. We heard so much about you."

"Darn shame about that Rachel." Sid tells him.

Luke looks at Lorelai. "Who the hell are these people?"

"Paul is my friend from business school." Lorelai tells him as Lauren and Rory try to hold back their laughter.

"Yeah, we went out the other night." Paul tells him. "And she talked about a few people in this town, you being one of them. So, nice to meet you."

"Yeah." Luke smiles back.

"Okay, three coffees to go, then."

Lorelai turns around to look at Rory. "Something funny?"

"No." Rory laughs.

"You're just smiling for no reason?"

"I'm a happy person."

"Hey, I've got to run. Mom wants to go antiquing. So, it was nice meeting you both, and I'll see you in class, Lorelai." Paul and his parents leave the diner.

"What?" Lorelai asks her girls.

"Nothing." Lauren laughs.

"Say it."

"I've always wanted a little brother." Rory laughs.

"He looked older the other night." Lorelai tells them.

"How much older could he possibly look?"

"A lot. He's usually scruffy. The baseball cap hides the funky hair thing."

"He should have been holding a yo-yo, a lollipop, and wearing a benie with a propeller on it." Lauren jokes.

Lorelai gasps. "He's in his 20s."

"He must have been a very good boy to deserve such a happy day." Rory teases. "I bet they let him ride a pony."

"Aren't you supposed to go help Lane?"

"Thanks for cheering me up." Rory grabs her burger and takes it with her."

Luke walks to her. "What? You want to say something, too?"

"No."

"Please. Don't hold back on my account."

"I wouldn't."

"Good."

Luke looks over at the little boys sitting next to Lauren. "Would you guys mind moving down a couple stools? It'd make me more comfortable."

Lauren laughs and Luke gives her a high five. "This is me leaving." Lorelai says annoyed and takes her stuff. "Lauren, you either follow me or get locked out the house."

Lauren quickly finishes Lorelai's food off and stands up with her. "What? I want to know what the cutoff is." Luke jokes.

Lorelai puts money on the counter. "And no tip. I wonder why."

"I mean, at least if you had one of those height bars, like at amusement park rides."

"Bye, now." Lorelai takes Lauren's hand and drags her out the diner.

At rehearsal, Rory is laying down on the table as Tristin sits above her.

"Line!" He yells.

"Thus with a kiss I die." Paris calls out.

"And then I kiss her?" He smirks as he looks over at Dean who is standing awkwardly in the back.

"Do you think this is a joke?" Paris yells. "The performance is tomorrow."

"Wait, tomorrow? My God! I totally missed it the first 47 times you said it."

"I warned you. I am not going to fail this because of you. I will replace you with Brad in a second."

"Can we just get through the scene?" Rory asks.

"Please." Madeline begs. They were all bored out of their mind.

"Fine. But yell 'line' once more, and you're out." Paris tells Tristin. "Start memorizing." She tells Brad.

"O true apothecary, thy drugs are quick." Tristin acts as she bends down closer to Rory. "Thus with a kiss I die." He looks at Dean as he gets closer to Rory's face, but sits back up.

"What!?" Paris yells.

"It's just with this being our last kiss, it makes me think about our first kiss. You know, at the party."

"What?" Rory asks sitting up.

"Lie down, you're dead." Paris tells her.

"We all are." Louise groans.

"You remember the kiss." Tristin says to Rory. "In Act One, at the Capulets masked party."

"What about it?" Paris asks, getting annoyed.

"Well, I was trying to think of something that would make this kiss as special."

"Tristin." Rory says looking sternly at him.

"I thought she could cry."

"What?"

"She's dead." Paris yells, reminding them. "You're dead. Lie down."

"But that's the beauty of it. No one would expect her to cry."

"I would." Dean says from the back of the room.

"You know, funny you should say that."

"I need to take five." Rory jumps down from the table and walks over to Dean.

"Let's all take five." Paris yells. "That way, you can call and cancel whatever plans you had tonight because we are staying here until we get this right."

"He is unbelievable." Dean tells Rory.

"Dean, I really need you to leave."

"What?"

Rory sighs. "The play's tomorrow, and it's 50% of my grade and you standing there staring at Tristin, it's like a challenge."

"I don't like the way he's messing with you."

"I don't either, but we have to get through the scene, and we can't get through the scene with you standing there, so, Dean, please?" Rory begs him.

Dean exhales. "Fine. Call me later." He kisses Rory then walks out.

"You know, I noticed you didn't cry when you kissed him." Tristin says as she comes up behind her. "I'm starting to feel insecure."

"What is wrong with you?" Rory says with anger as she turns around to face him.

"I think I liked you better comatose."

"You weren't going to say anything."

"Did I say that?"

"You make it impossible for anyone to be nice to you. No wonder you had to join our group. Anyone who's suffered the experience of going out with you would know better." Rory says, harshly.

Tristin's pager starts going off. "Gee. I really wish we could continue your analysis on how pathetic I am. Unfortunately, I have to meet some friends."

"Where are you going?" Paris yells as she walks passed Rory. "Where is he going? We're not finished!"

At Chilton for the big night, Sookie, Lorelai, Lauren, Dean, and Lane are all standing together to watch a scene. This group was acting like cavemen and it was kinda freaking everyone out.

"Are you sure this is Shakespeare, Mom?" Lauren asks.

"What's with all the grunting?" Dean asks.

"I wish Luke was here. He could translate for us."

Rory walks up behind them. "Hey." She says smiling at them.

"Hi, honey." Lorelai smiles as she looks at her daughter in the costume she made.

"Look at you." Sookie gleams. "You look like a princess. Doesn't she look like a princess?"

"Yeah, she looks beautiful."

"Mom made the dress."

"Not to mention the girl inside it." Lorelai tells her.

"Hello! Gross!" Rory says, embarrassed.

"I'm just saying."

"I'm getting kind of nervous."

"You're going to be great." Lane assures her.

"Act three is starting."

"Henry's act. How do I look?" Lane asks, nervously.

"You might want to hold a phone up to your face, so he'll recognize you."

"Bye." Lane hurries away to find Henry.

Paris grabs Rory's arm. "I need you." She says and pulls her away. They walk out into the hallway. "He's not here."

"Who's not here?"

"Tristin. I've called his home, his cell, I called three girls he's seeing."

"Paris, calm down."

"Weren't you listening? He's not here. We're on in twenty minutes, and we don't have a Romeo. We are going to fail."

"We're not."

"Do you think Harvard accepts people who fail Shakespeare?" Paris asks. "They don't. I don't have number on it, but I feel secure in saying you fail Shakespeare, you don't get into Harvard."

"Okay, maybe he's in on of the bathrooms smoking."

"Good idea. You check the east men's rooms, and I'll check the west ones." They both come back with no Tristin. "I knew he was going to do this, but no one wanted to listen."

"What about Brad?"

"Brad transferred schools. Where have you been?" Paris asks as soon as she sees Tristin. "You have to get dressed. We're on in ten minutes."

"Can't." He tells them.

"What?"

"Actually, my dad had me pulled out of school." Paris doesn't ask questions, she just turns and walks away. "And is she unhappy."

"What do you mean, he had you pulled out of school?" Rory asks, confused.

"Nothing. Just ticked the old man off, that's all."

"By doing what? Tristin, come on, tell me."

"I got in some trouble."

"Trouble involving..."

"Involving Duncan and Bowman and Bowman's dad's safe."

"Oh, no."

"Bowman had a key. It was supposed to be no big deal. Then the crazy silent alarm kicked in."

"You broke into Bowman's dad's safe?"

"Yes."

"Stupid."

"Yes."

"Well, okay. You can apologize and you can put back the money and you can explain that you were going through something."

"I was. I was going through his safe."

"Why would you do this?"

"I don't know. I guess that's something I ponder at military school."

"Military school?" Rory says surprised.

"The police are letting our parents handle it. In my case, that means military school in North Carolina."

"I don't know what to say."

"Well, I imagine you're overwhelmed at the relief in knowing that soon I will be gone."

"I'm so sorry."

Tristin shrugs. "I'm a big boy. I can handle it. I've got to go." He peeks over and sees Dean looking at them. "So, I'd like to kiss you goodbye, but your boyfriend's watching." Rory looks at Dean. "Take care of yourself, Mary."

Rory laughs as Tristin walks away. Paris runs in dressed in the man's costume. "What are you standing there for? Let's go! And you better start sucking on an Altoid."

The next day, the play and all it's anxiety was finally out of the window. Tristin was gone and Rory had no more worries, at least not right now. Lauren on the otherhand was trying harder and harder to get out of the bruise situation with her mom. Lorelai had been making her ice it every night, and the bruise was finally kinda of going away. It still hurt like hell, though. Lauren met up with Jess and he was going to help her get rid of the bruise, or at least show her how to hide it better. They were standing outside by the high school, and Jess was examining Lauren's arm. Lorelai was passing by and she stopped when she seen her daughter with Jess. She didn't even know the two talked, which was weird. Lauren was laughing and Jess was putting something on Lauren's bruise. She watched as Lauren looked down at the bruise that was no longer showing and she reached up and hugged Jess tightly around his neck. This was all seeming a little strange to Lorelai. Jess, smiling? Lauren, hugging Jess? What was happening?

_Thanks for reading, guys. I didn't have much of Lauren in here and I apologize. I'm trying the best I can to update faster, too, but I've just been so busy with work, and, well, life. This chapter was pretty boring, but I'm really trying to get through each episode. Remember, though, it won't always be all about Lauren. But, anyways, please review. Thanks again, and I hope to have another chapter up very soon! :)_


	31. Goodnight, Hello, Good Morning

The snow was coming down harder and harder every day and the town was also getting ready for their snowman contest. And as always Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren participated, but this year they were going for another look.

"How do you like that mouth?" Lorelai asks her daughters as she finishes.

"It's not very mouth-like." Rory tells her and they look at it.

"Oh, I think it works."

"It's tilted to the side." Lauren points out.

"Yeah, it was intentional. It gives her a unique expression."

"Like she had a stroke?" Rory asks.

"Fine. I'll just use the Mrs. Potato Head lips." Lorelai says showing them the lips that she got off of Lauren's old toy.

"No, forget it." Rory says. "Leave Stroke-mouth. It's not like we're going to win this."

Lorelai and Lauren both gasp at Rory's negativity. "Bad attitude." Lauren says as she shakes her head.

"Face it. That is the single most incredible snowman I have ever seen." Rory says, pointing to the guy behind them that pretty much has a statue made of snow of a guy in a suit and top hat holding a cane made of ice.

"I'm sorry, that snowman is way over the top. Too showy." Lorelai tells her. "It's screaming, 'I'm incredible. I'm special. Look at me.'"

"Kind of the point of a snowman-building contest."

Lorelai turns around to look at the snowman again. The man that is making it waves her way and she gives him a fake smile and waves back. "I hate this man with every fiber of my being."

"He looks nice."

"He's a ringer."

"How do you figure?"

"Someone promised him a handsome sum financed his theatrical snowman accountrements so he could snatch victory from a deserving local in order to bag the contest prize." Lorelai explains.

"Seems a little eleborate considering the prize is a set of new US quarters."

"We're ignoring him now." Lorelai tells her daughter and continues on with fixing the snow woman's face. "So, what are we doing on you girls school break?"

"A lot of nothing." Lauren tells her mom. She is kneeling in front of her mom trying to decorate the snow woman's dress.

"Sounds good." Lorelai says as she puts the black wig on top of the snow woman's head.

"Plus some homework." Rory adds.

"And a lot of movies." Lauren tells them.

"Oh, we have to rend Godfather III on DVD." Rory says to them.

"You're kidding." Lorelai says, glaring at her oldest.

"In the audio commentary Coppola defends casting Sofia."

"That is fatherly love. What's this homework you have to do?"

"Just stuff for the paper."

"What? Why?"

Rory rolls her eyes at what she is about to say. "Because Paris wants the first issue back to be a double issue. So we have to prep over break. She says the news never sleeps."

Lorelai shakes her head, disapproving. "What about Paris? Does she ever sleep?"

"I think she periodically makes a whirring noises and shuts down."

"Well, you can't work the whole time."

"I won't. I promise." Rory looks over at the guy behind them. "Oh, my God."

"What?" Lauren and Lorelai both turn to look.

"He's power buffing."

"Oh, now that is just wrong."

"Mom, we're competing against the Michaelangelo of snow." Lauren groans. "We're 'Ernest Builds a Snowman.'"

"We shouldn't look at him anymore." Rory glares.

"Heads down." Lorelai coaches her daughters. "Stay focused. We can do this."

And suddenly the head of the snow woman falls right down, on top of Lauren, covering her from head to toe in snow, as Lorelai and Rory watch. Lauren shakes the snow off of her and looks up and her mom and sister with a sad look. "I don't want to do this anymore."

Lorelai and Rory both help Lauren up and brush the snow off. "Let's get some coffee and get you warmed up." Lorelai tells her as they walk away and head over to Luke's.

At the Inn, Michel is at the front desk on the phone.

"Yes, you can rent a car in Manhattan and return it in Hartford." Michel says over the phone. "That's no problem, sir." The Inn is getting ready for the big bracebridge dinner they were throwing. They did it every year and they were all excited they were continuing on the tradition.

In the kitchen, Lorelai walks in as Sookie and Jackson are discussing the food for the dinner. "Hey, the auditions are starting. You wanna watch?" Lorelai asks Sookie.

"Oh! Yes."

"Auditions for what?" Jackson asks.

"Musicians."

"For the Bracebridge dinner." Lorelai finishes.

"Geez, you guys are going crazy with this dinner." Jackson tells them.

"Jackson, I told you, this dinner is not just about food." Sookie says. "We are recreating an authentic 19th-century meal."

"The servers will be in period clothing, and they'll speak period English." Lorelai explains. "Here, look at the costumes." She pulls out pictures from her folder.

"Nice." Jackson says as he looks at them.

"We're talking seven courses here." Sookie adds. "Soup, fish, peacock pie, the Baron of Beef, the salad, then the plum pudding, and the wassail."

Lorelai smiles. "And there's gonna be a big raised platform where the Squire of Bracebridge is going to preside over the festivities."

"Yeah, he tastes the foods and makes pronouncements. He's like the host of the evening, and his costume is the coolest." Sookie says excitingly.

"It all sounds great." Jackson tells them.

"It is. It is." Sookie grins as she looks at Lorelai then back at Jackson. "By the way, you're playing Squire Bracebridge. Ready?" She asks Lorelai quickly.

"Let's go." Lorelai says as they walk away.

"What are we looking at today?" Sookie asks while they make their way into the dining area for the auditions where there is music playing.

"This is the last on our list. We've got our trumpets, our madrigal singers." Lorelai names.

Jackson runs in from behind them. "Sorry, but I'm not playing Squire Bracebridge." He tells them, but they ignore him.

"We're got all our servers. This is for recorder players and harpists." The musicians walk up to them. "Hi." Lorelai smiles. "Lay some on us, guys." They begin to play their flutes and Lorelai and Sookie smile at eachother with very satisfied looks. "You've the gig." She says as soon as they stop playing. "I'll call later with the details. Thanks."

The musicians walk away and Jackson steps in front of them. "So, are we clear on this? I'm not playing Squire Bracebridge." He repeats. "Sorry you thought that I'd do this."

Sookie and Lorelai turn towards eachother continuing to ignore Jackson. "When do the guests arrive?" Sookie asks Lorelai.

"Thursday at four on their own jet."

"After buying out the whole inn."

"Nice to have money." Lorelai says with jealousy.

"You know what struck me?"

"The fact that I'm not the squire?" Jackson asks.

"We are crazy for doing this." Sookie says.

"We are beyond crazy." Lorelai agrees. "We are 'Anne Heche speaking her secret language and looking for the spaceship in Fresno' crazy."

"Oquinis no-goodo noto."

"II ecnatra dos guidan."

"Sprining this on me at the last minute, that's just manipulative." Jackson continues on.

A cook from the kitchen hurries in. "Sookie, fire." He tells her.

Sookie laughs and rolls her eyes. "I got to get back. You'll handle the harp?" She asks Lorelai.

"You got it."

"Alright, I'll do it." Jackson sighs, giving in. "I'll play Squire Bracebridge if that's what you want. Geez."

"Thanks, sweetie." Sookie smiles and walks back to the kitchen.

"As long as it's not just because I fit the costume." Jackson looks at Lorelai who just smiles at him. "It's because I fit the costume, isn't it?" Jackson yells and follows Sookie.

Lorelai cell phone starts ringing. "Hello?" She answers.

"Hey, Lor. It's me." Chris says.

"Oh, hi, Chris, how are you?"

"Good. Good. You got a minute?"

"Uh-oh." Lorelai grimaces.

"It's not an 'uh-oh.' I just wanted to run an idea by you."

"Run it."

"Now, it's totally up to you. I don't want to step on any plans you've already made but I know Rory and Lauren have a school break coming up and I was wondering if you'd be cool with them visiting for a couple of days."

Lorelai chuckles nervously thinking about her girls being away from her for break. They never went away. "A couple of days?" She asks. "You mean they'd stay the night?"

"Yeah, it's totally your call. Where are you, heaven?" Chris jokes when he hears the harp player playing in the background.

"Do you even have room for someone to stay?"

"Not just a room. A room. A designated guest room. Sherry fixed it up really nice, and we even put two beds in it."

"Good. Good."

"So, what do you think?"

"It's awfully last-minute." Lorelai admits.

"It's totally last-minute. You can say no. There'll be no hard feelings."

"Well, it's really up to Rory and Lauren to say yes or no."

"So you're cool with it?" Chris asks.

"Yeah, sure, if Rory and Lauren are." Lorelai lies. "Yeah."

"That's great. Thank you. I'll let you run it past them and get back to me whenever. No pressure."

"No pressure." Lorelai repeats.

"Talk to you later."

"Yeah." Lorelai says as she thinks about the situation. She was not happy. "Talk to you later."

At the Grandparents, everyone is sitting quietly at the dinner the table. Lauren and Rory both take glances at one another and at their grandparents before Rory clears her throat signalling for her mom's attention. Lorelai looks up and Rory makes movements with her hand for her mom to start up a conversation.

Lorelai smiles up at her father. "So what are you travel plans, Dad?"

"Hm?" Richard says looking at his daughter.

"You and Mom always go out of town this time of year."

"Last year it was te Bahamas." Rory reminds him.

"That's right, it was." Richard says.

"I remember you had fun, too. You said the Bahamamians were real nice. The Bahamites?" Lorelai asks Rory in confusion. "The Bahamamamanians?"

"The Bahamians." Lauren tells her.

"Yes, they were nice."

"They were nice." Emily agrees.

"So what are your plans?" Lorelai asks again, this time looking at her mother.

"We're not going anywhere this year."

"Why not?" Rory asks. Emily looks at Rory and nods her head towards Richard. Rory looks over at her grandfather who is sitting quietly while picking at his food. "Oh. Well, it can be really nice just to stay at home, sometimes, because you can do fun things that you normally wouldn't have time for."

Lorelai smiles. "Yeah, like play Running Charades and get out that Slip 'N Slide."

"We'll see." Richard says.

"Yes, we'll see." Emily repeats sadly.

"Would you all excuse me? I have to make some calls." Richard says as he gets up from the table and walks away.

"When is this awfulness with work gonna resolve itself?" Lorelai asks her mother.

"I don't know. The man is so sensitive. He reads too much into every little perceived slight." Emily explains.

"I remember when I was a kid, Dad had put on some weight and he bought a new suit to try to cover it up. Oh, and he wore it for and said, 'How do I look?' and I said 'You look fat.'" Emily, Rory, and Lauren look at Lorelai with blank stares. "I guess that wasn't really a perceived slight. I'll think of another example.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks in with a panic look on her face and over to Sookie who is going over the game plan with the servers.

"Honey, what's the matter?" Sookie asks.

"They're snowed in." Lorelai tells her.

Sookie looks confused. "Who's snowed in?"

"The Bracebridge group. They're stuck in Chicago. The dinner's off." Lorelai explains in a sad tone.

"No." Sookie says, not wanting to believe it.

"Yes."

"I'm gonna cry."

"I offered to fund the invention of a molecular transport device, but they didn't go for it."

"Ugh. That makes me so mad. And so sad. I'm smad."

"Sookie?" Rune calls out to her. "Does this mean that my pockets willeth not with money get choked? That sounded like Old English. Cool."

At Luke's later that night, Lorelai and Sookie are sulking at Luke's while they sit with Rory and Lauren.

"I've got thirty pounds of aged beef." Sookie tells them, sadly. "Trays and Trays of trout, mountains of prune tarts. I diced pumpkins until my hands turned orange. I've got pumpkin hands."

"Take a sip." Lorelai tells her as she points to the coffee mug in front of Sookie.

"How can you stay so calm about this?" Sookie asks Lorelai.

"There's nothing we can do." Lorelai tells her.

"I can't believe they got snowed in." Rory says with disappointment.

"Me either. I love the Bracebridge Dinner." Lauren tells them.

"All that work. All that extra help we hired." Lorelai says thinking about all the work they had put into this dinner. "Oh, well. At least they paid for it already. We didn't lose any money."

"Yeah, I guess." Sookie says. "I could still make up the dinner for the four of us."

"Yeah, but then it would be the four of us all alone in the dining room." Rory reminds her.

Lorelai and Lauren grimace. "It would be like The Shining, except instead of Jack Nicholson, we have Rune." Lorelai tells them making them laugh.

"You girls want anything besides coffee?" Luke asks as he walks up to them.

"Hey, what about Luke?" Sookie asks Lorelai.

"What about him?"

"He eats, and Jess eats. Doesn't Jess eat?" Sookie asks Luke.

"What's she doing?" Luke asks Lorelai.

"I think she's inviting you for dinner." Lorelai tells him.

"Yeah, come on, join us." Sookie begs. "It'll be fun. You like peacock pie?"

Luke rolls his eyes in annoyance. "I'm 100% sure I don't."

"There'll be normal food, too." Lorelai promises.

"And decorations." Lauren adds.

"And music." Rory tells him.

"Come on. It'll be fun!" Lorelai says.

"Well.." Luke thinks.

"Hey, you know what? Let's invite everyone."

"Everyone who?" Sookie asks.

"Everyone everyone."

Sookie was still confused. "Everyone everyone who?"

"Everyone we knew." Lorelai tells her. "Everyone we like."

"They can even stay in the inn." Rory chimes in getting it to what her mom was getting at. "All those empty rooms, those uneaten pillow mints."

"A slumber party!" Lauren says, joining into the excitement.

"I love it!" Sookie yells.

"Done. Spread the word." Lorelai laughs happily to Luke.

"Hey, I haven't said I'd come yet." Luke tells them. "So, I'm certainly not gonna suddenly become your messenger boy." Lorelai just stares at him. "Eight?"

"Seven."

"Right." Luke turns and walks away from them.

At the house, Lorelai is going over the rest of the plans for the dinner.

"Hey, did Bootsey R.S.V.P?" Lorelai asks her girls.

"Yeah." Lauren answers while walking into the living room and handing her mom and sister their drinks.

"Do you know if he is bringing anybody?"

"He's coming solo."

"Okay." Lorelai starts writing in her plan book. "I'm gonna put him in Room 16 with Luke."

"You can't do that." Rory scolds her mother.

"Come on. Let me have my fun."

"Luke's coming with Jess." Rory informs her.

"Well, I'll put Jess in with Miss. Patty."

Lauren shakes her head. "There'll be no Jess left in the morning."

"You stink. You both stink."

Lauren sits down on the chair in the corner and goes through the mail that is set by the lamp. "Are these last year's cards or this year's?"

"This year's." Rory tells her.

"Hey, last year's set was here till Halloween." Lauren reminds them.

Rory glares at Lorelai. "That's true."

"Hey, if that's a crack at my housekeeping skills, well then okay." Lorelai says as Lauren holds up a Christmas card of a baby.

"Wow." She says.

"What?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"This is one ugly- looking baby." Lauren tells her.

"Whose baby is that?" Rory laughs as she stands up and walks over to here sister to look at the picture she is holding.

"That's your second cousin Stan's poor kid."

Rory examines the picture. "He got Stan's everything."

"That's not even the ugliest baby in the bunch." Lorelai tells them.

"You're kidding." Lauren laughs as she looks through the stack. "Ouch!"

"That's the ugliest baby in the bunch."

"Why do people put pictures on cards?" Rory asks.

"Do they not understand we are unapologetic mockers?" Lorelai asks.

"There's an unexplained innocence in the world." Rory tells them.

"Why didn't you ever make christmas cards with me and Rory?" Lauren asks, curiously. "We were cute kids."

"You did have that neck issue." Rory says looking at her sister. Lorelai looks up with a small smirk on her face as she listens to Rory tease her sister.

Lauren gasps and grabs her neck. "I have a neck issue!?"

"Had. Had a neck issue." Rory looks at Lauren's neck. "You've actually grown into it."

"Mom, I had a neck issue!?" Lauren asks Lorelai.

Lorelai looks up at her daughter and tries to hide her laugh. "Well, just a little one. But Rory is right, you did grow into it."

Lauren jumps up and goes to run to look at her neck but Rory quickly grabs her around her waist and jumps into Lauren's spot on the chair before pulling her little sister on her lap. "I'm joking."

"You really scared me, Rory." Lauren says, still feeling on her neck.

"I'm sorry." Rory says while she begins looking through cards again. "I didn't see this." Rory picks up a card from her dad.

"It's from Dad." Lauren tells them.

Lorelai looks up. "Oh."

"And the woman, I'm assuming, is Sherry." Rory says as she and her sister look at the card.

"Did I not show you girls that?" Lorelai asks pretending like it's no big deal.

"Hey, they have a puppy!" Lauren exclaims.

"I must've put it in the stack and forgotten to tell you about it. Well, there it is."

"Nice looking lady." Rory says.

"Mhm." Lorelai agrees. "Like a young Tammy Faye Bakker."

Rory glares her mother. "But prettier than that."

"I didn't mean not pretty. Hey, question about the room list. Room 31, why is it empty?"

Rory and Lauren glance at eachother. "Oh, yeah, we wanted to run an idea by you."

"Run it."

"We thought maybe a certain depressed man and his wife could stay there." Rory smiles as Lauren nods her head agreeing.

"Woody and Soon-Yi?" Lorelai asks.

"Grandma and Grandpa." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai sighs. "You've got to be kidding."

"This could cheer him up." Rory tells her mom.

"I'll send him a Def Jame comedy tape. That'll cheer him up."

"It's a really good thing to do."

"We'll donate money to charity. That's a good thing, too. We'll stop kicking dogs." Rory and Lauren both look at their mother with displeased looks.

"Mom." Lauren groans.

"Fine. I'll pencil them in, but they'll probably say no."

"Yeah, but we're not gonna hope that they say no, right?" Rory asks.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Right." She lies.

"Because that would be really bad karma especially on top of making fun of the ugly babies." Rory tells her.

"Oh, I have a New Year's resolution for you. Become more cynical and self-absorbed."

"I'll work on it."

It's the day of the Bracebridge dinner. Everyone is nicely dressed, and running around to get everything ready before their guest arrive.

Rory and Lorelai walk over to eachother. "How's Sookie doing in there?" Rory asks her mom.

"She's paper bagging it."

"Hey, dolls." Babette says as she and Morey walk closer.

"Welcome." Lorelai smiles.

"Are we the first ones here?" Morey asks, looking around at an empty lobby.

"Yes, you are."

"Now, don't you freak out." Babette says sternly to Morey. "Morey hates being the first anywhere. He thinks it hurts his street credibility."

"Charlie Parker was late to everything." Morey says.

"Charlie Parker had more drugs in him than a Rite Aid. Forget Charlie Parker."

"You two are in Room 8." Rory tells them, handing them a key. "It's ready for you."

"Thanks, doll. Come on, Morey. We could be late for dinner if it'll make you feel better."

"A little." Morey and Babette walk away just as Lane walks into the door.

"Are you alone?" Rory asks her.

Lane looks behind her and sees her mother approaching them. "My wedding night's gonna be very interesting." Lane whispers.

"Hi, Mrs. Kim." Rory greets her. "I'm glad you guys could come. You guys are in Room 12."

Rory hands Mrs. Kim the key. "Thank you. Hello, Lorelai. Thank you for inviting us."

"Our pleasure. Do you need help bringing in your stuff?" Lorelai asks.

Mrs. Kim holds up her purse. "This is my stuff. Don't need any more stuff. People have too much stuff."

"You know, you're right. People have too much stuff. Absolutely."

Mrs. Kim and Lane walk away. "Says the woman with 64 pairs of shoes." Rory says.

"Thus proving my point." Lorelai looks up and sees Paris walking through the door holding a ton of books. "What is Paris doing here?" She asks, confused.

Rory rolls her eyes. "She had to bring me the newspaper stuff tonight. She couldn't wait."

"Robot, she's a robot." Lorelai whispers. "Hi! I'm going check on your sister." Lorelai walks away quickly.

"Hey." Rory says as Paris approaches.

"Here are the materials on the double issue." Paris says, handing Rory folders and notebooks. "Some of the articles will need complete re-writes."

"Why?" Rory asks as they walk over to the front desk to set the stuff on.

"Madeline's 500 words on test anxiety spends 400 of them arguing that stretch corduroy is the best material for low-rise jeans.

"Well, let's see. Corduroy is a fabric." Rory says, thinking. "And the fabric of society is weakened when students..."

Paris smirks. "You can't get there."

"It doesn't look like it. I'll get right on this tomorrow."

"What about tonight?"

"I'm busy tonight."

"Doing what?"

"Well..." Rory looks around. "this."

Paris looks around, also. "Oh. What is this?"

"It's kind of a big dinner party."

"Oh, okay. I'll get out of your way. Call if you need to talk things through. Oh, she uses the Prince version of writing. A letter 'U' for 'you' and a picture of an eye for an 'I.'" Paris goes to walk away but Rory stops her.

"Hey, Paris, do you have anything going on tonight?" Rory asks.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's suppose to mean, do you have anything going on tonight?"

"Well, my parents are out of town, so my Portuguese nanny will make dinner. And then I'll get back to reading The Iliad or we'll play Monopoly. I always crush her."

"Well I was just thinking you may want to stay for dinner." Rory suggests.

"Here?"

"Yeah. We have a ton of food and it's a whole big show. If you're not doing anything."

"Rereading The Iliad a third time is not 'not doing anything.'" Paris informs her. "I'm not pathetic."

"I know you're not. I just thought it might be fun, that's all."

"I'll have to make a call."

"Good, make it."

"I just have to let Nanny know." Paris dials the number on her phone and then walks away speaking another language.

Rory looks up and sees Dean and his little sister, Clara walking in. "Hey." Dean smiles when he sees his girlfriend running up to him.

"Hello, there." Rory smiles as she leans up to kiss him. "Hey, Clara. Nice." She says looking down at her dress. "Is that a Stella McCartney?"

"It's a Wal-Mart."

"Well, it's very pretty."

Dean turns around and sees Luke, and Jess, well, Lauren dragging Jess by his arm as they come inside. "I didn't know he was coming."

"Who?" Rory asks.

"Jess."

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

"Not really. It's just that he got into this fight with this guy at school, and when I broke it up, he started in on me."

"He hit you?" Rory exclaims.

"He tried."

"Why would he do that?"

"Don't ask me to explain that jerk." Dean turns around and Jess looks at him and waves. Dean rolls his eyes. "He'd better not do that all night."

In the kitchen, Lorelai walks in as Sookie is stirring the food.

"Is everything under control?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, yeah, yeah. No." Sookie says, paniking. "This needs something, and I cannot think of what it is. It's that tart, kind of spicy, white...salt! The word is salt." Sookie laughs.

"You forgot the word for 'salt?' Lorelai asks.

"Everything's under control." Sookie says, continuing to laugh.

"Good."

Lorelai walks out and steps into the lobby, but she stops in her tracks when she sees her parents walking in. Lorelai walks over to Rory and Lauren.

"They're here." Lorelai says, still looking at her parents.

Lauren and Rory turn to see what she is looking at. "Who?" Lauren asks.

"The Joyless Luck Club."

Richard and Emily walk up to them with huge smiles on their faces. That was very unusual considering what the few weeks have been like. "Hello, girls." Richard greets them. "You look particularly lovely tonight."

Lorelai and her girls smile back. "Thanks, Grandpa." Rory says.

"Thanks, Dad. You guys look nice yourselves." Lorelai tells them.

"Seems like the occasion called for it." Emily says.

"The air seems crisper here than Harford. It's wonderful." Richard tells them.

"Dad, you didn't grab the wrong prescription bottle, did you?" Lorelai jokes, well, she was only joking a little.

"What?"

"Nothing." Rory says, quickly.

"I think she was making one of her funny jokes." Emily tells her confused husband.

Richard laughs. "Ooh. Went straight over my head."

"Let me get someone to help you with your bags." Lorelai offers.

"Oh, no, I got it. Just point me to the room."

Rory grabs the key. "You guys are in Room 31. Best room in the place."

"Oh, anything's fine. I'll see you in a bit." Richard walks away and Lorelai and the girls look at Emily with surprise looks.

"What got into him?" Lorelai asks.

"He's totally different." Lauren says.

"I know." Emily says, happily. "He's been that way for two days. I have no idea why, but I'm taking the credit." Emily walks away.

Lorelai looks up to see more people arriving. "Okay, come on, Lauren, the hostess job is never done."

"But you're the hostess." Lauren reminds her as Lorelai drags her towards the door.

Rory turns around to only exchange eye contact with Jess from across the room. He gives her a small smile which makes her turn back around. She wasn't sure why she kept feeling what she was feeling when she was around him, but it was starting to freak her out.

In the lobby, everyone is standing around talking to one another as Lorelai and Sookie walk in and stand in the front.

"Hey, everybody, will you gather around?" Lorelai asks them. "First, I want to welcome you to the first annual and probably never to be held again because Sookie's cose to a nervous breakdown, Bracebridge dinner."

"I'm fine. Everything's fine." Sookie assures them with a slight of panic in her voice.

Everyone laughs. "I also want to thank Mother Nature for snowing in the Trelling Paper Company in Chicago so I could throw this great party for all my friends instead. It's a very special night, so since I don't get to eat unbelievably strange food with my friends every day, I've arranged a little surprise. Outside, as we speak, is a line of horse-drawn sleighs and everybody gets a ride." Everyone bolts out with excitment. "So line up and keep it orderly. There's two per sleigh, and no cutting in front of eachother. That goes for everyone, except me, cause I'll be damned if I miss a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh." Lorelai laughs. "Come on."

Outside, Luke is looking at the horse just when Lorelai sits in the sleigh.

"Hey, you in the belt, get in." Lorelai calls out. Luke turns around to see Lorelai smiling at him.

"What? No, I was just sort of checking things out." Luke says, nervously.

"Come on." Lorelai begs. "We could pull a Ben-Hur and take down Taylor's sleigh."

"I don't know."

"Come on, Luke. I can't be all schoolmarmy and ride by myself. Please?"

"Well, okay." Luke gives in. Lorelai scoots over and Luke sits down next to her. The horse takes off and they start riding around the square. "I gotta say, sleigh rides are a little much, but these horses are beautiful."

"Yes, especially from this angle." Lorelai jokes cause they are sitting in back of the horses butt.

"Not just from this angle." Luke says.

"No, seriously. Don't backtrack. Horse has got a nice butt here."

"That's not what I'm saying." Luke groans in annoyance.

"Nice firm heinie."

"Stop talking about the horse's heinie."

Lorelai rolls her eyes and smiles. "The town looks beautiful."

"Same as always."

"No, it's always different this time of year. It's magical."

"If you say so, sure. Oh, look." Luke points out. "There's the magical plumbing supply store where I bought a magical float for my toilet."

Lorelai shakes her head. "You disappoint me."

'Look, the magical Luke's diner right below the apartment that Jess magically lit by leaving every stinking light on."

"How's it going with you guys?"

"Me and Jess? Great."

"Great? Really?"

"Yeah."

"Well, good."

"It is good. I mean, it was hard at first, seemed impossibly, you know, but I've learned a lot these last couple of months."

"Like?"

"Like last week I discovered the secret of parenting."

"You did?"

"Yeap."

"The secret of parenting?" Lorelai says in shock.

"The secret of parenting." Luke confirms.

"When last week? Last Tuesday?" Lorelai mocks.

"I don't know the exact day."

"Tuesday at 5:15? Is that when you discovered it?"

"Don't mock."

"Well, tell me. What is...oh, wait. It's a secret. You can't tell me." Lorelai laughs.

"No, I'll tell you. You visualize the reality you want."

"Visualize the reality you want." Lorelai repeats.

"And then if necessary, you lie to bring it about."

"That is so much worse than I was expecting."

"You never lied to your kids?" Luke asks her.

"Uh, to save them from great physical pain, yes. When Lauren was little and she'd play in the kitchen, I told her that the burners were the devil's hands. But I'd say it in a really scary evangelist voice. You know, 'don't touch the devil's hands.'" She says in a creepy voice. "She still doesn't go near the stove."

"Exactly. You told a white lie for your kid's protection very similar to what I have done." Luke tells her.

"Which was?"

"Well, you know, the winter break is coming."

"I do."

"Well, it means Jess has some time off from school. His mom knew that, and she never called."

Lorelai goans in annoyance. "That makes me sick."

"So I decided to keep Jess with me. I told him that his mom wanted him to come home. But I thought since he just got here and he was still adjusting, that I thought he should stay. His mom was really upset but I insisted. He bought it hook, line, and sinker." Luke explains. "Saved him a lot of hurt."

Lorelai smiles and nods her head, but she knew better. "He didn't buy it." She tells Luke.

"What? No, of course he did."

"He knows." Lorelai says, still looking at Luke.

Back at the Inn, Rory steps into the carriage by herself.

"That it, miss?" The guy asks her.

"I guess I'm alone." Rory tells him. The man begins the carriage, and as they are moving Jess jumps in and sits next to Rory. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I heard it was two to a sleigh, no more, less." Jess says. "You're breaking the rules."

"You could've hurt yourself."

"I live on the edge. I could jump out if you want."

"It doesn't matter me." Rory says, trying to not care as she folds her arms and continues looking straight.

"You mad at me or something?"

"What do you think?"

"I can't read your mind." Jess reminds her.

"You tried fighting Dean."

"Dean?" Jess questions.

"My boyfriend."

"He's still your boyfriend?"

"You can jump out now."

"I wasn't fighting him. It was someone else. He jumped in on his own." Jess explains.

"He was trying to help you." Rory argues.

"He should go into government service if he likes helping people." Jess says sarcastically. "But me, he can stop worrying about."

"Whatever." Rory says, as she rolls her eyes. "Why are you even still here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, school's out. You don't like it here, so why don't you just go home?"

"My mom didn't want me to."

"I don't believe that."

"That's your right, I guess."

"Did Luke say she didn't want you to?"

Jess takes a deep breath. "Luke told me it was his idea." Jess tells her. "That I should stay. It wasn't his idea." They pass by all the snow men that were made and Jess immediately notices the girls' snow woman. "That's good."

"What?" Rory asks, confused.

"Your snowman. Snow woman, actually."

"You know which one's ours?" Rory says, surprised.

"It definitely has the most personality. Kind of looks like Bjork."

Rory smiles widely. "That's what we were going for. But everyone thinks the one on the end will be the winner."

Jess looks over at the snowman at the end. "Really? It's so overdone."

"I agree."

"You should win."

"No argument." Rory smiles.

"Hey, what do you and Dean talk about?" Jess asks, curiously.

"What?"

"I mean, does he know Bjork?"

"I've played him some stuff."

"So you got a teacher-student thing going."

"Stop." Rory was not getting annoyed again, especially now that Jess was just sitting there assuming things.

"No, really, I'm curious. What do you guys talk about?"

"Everything." Rory says, looking away.

"Like?"

"Everything. Tons of stuff. Whatever."

"It's just in the brief, non-pugilistic time I've spent with him in class he just doesn't seem like your kind of guy."

Rory scoffs. "Well, he is my kind of guy. He's exactly my kind of guy."

"Okay. I guess I don't know him that well."

"You don't."

"You know, Lauren thinks the same thing."

Rory looks at Jess suspiciously. "How often do you and my sister talk again?"

Jess shrugs. "She comes to the diner a lot. I can't just ignore her."

"You could try."

Jess just grins and turns away.

Back at the Inn, everyone is now sitting at the dinner table that it set up for them as Lorelai stands new the front.

"Okay, everybody." Lorelia says, loudly. "Before the button-popping and bloating can commence say, 'cheese.'" Everyone says cheese as Lorelai snaps a picture of them all. "Okay, now, ladies and gentelymen, Damen und Herren, the moment you've been waiting for. I give you the Bracebridge dinner."

Everyone starts clapping, but Sookie runs in. "Hold it!" She yells. "We just need a quick minute, please." Sookie runs back into the kitchen.

"Which will be starting in one quick minute."

"Lorelai, this is just beautiful. It's like something out of Architectural Digest." Richard tells his daughter, proudly. "You should be very proud."

"Thanks, Dad." Lorelai smiles.

"Your dress needs pressing." Emily says, ruining the moment.

"Thanks, Mom." Lorelai sits down next to Rory and Lauren. "Your pod grandpa's still happy as a clam."

"See we told you this would be good." Rory says.

"When you're right, you're right."

"Welcome, Lords..and ladies." Rune announces in uniform as he stands near the front by other men in uniform. "I call upon these sprightly horns to commence our proceedings. The horns start playing.

"And we're off." Lorelai says happily to her girls.

"And now, fair people, I present my lord and master, the honorable Squire Bracebridge."

Everyone begins to clapping as Jackson walks up in uniform and a funny wig making Lauren laugh hysterically as Lorelai tries to hide her laughter instead. "Lo!" Jackson says. "Now has come our joyfullest feast. Let every man be jolly. Humble servent, bring us the first course to dine with pleasure. Methinks it be a butternut squash soup." The servent puts the bowl of soup in front of Jackson.

"Methinks you're right, Squire. Thus and verily." Rune says.

"And verily thus." Jackson takes a bite of the soup. "Perfection. But extremely hot. To the guest, thou shalt serve the soup!"

An hour or so later, as they food is being taken away and the desserts are being served Rory turns to her littler sister.

"What?" Lauren asks when she notices Rory staring at her.

"How often do you go to the diner without us?" Rory asks.

Lauren laughs a little. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, Jess says that you go to the diner quite often."

"So, what?"

"And that you talk to him about Dean." Lauren looks away. "I knew it!"

"He starts it first!" Lauren argues.

"You need to stop hanging out with him, Lauren. Jess is bad news."

"I think I'm going to go have my dessert with the horses, too." Lauren grabs her plate and quickly walks away.

Rory looks away and turns back to her grandfather who is telling a story to Taylor and everyone else around them. "You know, this might be the most interesting conversation I've ever had with an insurance man." Taylor says.

"I'm hurt." Richard says sadly.

"I'm sorry, Richard. What I meant was that..."

"No, what you meant was that people in the insurance industry are drones. Well, I agree. They are a dull lot, and I am glad to be rid of them." Richard says surprising everyone.

"Rid of them?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, are you retired, Richard?" Taylor asks.

"Well, uh..." Richard hesitates.

"Of course he's not." Emily answers for them. "Richard?" Richard just looks at Emily with a small smile. "Richard?"

"Actually, I am." He admits.

Everyone looks around awkwardly, not knowing what to say or how to act.

That night, Lorelai is getting ready for bed while Rory sits on the bed listening to her mom.

"It's always nice to end a big, festive meal with a big festive pall hanging over the room." Lorelai tells her daughter.

"Most people didn't notice anything." Rory says.

"Yeah, I guess Bootsy singing Hotel California accompanied by spoons drew people's attention away."

"Did Grandma and Grandpa say a word to each other after that?"

"No."

"Why didn't he tell anyone?"

"Uh, I'm sorry. Are you asking me to interpret my parents' motives?"

"My mistake."

"So, where is Lauren? I barely seen her since she went eat with the horses." Lorelai says while sitting on the other bed facing Rory.

Rory shrugs. "I don't know. Probably hanging out with Jess." She says smugly. Lorelai gives her daughter a questioning look. "Lauren's been hanging out at the diner without us knowing about it and talking to Jess."

"That's weird because just the other night I seen them two outside the diner and Jess was putting something on that bruise she has been carrying around."

"Yeah, I had actually confronted Jess before because I thought it was weird, too, but he said there's a reason and I should ask Lauren."

"Well, did you?"

"Not yet. I've been busy."

"Well, we need to talk to her. I can't have her sneaking around like before. We all three know how that turned out and I definitely don't want to have to deal with that again. So, tomorrow?"

Rory sighs. "Yeah, tomorrow. So, which bed do you want?"

"Take the one by the window."

"Okay." Rory lifts the sheets and is startled when she sees the picture of the ugly baby looking at her. "Mom!"

"What, honey?" Lorelai asks, innocently.

"You put the ugly baby's picture in bed."

"I didn't. I swear. That ugly baby is stalking us. Run away."

Rory looks down sadly at the baby's picture. "Poor baby. It's not his fault."

"I think it's a she." Lorelai laughs.

"Poor baby. You picked the wrong parents."

"Hey, give me that. I'm going to put it on Lauren's side!" Rory shakes her head nad hands her mom the baby picture. Lorelai puts it under the covers next to her. And just in time, Lauren runs into the room and Lorelai quickly stands back up. "Oh, hey, honey! Where have you been?"

Lauren begins to take off her shoes and change into her pajamas. "Oh, uh, around." Lauren runs into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"Hey, have you heard from Dad recently?" Rory asks their mother.

"What dad? Your dad?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah, my dad."

"Why?"

"Because he's my dad, and he usually checks in this time of year, and he hasn't checked in yet. I know he's probably busy with Sherry and the new apartment...What?" Rory asks when she sees her mom's face. Lauren walks out of the bathroom after hearing what they were talking about.

"There may have been a call." Lorelai says as she looks at both her daughters. Lauren walks over and sits down next to Rory.

"There may have been?" Lauren asks. "You don't remember?"

"Well, things have been so hectic with the Bracebridge dinner and building a snow woman. And planning the ugly baby gag, that took time." Lorelai says, coming up with excuses.

"Mom." Rory says.

"Yes, he called." Lorelai groans in annoyance. "He called and invited you both and it's not too late to go. He called and invited you. There you go. I'm sorry I didn't tell you both, so there!"

"He invited us over?" Rory asks.

"Yes, are you deaf?" Lorelai asks rolling her eyes.

"Why didn't he invite us himself?" Lauren asks, confused.

"Because he's pretending to be considerate by running it past me first."

"Was he maybe not pretending and actually being considerate?" Rory asks.

Lorelai scrunches up her face not really buying it. "Maybe. But I wouldn't put it past him to be inconsiderate. The guy doesn't have a great track record."

"Why didn't you tell us? He's probably waiting for our answers, holding off his plans."

"Because I have dibs on this time of year with you girls. Not him, me. And yes, he acknowledged that and that was cool, but still, it stinks. Because he put me in a very difficult position because we were supposed to watch a lot of movies and make fun of Godfather III. And the thing that I really hate about this is the idea of you both not hanging out with me cause you're hanging out there with your stupid stepmother." Lorelai stops when she realizes what she just said.

"You're calling Sherry our stepmother?" Rory asks, amused.

"She practically is." Lorelai says smugly.

"You're wigging." Lauren tells her.

"There's something wrong with her."

Rory laughs. "You don't even know her."

"You think I'm overreacting?"

"I think you're jealous of Sherry."

"Ha! I'm not jealous of Sherry."

"But we understand." Rory says looking at her sister who is nodding in agreement. "Your territory has been threatened."

"Excuse me?"

"Relax. There are ways to work through these situations. Compromises can be struck."

"Oh, well, what are you saying?" Lorelai says playing along.

"We can still call you 'Mom,' and we'll call her 'Mommy Sherry.'" Rory jokes.

"Don't be mean."

"We can splut up holidays evenly. Like we'll be with you on Labor Day and her on Memorial Day."

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Enough."

"I'll have to find out her religion to see how Hanukkah will factor into this. Unless you want to convert to Judaism, take Hanukkah for yourself."

Lorelai raises her hands in defense. "I get the point. I overreacted. Please stop."

"You totally overreacted. God."

Lauren crosses over and goes sit next to Lorelai on the other bed. "I won't go, Mom." Lauren says as she wraps her arms around Lorelai's stomach as Lorelai wraps her own arms around her daughter protectively. "Even though you are being selfish."

Lorelai scoffs and looks down at her youngest while Rory laughs. "Well, do you think you're gonna go and stay with them?" She asks Rory.

"I'll have to think about it." Rory tells her.

"Do you have to think about it because it's killing me not to know your plans, and you want to torture me?"

"Nope. I just don't know if I want to do it. It was nice for him to ask, though."

"It was very nice." Lorelai agrees. "Alright, my favorite youngest daughter, you sleep with me tonight."

"Kay!" Lauren says happily as she jumps on the side of the bed and pulls the covers over. "AH!" She screams when she sees the picture of the ugly baby. She looks over and glares at her mom and sister. "That was mean."

"Hey, I didn't do anything." Rory tells her just when they hear a knock at the door. Lorelai gets up and walks to the door and opens it to find Emily standing behind it.

"I need a new room." Emily says sternly.

"What?" Lorelai asks.

"I can't stay in that room." Emily says again as she walks in.

"There are no other rooms, Mom."

"Then I'll go home."

"Grandma, it's late." Rory says.

"And pitch black." Lauren adds.

"And the roads are icy. You can't drive." Lorelai tells her.

"I'm not going back to that room."

"I'm guessing you and Dad had it out about the job thing?"

"We haven't even spoken. I'm so upset I wouldn't know where to start. And I couldn't take being around him anymore. What he did is inexcusable. Not letting me know he left his job, as if it didn't affect me."

"Oh, Mom, try to calm down. Take this bed, and Lauren and I will share with Rory."

"I'm just a burden."

"You're not a burden, Mom."

"Well, thank you." Emily smiles gratefully. "Can I use the mirror in the bathroom for a second?"

"Yes. I'll use the one out here."

Emily walks into the bathroom and Lorelai sits at the vanity in the room. Lauren hops over to sit by Rory on the other bed and they both watch Emily and Lorelai put on face cream the exact same way at the exact same time. Rory and Lauren both look at eachother with scared faces. "Wow." Rory says. Lorelai turns to them.

"What?"

"Behold our future." Lauren says as she continues to stare.

Lorelai turns around to look at Emily is instantly freaked out making the girls laugh. Emily walks out of the bathroom. "How do you turn off the light?"

"I'll get it." Lorelai tells her.

Lorelai walks to the bed and sits on the other side of Lauren as Emily settles. "I still can't believe it."

"Try to relax, Mom."

"I hope he doesn't sleep, because I surely won't." Lorelai rolls her eyes and settles next to her daughters before turning off the light. "He is so irresponsible."

Lorelai looks over at her mother. "Maybe he had no choice."

Emily glares at her daughter. "Of course he had a choice. Go to sleep, Lorelai."

"That job was killing him, Mom. It was killing him."

Emily throws the covers off and stands up, grabbing her robe. "I'm going for a little walk." She tells them.

"Grandma, it's late." Rory says.

"I'm not tired." Emily walks out leaving the three Gilmore girls sitting there.

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Gilmores of our lives." Lorelai says repeating the theme for Days of our Lives.

The next day, Rory, Lauren, and Lorelai are telling everyone goodbye just when they see Emily and Richard walk out together.

Lorelai smiles. "Hey, Mom, you didn't make it back to the room last night. Did you get lucky?"

"Could you be any cruder?" Emily grins.

"Yeah, Mom, twelve year-old ears here." Lauren says as Lorelai laughs and pulls Lauren closer to her.

"Thanks for coming. It was fun." Rory tells them. "Is everything okay?" Richard reaches over and hugs and kisses Rory and Lauren.

"Everything's okay." Richard promises.

"We'll see you next Friday." Emily tells them.

"Bye." Lorelai smiles as they walk off. "Ugh, let's go home." Lorelia says tiredly.

"Are we coming to get our bags later?" Lauren asks.

"Why?"

"Because we're walking home. I don't want to carry them."

"Who says we're walking?" Lorelai grins, evily.

Outside, the girls are on the horse and carriage as they make their way home.

"This is the only way to ride." Lorelai tells them.

"I wholeheartedly agree." Rory laughs.

They pass the snow people and see that the fancy one has been smashed. "Whoa. What happened there?"

"I have no idea." Rory grins.

"Bad news for ringer guy, but guess who wins by default?"

"I guess that would be us?" Lauren laughs.

"Lauren, now that we have you hostage, and it's a pretty long ride home, we need to talk to you."

Lauren sits back nervously as she looks at her mom and sister who are looking back at her with serious looks on their faces. "Why?"

"Why are you hanging out with Jess?" Rory asks, quickly.

Lorelai sighs. "Okay, I guess we're getting right to the point."

"What?" Lauren asks, confused.

"Honey, we know you've been hanging out at the diner a lot and we know that you've snuck off to hang out with Jess." Lorelai explains. "The other night I seen you with him and he was putting something on your arm."

"And then the night before that I seen you two hug. What's going on? Cause Jess told us that we need to talk to you about it." Rory tells her.

Lauren sighs. "Something happened a few weeks ago Jess was there to help me."

"What are you talking about?" Lorelai asks.

"I snuck off to see Alex." Lauren confesses shocking her mom and sister.

"What?"

"He wouldn't stop calling me. He kept asking me to meet him so that he could explain. So, I went to Hartford and we talked. I told him to stop getting in contact with me because I didn't want anything to do with him, but when I went to walk away he grabbed me by my arm and wouldn't let go. That's when Jess seen me."

"Why was Jess there?" Rory asks.

"He was coming out of a bookstore. Jess ran over and pushed Alex off of me and threatened him if he ever came around me again. Alex ran away and, well, that's where I got my bruise from. I'm sorry." Lauren says, sincerely to Lorelai.

Lorelai closes her eyes, trying to think of something to say. She was so confused and hurt that Lauren lied to her about all of this. "Lauren, you seriously could have got hurt."

"I know, Mom. I'm sorry. But Alex is with foster parents and I won't ever go and see him again."

"Oh, I know you won't." Lorelai tells her with a stern look.

Lauren hated those looks that Lorelai made. It was very rare that she or her sister could get their mom upset, but when they did, it was something they never wanted to experience again. "And Jess is really nice, Rory."

Rory sighs and looks down at her little sister. She sometimes forgot how small Lauren really was. Her voice and personality wasn't but she was. "I know."

"Well, I'm glad he was there." Lorelai says.

Lauren looks up at her mom nervously. "I'm really sorry."

Lorelai tries to look sternly at her daughter, but it was so hard to stay mad at her. Lorelai sighs and wraps her arms around Lauren pulling her closer to her as they ride through the town. "I should send you off to your dads as a punishment." Lorelai jokes.

Rory laughs as Lauren closes her eyes. "Oh, please, no! I'll do anything." She begs.

Lorelai laughs and kisses Lauren gently on the top of her head. "Just don't ever do anything like that again, okay? If anything ever happens to you girls..." Lorelai looks over at Rory who is smiling back at her. "I don't know what I'd do with myself."

Rory scoots in closer to her sister and they all three enjoy the carriage ride through the town in the snow.

_Hey, guys, I'm sorry I'm so late. I've been super busy with work, holidays, going out of town, oh, and getting engaged. This wasn't my best chapter at all. So, I am very sorry for that, but I will try to be better. Please forgive me& remember REVIEW! :)_


	32. A Tisket, A Tasket

It had been a few weeks since Lorelai and Rory had found out about Lauren's getaway to Hartford to see Alex and ever since they have been keeping close eyes on her. Lauren was the type of girl to say she would never do something again, but then she'd feel bad, and to make the other person feel better, she'd do it, even if it meant hurting herself or getting herself into trouble. Lorelai admired Lauren's big heart. Both her girls had it, but Rory knew when to use it and when not to. Lauren, on the other hand, just felt bad for everyone and would do anything, even if they were a bad person, to make them feel better. So, even though Lauren's only getaway was to school and soccer practice without anyone being by her side 24/7, Lorelai still made sure that Lauren was home at a certain time. She even had Elizabeth's mom keeping a close eye. When she was around, of course.

But today was a special day for the town of Stars Hollow. They are holding a fundraiser for the bridge that always seemed to need something done to it every year. So, every year they do Bid on a Basket, where the women of Stars Hollow get a picnic basket, put food in it, and the highest male bidder bids on it, then the woman has to sit and eat with the man that bids on her basket. The Gilmores found it cheesy like all the other things, but being who they are, they couldn't help but to participate just to see the disappointment in the men's eyes when they see that there was nothing good, at all, in the baskets.

So, the girls headed to Doose's market to pick out their basket and as always they couldn't pick out the right one.

"So, I've decided I'm saving myself for William Holden." Lorelai says randomly to her daughters.

"Wow, it's nice out here in left field." Rory says, sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm sorry. Sunset Boulevard was on last night. And, I don't know, I've known him for years. Sabrina, Stalag 17, and yet, last night, something snapped."

"I'll say." Lauren agrees.

"I think it was the monkey scene."

"You know he's dead, right?" Rory asks her.

"The monkey?"

"William Holden."

"Ugh. Every great relationship has its obstacles. You'd know that if you weren't dating Andy Hardy."

Lauren picks up a basket from the stack. "This one?" She asks them.

"Mm, no."

"Why?"

"It's too big. It raises expectations." Lorelai tells her.

"Like there's a home-cooked lunch in there?"

"Instead of the leftovers in our refrigerator? Exactly." Lauren laughs and puts the basket back in the stack. "It's quaint, isn't it? The women make a nice lunch basket, the men bid on it, and the world rotates backwards on its axis."

"I think it's fun." Rory says.

Lorelai rolls her eyes playfully. "That's because you have a pretty boy to bid on your basket."

"Yes, I do." Rory smiles as they follow their mother to the other stack of baskets.

"I think it's fun because I get to laugh at the guys whose faces fall when they see whats in your baskets." Lauren laughs.

"Did you tell Dean to eat lunch first?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Hi, I love him. Of course. I'm going to go look in the back." Rory walks away leaving Lorelai and Lauren looking through the other baskets on the other side of the store.

"Come on, let's hit the front." Lorelai tells Lauren as they walk that way and see Miss. Patty. "Patty, shopping for baskets?"

"Oh, please. I bought my basket weeks ago." Patty tells them.

"Always prepared."

"Well, I'm getting that itch again."

Lauren starts picking up baskets to show her mom. "Oh, no, Patty. You don't actually need another husband." Lorelai says.

"Need? No. But want? That's a different story." Patty laughs as she digs into her wallet. "Listen, darling, do you happen to have change for a $1?"

"I think so." Lorelai says as she looks into her own wallet.

"I don't know where my quarters go."

"Down some guy's G-string, I expect." Lauren glares at her mom. "Pretend you didn't hear that." Lorelai tells her.

"No. A quarter would be insulting."

"Here you go." Lorelai hands her some quarters just as something falls out of Patty's wallet.

"Oh, thank you!"

"Oh, Miss. Patty, you dropped something." Lauren says, bending down.

"Oh, that's okay!" Patty says quickly trying to get whatever it is before Lauren does..

"I got it." Lauren gets up and looks at it. "Uh, Mom, it's a picture of you." Lauren was confused and hands Lorelai the picture.

"Why do you have a picture of me?" Lorelai asks Miss. Patty.

"Well, it's a very nice picture." Patty says nervously.

"Thank you. Why do you have a very nice picture of me?" Lorelai asks again.

"I'm a stalker?"

"Or?"

"Or when, in my daily travels I run across a nice, single guy-"

"Oh, God!" Lorelai interrupts in horror.

"Oh, God." Lauren laughs.

"I like to have a visual aid to help me with the wonderful buildup I give you." Patty tells Lorelai.

Lorelai sighs. "Patty, I appreciate the gesture, but I don't need you to set me up."

"You're such a beautiful girl, and you deserve a nice guy."

"Yeah, Mom." Lauren chimes in.

Lorelai glares her daughter. "Hey, look for a basket." Lauren rolls her eyes and continues looking for her mom a basket. "Patty, I'll have a nice guy, but let me find him, okay?"

"But you're no good at finding him." Patty says, sadly.

"She's right." Lauren agrees.

Lorelai glares at her daughter again, making Lauren turn around quickly. "Patty."

"Oh, alright." Patty tries to take the picture from Lorelai, but Lorelai snatches it back.

"I'll keep this, if you don't mind." Lorelai puts the picture in her purse and grabs Lauren's arm before walking away.

In the back, Rory is looking at all the baskets when Dean walks up behind her.

"Not that one." Dean says when he sees Rory looking at a really big basket.

Rory turns around and smiles at her boyfriend. "You get no say in the basket."

"I have to bid on it." He reminds her.

"And you have to eat what's inside, and get no say on that either."

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Is Taylor behind me?"

Rory looks behind Dean. "No."

Dean smiles and bends down to kiss Rory. Rory stops when she hears a noise. "What Taylor?" Dean asks. They turn around and see Jess standing there watching. "Jess."

"Sorry to intrude." Jess says.

"Why did you?"

"Well, you're having a vertical From Here to Eternity moment right in front of the super glue. Not that that's not an appropriate place, but-"

Dean grabs the glue and hands it to Jess. "Here's your glue."

"Thanks. As you were." Jess walks away, leaving the two alone again.

"I hate that guy." Dean says when he turns back to Rory.

"He didn't do anything." Rory tells him.

"He's here, he's breathing. That's enough."

"I really wish you two could start over."

"Why?"

"Because he lives here. We run into him. He goes to your school. It would be easier."

"I'm fine with the whole hating him thing."

"I think it's a waste of energy."

"You know, I'll have a PowerBar." Dean says, sarcastically.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Fine. Forget it."

"So, uh.." Dean looks behind him. "I should probably get back to work. We still on for tonight?"

"I don't know. I might be baking." Rory jokes.

"I'll pick you up at seven." Dean laughs. He points to a basket behind her. "Get that one. It's nice and small."

"Bye." They kiss once more then Dean walks away to get back to work. As Rory stands there watching him, though, Jess walks back up behind her. He kicks her gently behind the leg. "God!" Rory yells when she sees him lurking again.

"Sorry." He grabs some more glue. "Two-for-one sale."

At the Inn the next day, Lorelai is working the front desk when the mail comes. The mailman puts a brown envelope in front of her and she opens it. She's surprised by what she pulls out of it, though.

Lorelai walks into the kitchen with the papers in her hand. "So, Patty has taken it upon herself to find me a man." Lorelai says with anger as she walks up to Sookie.

"Oh, really?" Sookie laughs as she puts cookies into the oven.

"Yes. I have here in my hand pictures and resumes of the top three contenders."

"Anyone good?"

"No. But two of them have run with the bulls. This is humiliating." Lorelai says as she looks through the pictures. "I can find my own man."

"She just loves you."

"Yeah, but you know..EWW!" Lorelai shows Sookie one of the pictures.

"Ahh." Sookie says a bit frightened herself.

"Sookie? I-" Jackson says walking into the kitchen.

"Jackson, don't look!" Sookie yells. "Cover your eyes!"

Jackson sighs and covers his eyes with his hand. "Okay, I'm sorry. Now, why am I doing this?"

"Because I'm baking for the picnic, and it's supposed to be a surprise." Sookie tells him.

"Oh, sure. Never see a pie before an auction. It's bad luck." Jackson teases.

Still upset, Lorelai starts walking towards the kitchen door. "You guys talk. I have to call Patty and stop the forced mating process. I feel like Ling-Ling the panda. Oh, hey, one of them's seen Ghostbusters 124 times. Can you say 'score?'"

It's the day of the auction and Lorelai and her girls are walking down the sidewalk over to the gazebo to bring in their baskets. Lorelai and Rory both had good sized baskets, but unfortunately nothing good inside which Lauren couldn't wait to watch the men open up.

"Know what's great about the festival?" Lorelai asks them.

"No, what?" Rory asks.

"It always falls on the day after trash day." Lorelai says, happily. "Therefore, everything you forgot to throw out, and would be stuck with for a week, you can instead put in a pretty basket and auction off for charity."

"That is wonderful."

The auction is about to start just as the girls get to the gazebo. "I cannot wait to see what fool gets your basket, Mom." Lauren says, excitingly.

Lorelai smiles, too. "Me, either. It's very exciting to see them get excited them all that excitement just drains from their face in an instant."

Rory looks over at them in complete confusion. "You both are amused by the littlest things."

"Hey, you have a boyfriend bidding on yours." Lauren tells her. "Mom doesn't have anyone."

Lorelai puts her basket down quickly in on the gazebo just as everyone starts to arrives and scoffs at her daughter. "Hey, I resent that."

"Okay." Lauren shrugs. "But you don't."

Taylor gets up behind the potium that is standing on the gazebo. "Alright, let's get started." He yells to the crowd. A woman behind him starts picking up random baskets. "Now, the basket I have here is a lovely green-wicker number that would be a charming addition to any room once the lunch is gone. Let's start the bidding at $5. Do I hear $5?"

"$5!" A random guy yells out.

"Okay, I have $5. Do I hear $10?"

"$10!" Kirk says as he raises his hand. Mrs. Kim glares at Kirk. "Withdrawn."

"Okay, I'm still at $5. Do I hear $10?" Taylor asks. It is quiet and no one says or looks up knowing who the basket is from. "$5 going once, $5 going twice." Taylor hits his gavel. "Sold to the young man for $5! Now this next one might not look like much."

"That's mine." Rory tells her mom.

"Nice." Lorelai says.

"But remember, people, good things come in small packages." Taylor tells the crowd.

"How badly does he want to be hosting a game show?"

"Let's start the bidding at $3."

Rory grimaces. "Hey!" She yells.

"$5." Dean calls out and smiles at Rory.

"He's good. He's very good." Lorelai says.

"$5. Do I hear $10?" Taylor asks.

"$10." Everyone looks over and sees that instead of it being Dean it was Jess this time which surprised Lorelai and Rory.

Lauren grins. "This is going to be very interesting."

"Okay!" Taylor says excitingly. "I have $10. Do I hear $15?"

"$20." Jess says upping his own bid.

Dean couldn't believe that he was actually fighting for his own girlfriend's basket. $20, do I hear $25?"

"$30!" Dean yells.

"Alright, you boys don't seem to understand the way this works." Taylor says.

"$40." Jess continues, ignoring Taylor.

"$50!" Dean says back.

"Have either of you noticed how tiny this thing is?" Taylor asks.

"$75." Jess says.

"We're not talking sense, gentlemen."

Lorelai and her girls watch the two fight for the tiny basket. They could actually see the sweat dripping from Dean's forehead. "Uh, oh. Dean's hesitating." Lauren tells them.

"$80." Dean says.

"He does not have $80 to spend on a basket." Rory whispers.

"$90." Jess says back.

"Uh, you know what, I don't think he'll have to." Lorelai tells her.

"Okay, we've got $90 going once, $90 going twice..." Jess smirks knowing that he was able to piss off Dean and get away with it. "Sold to the nice young hoodlum in the back for $90."

"I'm trying to think in what scenario this could be construed as positive." Lorelai says thinking.

"Well?" Rory asks hopeful.

"No one's head is on fire."

Rory sighs and looks over at her boyfriend. "I better go talk to Dean."

"Do you want help?"

"No, it's okay. I'm just officially not a fan of unpredictablity."

"Totally understand. Good luck."

Rory walks away. Jess walks passed Dean with a satisfied smile lingering across his face as Dean watches him. Rory walks over to Dean, but he couldn't even stand being in the middle of the crown anymore as he looked at Jess. So he brushes Rory off and leaves.

"Next up, what? Well, that looks like a Doose's Market basket. Nice?" Taylor gleams over the basket.

"Oh, that's mine!" Lorelai smiles.

"I'd like to start the bidding at $5."

"I bid $5." A guy says.

"Oh, that was quick."

"$10." Another says.

"Do they know that all that's in there is two stale Pop-tarts and a Slim Jim?" Lorelai laughs.

"Uh, Mom." Lauren says in confusion as she looks around the crowd."

"$15!" Another random yells.

"Yeah, sweets?" Lorelai says, looking down at her daughter.

"Do any of those guys look familiar to you because they are looking pretty familiar to me." Lauren says as Lorelai begins to look around as well.

"Oh, no." Lorelai's face falls and she looks over at Miss. Patty while the bids just keep getting higher and higher. She walks over at Patty, who's face is completely emotionless. "Those are the guys, aren't they?"

"Excuse me?" Patty asks.

"The guys whose pictures you sent me. You brought them here. You're setting me up."

"Well, darling, you can't be trusted to do it yourself."

Lorelai groans. "Oh, geez!"

"Uh, Mom, you better figure something out." Lauren says nervously as she watches the three men fight for her mother's basket.

Lorelai quickly turns around and starts running towards Luke's. Luke is bringing food to a table as soon as she walks in and sees him. "Hey, you gotta come with me." She says, quickly.

"What are you doing?" Luke asks, confused.

"Caesar, you're in charge. Do you have money? I need it." Lorelai tries to open up the register. "Which one opens this thing? That one?"

"Stop messing with that."

"You gotta come with me." Lorelai begs. "Patty gave my picture out cause she thinks I need a man."

Lorelai grabs Luke's arm so that he'd follow her to the door. "You do. You need one with a couch and a knowledge of Freud." He says, sarcastically.

"You have to come out and bid on my basket."

Luke snorts. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." Lorelai says as she follows Luke, who once again picked up another set of plates to bring to some customers.

"I have never in my life taken part in one of these crazy group flip-outs and I'm not about to start now."

"But, right now, out there-" Lorelai hesitates.

"Just buy your own basket."

"I cannot buy my own basket."

"Why not?"

"Because that is pathetic."

"And chasing me around my diner, begging me to buy your basket?"

"Also pathetic, but that I can live with where that pathetic is truly pathetic-pathetic and only you can save me from the double pathetic. Please!" Lorelai begs some more.

Luke puts down his pen and pad and heads for the door. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

Lorelai smiles and follows Luke. "Hurry up." Luke takes his time to walk out the door. "Hurry up." Lorelai says again while she pushes Luke out this time.

Outside, Lauren runs over to her mom and Luke when she sees them. "The bid is up to 46. They keep raising a dollar."

"$47, are you kidding?" Luke asks Lorelai.

"Luke!" Lorelai yells.

"47.50." One of the randoms yell out.

"For what? For two stale Pop-Tarts and a Slim Jim?" Luke asks.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Okay, you're not getting the whole saving me thing here, are you?"

$48." Luke relunctantly yells.

"$48.50." A guy bids.

Luke starts digging his wallet and takes out all the money he has in it. "52.50."

"What?" One of the guys look around confused. "We're just supposed to go to $50."

"I have a life." Luke glares.

"52.50. Going once." Lorelai says, taking it upon herself to finish everything up quickly.

"Hey, that's my job." Taylor tells her. "52.50 going once, 52.50 going twice. Sold for $52.50."

"Yes!" Lorelai laughs with excitement. She grabs Luke by his arm and leads him over to Taylor to pay and to grab the basket. "Sorry, guys, don't feel bad." She tells the random guys. "I'm totally into Dungeons & Dragons. You've skated."

Taylor hands Luke the basket. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the basket bidding. Visitors, come claim your prizes and your dates. Let the lunching begin!"

Everyone starts grabbing their things and heading separate ways to enjoy their lunch with their 'dates.' Lauren walks up to the two and smiles up at Luke. "You rock, Luke. You totally saved my mom."

Luke shakes his still not happy to be there. He looks at Lorelai who was still smiling. "What do we do now?" He asks.

Lorelai shrugs. "I guess we eat."

"This?" Luke questions the basket in his hand that he was sure didn't have much food going on inside of it.

"Yeah."

"I have to buy and eat it?"

"Hey, the basket of botulism does come with my company." Lorelai reminds him.

"I'm going to go over to Elizabeth's. I'll see you two later." Lauren giggles as she runs away from them.

"You don't eat with your mouth open, do you?" Luke asks Lorelai.

"Women don't eat at all. We look at food and jump on the treadmill."

"Alright, let's go."

Luke follows Lorelai as she leads them to the gazebo. Jess passes by and walks over to Rory who is still staring where Dean had left her. "You know, there's nothing there."

"Yes, I know." Rory says sadly.

"You going after him?"

"Not right now."

"So, then, shall we?"

Rory looks at Jess, who lifts up the basket to remind her. She takes a deep breath, but finally gives in. "Fine. Come on."

At the gazebo, Luke is looking through the basket. He was not surprised by what he was finding, but he also knew this was not something he wanted to eat, or he would be happy with Lorelai to eat. So, Luke stands up and Lorelai quickly follows.

"Hey, where are you going?" She asks.

"I am going to the diner, I am going to get us some edible food and I'm gonna bring it back here for us to eat."

Lorelai rolls her eyes at a typical Luke. "That is so not the point of today. I made this. I am insulted. I will not proceed to pout."

"I'll bring back brownies."

"Ooh." Lorelai smiles. "The pouting has left the building."

Through back of Stars Hollow, Rory and Jess are walking on a dirt road. Rory was not happy about how she had left things with Dean, but she knew the rules, and being a person who doesn't break rules, she knew she had to have lunch with Jess.

"So, where do you want to eat?" Jess asks her.

"Don't care."

"Okay." Jess walks towards the small bridge by the lake.

"Where are you going?" Rory asks, confused.

"Thought you didn't care."

"I'm not jumping in the lake."

"No underwater dining. Got it." Jess sits down in the middle of the bridge.

"This is where we're going to eat?" Rory asks "On the bridge?"

"Yeap." Jess get comfortable, leaving Rory no choice but to sit down. "I like this place." He tells her.

"Wow, a place in Stars Hollow you actually like. I'm stunned."

"It's got some good memories."

Jess points behind her. "You see right over there?"

"Yeap." Rory says, following Jess' finger.

"That's where Luke pushed me in."

"Hm. That's nice."

"It is."

"So why'd you do it?" Rory says, deciding to get straight to the point of all this.

"Do what?"

"Outbid Dean like that."

"I don't know." Jess shrugs. "I guess it started as a joke just to bug him, but then he just got so mad.." Jess starts laughing. "..and he's so tall, and I just was looking at him and he's standing there all tall and mad, and I don't know it was really funny."

"It wasn't funny." Rory says unamused.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't intend to do it." Jess says it sincerely, making Rory feel bad for getting so upset. "Does that make you feel better?"

"I just don't want to be in a fight with Dean."

"I'm sorry about that. You want to push me in the lake?" Jess asks jokingly.

"Maybe in a little bit."

"So, when do we open this thing?" Jess asks, pointing to the little basket beside them.

"Go ahead."

Jess opens the top and starts digging inside. "Wow, not one thing in here that I would remotely consider eating."

"Good. I didn't make it for you. I made it for Dean." Rory reminds him.

Jess opens the top of one of the bowls. "And Dean would have eaten this?" He laughs showing Rory the food.

"Yes, he would have."

Jess grabs a fork, and to prove something to Rory, he takes a big bite. But even before he could chew or even think about swallowing, the tastes from it was horrifyingly disgusting. "Dean is an idiot."

Rory laughs. "Dean never would have fallen for that."

Jess looks at Rory in disbelief that she just tricked him like that. Rory couldn't stop laughing, and Jess couldn't help but join in as he shook his head in defeat.

At the gazebo, Lorelai and Luke are now enjoying delicious diner food.

"You know, your burgers taste better outside." Lorelai tells Luke as she takes another bite of the burger.

"Good, the next time the roof in the diner's leaking I'll just rip the stupid thing off." Luke says, sarcastically.

"This is nice, huh?" Luke just looks at Lorelai. "Come on. Admit it."

"Never."

"What? Admit it. You'd rather be sitting out here than inside working."

"The diner's probably on fire by now."

"You are stubborn."

"I'm stubborn?" Luke asks.

"Yes. You are stubborn."

"From Mrs. Flexibility over here?"

"I can be flexible."

"Please."

"I can. As long as everything is exactly the way I want it I'm totally flexible."

"My mistake."

"Do you want a fry?"

"You want a carrot?"

"Impossible."

"Right back at you." Luke says while he finishes his carrot and Lorelai finishes the fry. "So let me ask you something. Who did you want to get your basket?"

"What?"

"I mean, before you knew Patty put you on the dating game, you did pack this disgusting lunch and bring it out here. So who did you want to get it?"

Lorelai looks up thinking. "Well, last year, Roy Wilkins bought it and I got my sprinklers fixed for half price. And this year my rain gutters are completely clogged and I thought if I could get the Collins kid to bite I'd get that taken care of."

"Practical."

"I thought so." Lorelai smiles.

"So the participation in this thing was for home improvement reasons?"

"Yes. And I don't know, it's a nice concept."

"What is?"

"Just having someone who you love, or have some kind of crazy crush on bid on your basket and then share a romantic lunch. It's a nice concept."

"Well, I'm sure someday you'll manage to find the right guy and drag him out to this thing and make him buy your stupid basket, then you'll be sitting here with him." Luke tells her.

"Yeah. Someday." Luke and Lorelai look at eachother awkwardly. They both knew what they really wanted inside, but of course, they couldn't quite say it.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"This is nice." Luke says sincerely.

Lorelai rolls her eyes and begins to speak, but is interrupted by Dean. "I need to talk to you."

Lorelai and Luke both turn around and she looks sadly at her eldest daughter's boyfriend. "I'll be right back." She tells Luke before walking down the steps of the gazebo. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"I'm not great." Dean tells her.

"Aw, Dean, it's just a silly town thing."

"I know, and I've been telling myself that, and I tired to forget about it, but I can't. I'm worried about Rory. I don't think she should be hanging out with this guy."

"Well, I know that today was kind of-"

Dean interrupts Lorelai with anger in his voice. "It's got nothing to do with today. I mean, yes, it has a little to do with today, but it's more than that." Dean explains. "Ever since I met him, I had this feeling he was bad news."

"Yes, Jess has a few issues."

"One issue is that he's a complete jerk. I mean, he's always getting into fights at school, that is, when he bothers to show up at all, and he just...I don't know. Now this thing with Rory. It's like he's always around. I mean, she told me what he did for Lauren, and I'm glad he was there, but that doesn't mean he has to always be there."

"You sound jealous." Lorelai tells him.

"I'm not jealous. He just...She has to be nice to everyone, you know?"

"I know." Lorelai chuckles. "But, hon, that's Rory."

"He's gonna get her into trouble. I can feel it. I just know it. He doesn't care about her. He's just using her to drive me crazy."

"Dean, you love Rory, right?"

"Yeah."

"So part of love is trust. You have to trust her."

"I do trust her. It's-"

"Him. I know. But flying off the handle is not gonna get you what you want. She cares about you, she's not going to do anything to mess things up. I know this." Lorelai assures him.

"I hope you're right." Dean walks away as Lorelai watches him. She knew Jess was bad news, but he did save her daughter, and for that she couldn't help but be grateful to him. Lorelai also knew that Rory had a good head on her shoulders and she wouldn't put herself in anything that she knew would get her in trouble or hurt.

Back at the bridge, surprisingly, Rory and Jess are in the middle of a very entertaining conversation.

"Ten." Rory says.

"Ten?" Dean says, surprised.

"Yeah, but I didn't understand a word of it. So I had to reread it when I was fifteen."

"I've yet to make it through it."

"Really? Try it. The Fountainhead is classic."

"Yeah, but Ayn Rand is a political nut."

"Yeah, but nobody could write a forty page monologue the way she could." Rory tells him.

"Okay, tomorrow I will try again, and you will..."

"Give the painful Ernest Hemingway another chance. Yes, I promise." Rory finishes.

"You know, Ernest only has lovely things to say about you." Jess jokes.

Rory just stares at Jess a few moments trying to figure him out. "Why are you only nice to me and Lauren?"

"Excuse me?"

"An hour ago you were screwing with Dean, and now you're nice to me."

"You see, it's the screwing with Dean that's an important step to getting here, so that I could be nice to you." Jess explains.

"So it was a plan?"

"What?"

"The whole bidding on my basket. It was a plan."

"Okay, I'm officially starving."

"And officially evasive."

"Come on. I'll get you a pizza." Jess offers.

"Answer my question."

"Do you like pepperoni?" Jess asks, ignoring Rory.

"You're not going to, are you?"

"We could just get it on half."

"Okay, I give. Let's go." Rory grabs her coke and gets up and walks her way off the bridge.

"If you insist." Jess laughs and goes to stand up to follow Rory when he sees the bracelet that Dean gave Rory just hanging out on the bridge. Jess picks it up and without calling to Rory, he slips it into his pocket and continues to follow her off the bridge.

Back at the house, later that day, Lorelai and Lauren are hanging out on the couch in the living room. Lorelai is reading a magazine while Lauren is switching through the channels on the t.v. Rory walks in with a bag in hand.

"Mom?" She calls out.

Lorelai turns around as she watches Rory walk through the front door. "Oh, hey. Where have you been? I thought Taylor auctioned you off." She jokes.

Rory walks further into the living room and puts the bag on top of the couch. "No, I just went to get some pizza, and I wandered around the bookstore. Here." Rory pulls out a book and gives it to her mom.

"What's this?" Lorelai asks, as she looks at the book.

Lauren sits up to get a closer look. "You said you wanted to read The Children's Hour." Rory tells her.

"I did? When?"

"The other night when we were watching, Julia, and Jand Fonda was Lillian Hellman." Rory recaps the night they had.

"Oh, yeah." Lorelai smiles remembering. "And I made the Hellman's mayonnaise joke."

"Which no one ever needs to hear again." Lauren chimes in.

"Right. Well, thanks."

"You're welcome." Rory smiles, grabbing the bag, and walking towards her room before Lorelai stops her.

"So who were you with?"

"What?" Rory plays confused.

"Pizza, book-buying. Did you have company?"

"Oh, yes." Rory says, looking down a little embarrassed.

"Who?" Lauren asks.

"Uh, Jess."

"Jess?" Lauren smiles.

"Yeah. So, I'll be in my room." Rory turns around and walks back to her room.

Lorelai stands up and Lauren quickly grabs her mom's arm to stop her. "She didn't do anything." Lauren says, almost believable as if she was there.

Lorelai looks down at her youngest. "I just want to know how her day went." Lorelai starts walking again as Lauren sighs and watches her mother walks towards her big sister's room. "So, how was the picnic?" Lorelai asks when she walks into Rory's room, where Rory is putting up her new books.

"Fine." Rory answers.

"Good. Did you get the Dean issue resolved?"

"Not yet. He's coming over and we're gonna smooth things over, hopefully."

"Yeah, well, smoothing's good. I love the smoothing." Lorelai looks at her daughter with concern. "So how is it with Jess?"

"Fine."

"Obviously. With the pizza and the books. So good. I'm glad." Lorelai says a bit unsure which didn't go unnoticed by Rory.

"What?"

"What what?"

"You look like you have something to say."

"Psh. I have nothing to say. I never have anything to say." Lorelai lies.

"Yes, that is your reputation." Rory says, rolling her eyes.

Lorelai sighs and walks closer to Rory. "I don't know. I'm surprised that you're hanging out with him."

"Why?"

"He just doesn't seem like the nicest kid."

"You don't know him." Rory argues. "And you let Lauren go and hang out at the diner everyday with him."

"Yeah, but Luke is there, and she isn't necessarily going there to hang out with Jess. That would be weird."

"You're just judging him by that one time he came here."

"Which, by the way, was not a rousing success."

"He had just moved here. He was mad at his mom." Rory explains. "Trust me, he's got a really good side to him. You'll see it eventually."

"Good, I can't wait." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"Mom."

"No, I'm sorry, I just..I don't know, from the things I've see, and the things I hear-"

"Like what things?"

"The vandalism. The stealing. The cutting school. The fighting." Lorelai names.

Rory looks up at her mother surprised. "How do you know about the fighting?"

"Well, Dean told me."

"Dean?"

"Yes."

"You've been discussing this with Dean?" Rory asks a little annoyed.

"He discussed it with me."

"When?"

"Today. He's really upset about this."

"So he went running to my mother?"

"He needed to talk."

"He could've talked to me."

"No, he couldn't. You were with Jess."

"You're taking his side?"

"I'm not taking sides. I'm Swiss, babe."

"Well, I wasn't off with Jess. Jess outbid him." Rory reminds her.

"I know."

"Well, the rule is that if one person outbids someone else, then-"

"Rory, this is not about the rule." Lorelai says, interrupting her daughter. "I know what the rules are. This is about Dean being concerned that you're hanging out with someone who could get you hurt."

"How could he?"

"I don't know. In the short time he's been here, he's managed to make a lot of enemies."

"I'm sorry. When did I move to Salem?"

"People are concerned about you. You know, you're young and naive and you think that everyone has some good inside if you give them a chance."

"So you're saying that Jess is no good."

"I know guys like Jess. He seems cool because he's got a dangerous vibe and this problem with authority and he's een a lot of Sylvester Stallone movies."

"Oh, my God." Rory whines.

Lauren walks into the doorway. "Can I cut in here?" She asks.

They both turn to the youngest Gilmore. "No." They say in unison.

"But guys like this get into trouble." Lorelai finishes. "Which, if you hang out with him, gets you into trouble. I don't want that. I don't want you to get into trouble."

"I'm sorry, are we talking about Dean still, or are we talking about you?" Rory asks very confused.

"Hey, I've been there, okay? You havent."

"Been where? I mean, we got pizza. We looked at some books. God, I can't even believe I'm having this conversation with you. With you, of all people. I don't even want to talk about this anymore."

Lauren decides to jump into their conversation anyway. "I'm going to jump in anyway." She tells them both. "I have been there. I been there numerous times if you must remember a during one of those times Jess was there to save me. No one else. So, before we start hating Jess. Let's remember that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him." Lorelai and Rory stand there, looking sadly at Lauren, as she gives them one last look before walking away.

"Lauren." Lorelai yells, trying to stop her daughter.

"I'm going for a walk!" Lauren yells, and with that they hear the front door slam.

"I'm going to go for a walk, too." Rory says, as she grabs her jacket.

"Rory, Dean is gonna be here any minute." Lorelai reminds her.

"He probably wants to talk to you anyhow." And with that, Lorelai hears the second door slam as she stands there thinking. Both her daughters were upset with her. Why was this always happening? Why was she suddenly the bad guy now?

Friday night dinner approached and Emily, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren were all at the table eating their dinner. Rory and Lauren had yet to really talk to their mother, so they were sitting there avoiding eye contact with one another as Emily talks.

"A cigar club? Can you imagine a more disgusting organization to join?" Emily asks them. "Your grandfather now pays money to sit in an enclosed room with a bunch of men and blow smoke in eachother's faces. Twice a week he comes home smelling like a flophouse." Emily laughs at her own joke as she looks up at her daughter, who is just staring down at her food, and then she looks over at her grand-daughters who are doing the same. "So, I finally just confronted him. I said, 'Richard, I know you're going through a transitional period here and I encourage your trying out new things, but this seems completely out of character for you.' Emily stops when she sees she's getting no reaction from either one of them. "I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

"No, you're not." Lorelai answers.

"Sorry, Grandma." Rory says.

"Yeah, sorry." Lauren says as she looks back down at her food.

"So how are things are the Inn?" Emily asks Lorelai.

"Fine. The same." Lorelai smiles

"And, Rory, how's that boyfriend of yours?"

"Apparently very chatty." Rory says, looking at her mother who scolfs.

"Well, that's nice." Emily says. "Lauren, anything new with you?"

"No." Lauren says, not looking up.

"Yeah, it's been pretty queit around the house lately." Lorelai says to her mother.

"Well, sometimes quiet could be nice. Soothing. You can hear yourself think." The girls continue playing with food, making Emily more annoyed than ever. "Alright, what's going with you three?"

"Nothing." Lorelai shrugs.

"It's not nothing. You've three been sitting here, not saying a word, not a looking at each other. Are you in a fight?"

"I'm not."

"Please." Rory argues.

"Please, what? You have been freezing me out all week."

"I haven't had anything to say." Rory argues back as her pager goes off. She takes it out of her purse and looks at it.

"Who is that?" Lorelai asks.

"No one."

"Why don't you tell me who?"

"Cause it's no one."

"Is it Jess?"

"You're kidding, right?"

Lauren sighs. She did not want to sit in another fight or talk about Jess. "Grandma, I'm going to excuse myself." And without hesitation or even waiting for a word from Emily, Lauren stands up and walks way leaving Emily confused.

Lorelai watches her youngest walk away. She regretted starting everything up with Rory again. Lauren is a sensitive child and she was still holding things in about what happened. Lorelai knew that and she knew this was a hard conversation for her little girl.

"Who's Jess?" Emily asks.

"I'm not kidding." Lorelai answers her daughter.

"Why would you assume that it's Jess?" Rory asks.

"Why wouldn't you tell me who it is?"

"Who's Jess? And why is Lauren upset?" Emily asks again.

"Luke's nephew."

"It's not Jess. It's Dean." Rory says with agitation. "You want to read it? Wait, no, Dean will probably tell you all about it later."

"That's not funny. You know, all week you've been-"

"We're not gonna get into this again." Rory complains.

"Getting into what?" Emily asks. "Is it about this Jess, the thing you're not getting into?"

"You know, you never liked Dean at the beginning."

"I didn't know him." Lorelai says, defending herself.

"And now you don't like Jess?"

"That's because I know him."

"Are you dating Jess?" Emily asks Rory. "What happened to Dean?"

"I'm not dating Jess." Rory tells her grandmother.

"But he's trying to weasel his way in." Lorelai tells her mother.

"He's not trying to weasel his way." Rory glares her mom.

"In where?" Emily asks Lorelai.

"In Rory's world. He has his eye on her, and he's trouble."

"He's not trouble." Rory whines.

"Yes, he is." Lorelai argues.

"Rory, if your mother thinks he isn't appropriate company, then you need to listen to her."

"There. Thank you, Mom."

Rory was freaking out with this whole Grandma and Mom agreeing about something. It was like they were both ganging up on her. "Excuse me, but I don't feel very hungry right now." Rory storms away and goes into her grandfather's office. She walks over to the chair in the middle of the office and slouches down dramatically.

"I swear, Mom, there's just something about that kid that..I don't know. I hate it because he's Luke's nephew, and he was there to help Lauren, and Rory likes him, but-" Lorelai says to her mother, in the dining room, while Emily pours Lorelai some more wine.

"You are her mother, Lorelai. You must set boundaries and restrictions. It's your job." Emily tells her.

"I wanted to like him, but I couldn't, and Rory can't see it."

"Well, she's young."

"She won't take my word for it."

"She's young." Emily repeats.

"I don't know what to do. Maybe I'm overreacting."

"Lorelai, listen to me. Now, I don't say this to your very often but on this matter, I happen to agree with you 100%."

Lorelai looks at her mom with a horrified look on her face, but she manages to pull out a smile. "Gee. Thanks, Mom."

"I know Rory's a good girl but good girls can go bad with the wrong influences. We all know that."

"No, no, I don't think Rory's actually gonna go bad."

"Don't back down, Lorelai. You took a stand, and you are completely in the right here. You absolutely must keep her from that boy, and Lauren, too. She's entirely too young to get attached to someone at that age. If you need to change their curfews, lock them up, throw away the key, whatever it takes to ensure she doesn't go astray, you do it." Lorelai looks away, listening to everything her mother is telling her, and remember she was never, ever, going to treat her daughters in such a way that she was treated when she was their age. She closes her eyes, realizing that she screwed up. "Her judgment cannot be trusted here. They are both young girls and they know nothing. You are their eyes and their ears and their brain, for as long as it takes to make sure they don't make ridiculous choices in their life."

"Yeah." Lorelai says, nodding her head. "Would you excuse me for a sec?"

In the office, Lorelai walks in to find Rory still sitting.

"Can I come in?" She asks her daughter.

"It's not my house. I can't stop you." Rory says.

Lorelai closes the door behind her. "Just listen to me for one second, okay?" Rory bends her head back, sighing. "No sighing. Just let me talk." Lorelai walks over and sits in front of her daughter.

"Go ahead."

"I don't want to lock you up and throw away the key." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, good."

"Your judgment means something, especially to me. I can't be your eyes and your ears and your brain."

"I'm trying really hard to connect the dots here." Rory tells her mom.

"I got spooked. It violates the fabulous 'cool-mom' clause we're supposed to have." Lorelai explains. "But I did, and I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"Now, I am concerned about Jess."

"You shouldn't be."

"But I am. However, you are a smart girl, a good judge of character and the fact that he seems to like you gives him a couple of brownie points. You're not a little kid. I don't think you ever were a little kid."

"I was." Rory shrugs. "For about a month."

"If you think he's a decent guy, I have to resepct your judgment."

"Thank you."

"But I'm asking you to be careful."

"I will." Rory promises.

"Really careful."

"I will."

"Boy-in-the-plastic-bubble kind of careful."

"I promise."

"And you have to cut Dean some slack. He's so crazy about you. He didn't mean anything by coming to me, he just wigged."

"I know." Rory says, understanding.

"Is our fight over?" Lorelai asks hopeful.

"Fight over."

"Good." Lorelai helps Rory up off the chair. "Now, let's go find your sister."

"You still don't look okay." Rory tells her.

"My mother agreed with me tonight."

"I'm so sorry."

"Thank you. I appreciate that."

Back at the house, Rory, Lorelai, and Lauren walk in. Lauren was still ignoring her sister and mom so she runs passed them and goes straight upstairs. Lorelai looks at Rory and frowns.

"I'm going to go talk to your sister. Find a movie. Hopefully, we'll both be down in a minute." Lorelai says as she makes her way upstairs.

"Okay." Rory watches her mom head upstairs before she grabs the phone and goes into her room, closing the door behind her.

Upstairs in Lauren's room, Lauren is just sitting in her bed, holding her stuff monkey, and staring across the room when Lorelai walks in. She walks in slowly and sighs when she sees a single tear fall from her youngest daughter's eyes.

"Hey." Lorelai sits down in her front of Lauren. "What's with the water works?" Lauren quickly wipes her eyes so there is no evidence of tears, and she just shrugs. "Now, come on, you can talk to me now." Lorelai nudges Lauren's leg playfully, but Lauren was not giving in. Lorelai sighs and grabs Lauren's hand into her own. "I know you're mad at me for fighting with Rory. I am really sorry about that, but we're good now. I promise."

Lauren looks into her mother's blue eyes for the first time that day. "I made you guys fight." She says, sadly.

Lorelai's eyes widen when she hears those words. "Baby, you did not make us fight."

"Yes, I did." Lauren sits up fighting back her tears again. "If Jess would have never help me that night then he wouldn't be around so much. I messed everything up by going there. I don't want you to fight with Rory about him. Mom, I swear, he's a good person."

Lorelai closes her eyes before sitting on the side of Lauren and wrapping her up in her arms while kissing her gently on her head. "None of this is your fault, okay? I don't ever want to hear you blaming yourself again. You made a mistake. I know that. We all know that. I am so glad that Jess was there to help you because if he wasn't and you weren't here then my life would be much more of a mess without you in it than it is with you. You are my little girl. I worry about you just as much as I worry about Rory. If Jess is a good guy then I can't wait for him to prove it to me, but for right now, he's okay. He's not bad because he helped you, but he's not good because of everything he had done around here."

"So I can't go to the diner anymore?" Lauren asks.

"What? Yes, you can go to the diner. Lauren, you are allowed to be around him. Just don't do anything stupid. You hear me?"

"Yeah." Lauren nods. "But can you at least try being nice to Jess and getting to know him?"

Lorelai looks down but gives her daughter a weery smile. "You and your sister may not have the same eyes, but you both definitely know how to work them on me." Lauren chuckles. "Yeah, I'll give him a chance."

"And no more fighting?" Lauren asks, putting up her pinky finger to make a promise.

"No more fighting." Lorelai takes her pinky and wraps it around Lauren's small one before she tackles her daughter in kisses and tickles her.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Lauren laughs hysterically. Lorelai stops and wraps her daughter up in her arms.

"I love you Lauren Lorelai Gilmore."

"I love you, too, Mom."

Lorelai smiles and picks Lauren up off the bed and onto the floor. "Come on, your sister is finding a movie for us. I'm going to go hop in the shower."

"Okay." Lauren runs out and goes downstairs to find Rory. Lauren goes to Rory's room door, but stops when she hears Rory talking to someone.

Inside, Rory is sitting on top her bed with the phone against her ear. "I'm glad you called." Jess' voice says through the phone.

"Yeah?" Rory asks.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Jess laughs. "Cause maybe you could explain what this crazy woman is talking about."

Rory smiles. "Ah, The Fountainhead."

"Yes. Your fault. And you will pay."

"I promise, commit to it one more time." Rory begs. "And if it's still awful for you, I will make it up to you."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I'm gonna hold you to that." They both smile through the phone, while outside Lauren is kneeling by the door with a worried face. She knew exactly who her sister was talking to and it wasn't Dean.


	33. Brutal Love

In the diner, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk in and instantly shocked when they see that no one is there. At all.

"Oh, my God!" Lorelai says.

"Wow." Lauren says while she looks around.

"Empty."

Luke walks in front of them to clean off the counter top. "Just one of those weird lulls. Happens occasionally." He tells them.

"Can we sit wherever we like?" Rory asks.

"Wherever you like."

"Wow!"

"Such luxury I never dreamed of." Lorelai says.

"Where do you want to to sit?" Lauren asks the two.

"I don't know." Lorelai shrugs. "How about this table with its unobstructed westward view of the wide cosmopolitan expanse of Clump Street?" The girls turn around to look at the table by the window.

"Tempting." Rory says, turning back to their mother. "Do you know that on a clear day you can see all the garbage cans behind Al's Pancake World?"

"Hm. Or we could sit in the corner, the mafia table so that no one can come up behind you and whack you with a cannoli." Lorelai jokes.

Lauren looks up confused. "Whack you with a cannoli?" She repeats. "Ooh. Because he left the gun and took the cannoli." She says, proudly, finally understanding.

Lorelai smiles proudly. "You are so my daughter." Luke walks passed them shaking his head. "Hey, let's sit at the counter."

"No, those are not the power seats." Rory tells her.

"Yes, but with no one here, we can sit at either end and play bagel hockey."

Lauren and Rory's face light up when they hear this. "Oh! Bagel hockey!" Rory says, excitingly as Lorelai laughs.

"Just sit at a table." Luke tells them. He was getting annoyed and tired with just listening to them.

Lorelai and the girls faces fall when Luke denies them of bagel hockey. "Well, you're awfully rude for a guy who only has three paying customers." Lorelai says, as she leads her girls to a table in the middle.

"Okay, 3:30 on Friday: My debate at Chilton, write it down." Rory tells their mother.

"Already written."

"Good."

"Rory, how long is this debate going to be because I have a soccer game at five on Friday." Lauren says, mainly looking at her mother because she did not want her to miss it.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Sweets, I am not going to miss your game."

"You said that last week." Lauren was upset that Lorelai missed her game last week because she had never missed a game, so she was shocked when she didn't see her mother cheering her on when she made the winning goal.

"Lauren, how many times do I have to apologize?"

"Until my season is over which luckily for you is in two more weeks." Lauren smiles.

"I really really didn't mean to. I was just a little behind at work and forgot."

Lauren turns her attention to Rory. "And, again, how long will this debate be?"

"No more than 45 minutes. I promise." Rory assures her. She knew how much she hated when Lorelai couldn't attend her functions so she knew how Lauren was feeling.

"So are you prepared?" Lorelai asks her oldest.

"Please. Paris has us beyond prepared. I now know more about doctor-assisted suicide than I care to."

"Cheery topic." Lorelai says sarcastically while Luke's phone goes off.

"Hello?" Luke answers. "Hold on a second." He puts the phone down and points to Rory. "It's for you."

The Gilmore girls look towards Luke in confusion. "What?" Rory asks.

"But who knows we're here?" Lauren asks.

"This whole morning has been Twilight Zone-y." Lorelai tells them, a little freaked out.

"Or Outer Limits-y." Luke says.

"What?"

"Great show, just as eerie, same era, but no one ever references it."

Rory gets up to get the phone while Lauren snorts with laughter at Luke. "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't speak geek." Lorelai tells Luke.

"Yeap, stepped right in it."

"Hello?" Rory says through the phone.

"Rory?" Lane says on the other end.

"Lane? How did you know I was here?"

"Telescope. I've got a clean shot at Luke's. I saw you, your mom, and your sister go in."

Rory starts walking to the window with phone causing the cord to hit some of the stuff on the counter which she wasn't paying attention to. "Hey, watch it." Luke tells her.

"Yeah, duck, Harvey." Lorelai jokes because they were the only four in there.

"Are you still grounded over that whole Henry thing?" Rory asks.

"Are you kidding? The mother of all groundings. My mom's done everything but slap a Dr. Dre ankle bracelet on me. I'm not even going to school."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Well, she talked my teachers into me being home-schooled for two weeks. I believe the words 'highly contagious' were bandied about. I only get five minutes a day of outside phone time. But unlimited time to call the Psalm-A-Day line. A big rip off, by the way, because Psalm 79 has been on there for three days. That's not in keeping with what their name implies which is a new Psalm every day not the same tired one from the previous days." Lane argues in frustration.

"I've never heard anyone get so riled up about psalms before."

"My world has become very small. Okay, I'm dying for news. Give me some headlines."

"Uh, well, I've got a debate coming up and Dean's been working extra hours lately saving up for a new motorcycle, so I hardly see him. Mom and I haven't done laundry in three weeks but I've begun jumping into the huge pile of dirty clothes as we play our Reader's Digest World's Famous Polkas cd. We got it used for 99 cents. Sorry if that's boring."

"Are you kidding? That's the most stimulation I've got in a week. Okay, well, I gotta go. Don't forget me in my solitude."

"Never." Rory turns around just as Luke walks by. "Think fast!" She throws the phone to Luke who catches it with ease.

"Impressive!" Lorelai says. Rory sits back down and Lorelai smirks at her daughters. "Are you both thinking what I'm thinking?"

"What?" Lauren asks.

"Goalie for the bagel-hocket team."

"And bump Schmitty?" Rory asks dramatically.

"Schmitty's over the hill. Put him in Cooperstown." They all laugh as they look at Luke who is looking at them unimpressed by their conversation. "Suit up, kid!"

"Call me if anyone sane walks in."

It was one of those nights in the Gilmore household. The girls are having a lazy night, so are sitting on the couch, eating junk, and going through the tv channels. Lauren is sitting in the middle eating out of both bowls that are on her sister and mom's lap.

"There's nothing on." Rory complains.

"There's always something on." Lorelai tells her. Lorelai flips to a channel where there are two big women cooking. "Struck gold!"

"Not the two fat ladies again."

"Why not? They're brilliant."

"Because it's a cooking show and you don't cook." Rory explains.

"That might change."

"Not a chance."

"Probably not."

"Plus we've seen all of them five times. They're all repeats."

"Yeah, sadly, because one of the fat ladies met her maker."

"Really? Which one?" Lauren asks in awe.

Lorelai hesitates. "The fat one." She jokes.

They all start laughing. "Come on." Lauren begs. "The one on the motorcycle or the one in the sidecar?"

"See? It's fun just talking about the two fat ladies."

The doorbell rings so Rory starts getting up and tosses the bowl of popcorn on her sister's lap. "Can't we find other really fat people to watch?"

"Wow. That sounded really insensitive." Lorelai tells her daughter while she walks to the door.

Rory opens the door and is surprised by who she finds behind it. "Paris."

"Can I come in?" Paris asks while she holding a bag full of stuff.

"I guess." Paris walks in but stops and turns back to face Rory as soon as she closes the door. "So?"

"You couldn't possibly be wondering what I'm doing here."

"I couldn't?"

"The debate's Friday, and we need more preparation."

"More preparation?" Rory complains. "Paris, no two people know more about assisted suicide than the two of us. Kevorkian called today for a few tips."

"I know we know the material." Paris tells her. "But there's issues of presentation that need to be addressed."

"Presentation?" Rory questions.

"I was listening to the CD and cassettes I made of our mock debates and I realized that you were not talking fast enough."

"What?"

"You're only doing 135 WPM."

Rory gives Paris a crazy look, which was her typical crazy look everytime she talked to Paris. "WPM?"

"'Words per minute.'"

"Of course."

"That's slow."

"That's not slow." Rory argues.

"It's Jimmy Bob slow."

"I talk normally."

"For the average Willie Nelson roadie, yes, but not for a winning debate member. As a comparison, I speak an average of 178 WPM."

"Okay, word speed isn't everything. Sometimes I will add a dramatic pause to prove a point, undercutting my WPM."

"Let's not harbor any Pinteresque fantasies. We'll have scant minutes to make our arguments and we have to maximize our collective WPM."

"Okay!" Rory says, hearing enough. "Let's just get going."

Paris walks through the foyer, but stops and looks at Lorelai and Lauren who are looking back at her. "Hey, Paris, were we expecting you?" Lorelai asks.

"You should have been. I'm going to get set up." Paris storms away over into Rory's room.

Rory walks into Paris' place and looks defeated while she turns to her mom and sister. "I'm going to my room to work on my WPM."

"Do I wanna know?" Lorelai asks, skeptically.

"No." Rory turns away and follows Paris into her room just as the house phone rings.

"I'll get it! Hello?" She answers.

"Hey, Lor. It's Chris."

Lorelai turns to her twelve year-old daughter who is engrossed in the tv show of the fat cooking ladies. "Hey, Chris." She says, nudging her daughter a little, who is clearly ignoring her mom on purpose. "How's it going?"

"Good. Good. I'm on a business trip here, and I thought I'd check in on Rory and Lauren."

"Oh, they went to a biker party a few days ago and never came back." Lorelai jokes.

"Again?" Chris asks, playing along.

"We gotta start disciplining those girls."

"Hey, who's got the time?"

"Actually, Lauren is right here. I'll pass you to her." Lorelai hands the phone to Lauren who relunctantly takes it. She hadn't really talked to her dad since his last visit and it was kinda awkward because she wasn't sure what to say to him after she found the letter and pictures of her childhood on her bed that day.

"Hey, Dad." Lauren tires to sound as happy as she could while talking to her father she never really knew. She had to try.

"Hey, kiddo. How's everything going? How's school?"

Lauren glares her mother with annoyance while Lorelai just grins and walks away. "It's going good. Still making them A's you and mom love so much." Lauren tells him.

"Well, I'm so glad. Are you still playing soccer?"

"Yeah, I'm almost done with the season. I think I'm going to be named MVP this year. It's my first time."

Chris could swear he heard some excitment in Lauren's voice for the first time ever speaking to her. "That's great, kid. I am so happy for you. I really am confused on where you are getting this athletic blood from." Chris jokes.

Lauren chuckles. "Me, too, cause I know you and mom have none whatsover running through your blood."

Chris scoffs. "Hey, I am offended."

"You know it's true." Lauren laughs.

Lorelai walks towards Rory's room with a smile on her face as she listens to Lauren. She was actually laughing and it warmed Lorelai's heart. "Dairy's bad, too, because of the mucus." Lorelai stops at the doorway where she find Paris fussing at Rory. "You haven't had any dairy in the last 48 hours, have you?" Paris asks Rory, who is looking down shamelessly.

"In my cereal this morning." Rory tells her.

"Geez!" Paris huffs. "There's a solution of salt water and vinegar that can help cut that."

"Girls." Lorelai interrupts. "I'm sorry to interrupt The Vinegar Hour, but it's your dad. Lauren is talking to him in the living room." Rory jumps up with excitment as she quickly exits her bedroom and runs to the living room.

Paris glares at Lorelai in disapproval. "Did you give her the cereal?"

Looking exactly how Rory looked previously when she was asked this question. "I'd rather not say." Lorelai says quickly as she leaves the room.

The next day, Rory is walking down the sidewalk to meet her bus. But as she walks passed the payphone, it starts ringing, startling her. She wants to ignore it but for some reason doesn't have the power to. So, she turns around and picks up the phone, hestitantly.

"Hello?" She answers.

"It's me." Lane says, quietly on the other end.

"Lane, this is flat out stalking."

"Look, I don't have much time. I've already used up my five minutes of phone time, but I had to talk to you. There's a new Belle and Sebastian single coming out today."

"I know."

"I have to have it."

"Okay." Rory turns to face Lane's house and she sees her looking out of her window back at her.

"I have to have it." Lane repeats.

"I don't know if I have time to pick it up."

"What?" Lane asks in panic. "Do you want to hear how I used up my phone time today? Talking to , trying to get them to overnight it to me in a plain package referencing something Korean and religious."

"Wouldn't do it?" Rory asks, not surprised.

"I think they notified the government."

"Can't you just wait for your grounding to be over?"

"Hey, I am a fanatic audiophile. That comes with responsibilites that a grounding doesn't alter. Now, I have to have this single and you have to get it to me."

"I guess I can get Lauren to pick it up before game today, and I'll just figure the rest out."

"Thank you. I have to go." Lane looks out her telescope. "Oh, and hey."

"What?"

"You've got something in your teeth."

"Hey, stop that!" Rory hangs up the phone, and to be careful she bends down and looks at her teeth in the reflecting plastic on the payphone and sees nothing.

At Chilton later that day, Lorelai and Sookie walk into the autotorium and find Rory standing around.

"Hey." Lorelai calls out to her daughter. "There you are. Where were you?"

"Oh, hi." Rory smiles at them.

"I thought we were going to meet by the vending machines for a little pre-debate non-dairy snack."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Paris wanted to do a sound check, and she found some problems with the acoustics here."

"The layout on this row of seats is causing a bass problem." They turn around hearing Paris yell at one of the helpers. "We've got to move this whole row over a foot. Just move these people out!"

Rory turns back to her mom and Sookie. "Better find a seat before she moves them all."

Lorelai leans in and kisses Rory gently on her cheek. "Have fun."

"Glad you came." Rory says, smiling at Sookie.

"No, you're not." Sookie pretends to argue.

"What?"

"I'm just getting you in the mood." Sookie laughs. Rory turns around and walks away.

"Did you see Christopher anywhere?" Lorelai asks her friend.

"No." Sookie looks around. "He's coming?"

"Yeah, he called last night and Rory told him about it. He's actually a town over so I think he's going to come."

"What does he look like?" Sookie asks as they sit down.

Lorelai laughs. "If you don't know, why are you looking?"

"I'm looking for a guy that looks like a guy that you could be with only I'm deducting seventeen years off his age and I'm adding an all-boys private school uniform and a Yankees cap."

"And does your head hurt?"

"Yeah, it does."

"If everybody could please take their seats, we'll begin." The woman up front says as she approaches the stage. "That includes all the members of the debate teams." Everyone starts taking their seats. "Okay, the topic today is doctor-assisted suicide."

"That's pleasant." Sookie grimaces.

"Let me introduce the debators. On the Hillside Academy team, we have Brad Langford and Nancy Waterford. And on the Chilton team, we have Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller."

Lorelai and Sookie start clapping and hollering as Paris and Rory stand, causing Rory to look mortifed as everyone turns to her and her mom and Sookie. Lorelai and Sookie look around. "Were we not supposed to do that?" Sookie asks.

"Maybe no one noticed." Lorelai whispers.

"Each team will have three minutes for openings, three minutes for rebuttals, and two minutes for conclusions. They will be judged on the basis of content, strategy, and style. I will be the judge along with Mrs. Gladstone."

"Mrs. O'Malley is impregnable..." Paris whispers to Rory. "..but yesterday I complimented Mrs. Gladstone's dumpy outfit and bought her an ice-cream sandwich. She practically licked my hand." Paris and Rory walk towards the front.

"Nice going." Rory whispers back.

"We choose which team takes the pro or con side with the toss of a coin." The woman says to both groups. "A member of the Hillside will make the call."

"Heads." Brad says. Paris glares at him, scaring him. "No, tails! I mean tails!"

The woman flips the coin. "Ah, it's heads. Chilton will pick. Pro or con?"

"Pro assisted suicide." Paris says, proudly.

"What a shock." Brad mumbles.

"All right. Whenever you're ready, you may commence."

"Thank you." Paris smiles. "Keep it snappy." She tells Rory, who takes the stand to start the debate.

As Rory is speaking, Lorelai turns around and sees Christopher walk in. He smiles and waves towards her when they make eye contact. Lorelai does the same until she sees a woman walk towards the side of Chris, and then Lorelai quickly turns back around. She was suddenly not too thrilled to see him anymore.

Forty five minutes later the debate was almost over. Paris was just finishing up the debate. Sookie turns to try to get a good look at Chris and his girlfriend, but fails miserably when Lorelai catches her. "Hey, circus lady, what's with the contortions?"

"I'm trying to sneak a peek at the girl Christopher's with." Sookie tells her.

"The concept behind 'sneak' is not having people notice you and what you're doing is shouting, 'Notice me!'" Lorelai tells her.

Sookie sighs and rolls her eyes. "Tell me you're not curious."

"I'm not curious." Lorelai lies focusing her attention back towards the stage.

Sookie gasps. "You are, too."

"We'll meet her in a matter of minutes. Now, come on, watch the tiny shaking boy get shorter."

"Two minutes for conclusion." The woman tells Paris.

Paris continues as Lorelai takes a deep breath. She pretends to be getting something out of her purse while making a kleenex drop on purpose on to the floor. She bends down and turns her head a little to sneak a peek of Chris and the girl. She quickly comes back up, but Sookie catches her. "You sneak a little peek?" She asks.

"Sh." Lorelai hushes her.

"Professor Bowmar of Willmette University College of Law has prepared a summary that I'd like to use in my remaining time." Paris continues.

The woman presses her timer, though, signalling that it was time to stop. "Time."

"What?" Paris asks her. She wanted to finish. She was suppose to be talking fast enough to finish their whole speech.

"Time's up."

"If I could have a few seconds to rebut their charge of the cruelty of the act-"

"We take it back!" Brad says, quickly.

"You can't take it back. It's a debate." Paris spats at him.

"Okay, that's enough cruelty for one day, Paris." The woman tells her. "Your team has won. Congratulations."

Paris smiles with all the happiness she could produce. "Really? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Everyone begins to clap before they all start exiting the room.

Outside the room, Lorelai and Sookie walk out and peek their heads down the hallway to see Christopher and the girl.

"There they are." Sookie says as they stand straight up.

"I see them." Lorelai tells her. "What do you think?"

"She's got good hair. Plus, she's been sitting for an hour and her dress is unwrinkled. How does she do that?" Sookie asks, clearly impressed already.

"She must be a witch."

"She's doing that no-hose thing."

"Yeah, she's a chic, good-haird, wrinkle-free, no-hose-wearing witch."

"You ready?"

Lorelai puts a smile on her face. "Yeah." They further out in the hall and go towards Chris and the girl who in a conversation. "Hi, there, you two."

They both turn towards Lorelai and smile. "Hi, Lorelai. You guys get to meet at last." Chris says. "This is..."

Lorelai puts her hand out to Sherry, already knowing exactly who it is. "Sherry."

"Nice to finally meet you." Sherry says, shaking Lorelai's hand.

"I recognized you from your Chritsmas Card."

"Which I'm sure you mocked." Chris jokes.

"Did not. Others, yes, but not your's. You guys were cute." Lorelai says in all seriousness. "And the puppy was cute. Lauren was quite impressed." Sookie clears her throat getting Lorelai's attention. "Oh, this is Sookie."

"Nice to meet you." Sherry says putting her hand out to shake Sookie's.

"Nice to meet you." Sookie says back. "You have a very smooth dress."

"Oh, thank you." Sherry looks down at her dress. "It's the fabric."

"The fabric." Sookie repeats to Lorelai.

"Uh, Chris, I've told you about Sookie." Lorelai says.

"Yes, you have. The famous Sookie." Chris says, putting his hand out, as well, to shake Sookie's.

"The famous Christopher." Sookie smiles.

"I hear you're the greatest chef after Alain Decasse."

Lorelai closes her eyes. She knew Sookie was about to make a big deal. "After Alain Ducasse? Who said 'after?'"

Rory runs up to them smiling when she sees the whole group together. "Hi, Dad. You came."

Chris hugs Rory. "Of course I did."

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to it. I'm glad."

"Honey, look who Dad brought." Lorelai says, pointing over at Sherry.

"This is Sherry." Christopher introduces. "Sherry, this is Rory."

"Finally." Sherry says, smiling really big as she looks at Rory. "I am so beyond thrilled, I can't tell you. All he does is talk about you and your sister."

"Well.." Lorelai looks at her watch. "Lauren has a game that starts in thirty minutes if you both want to come with. She is already being a drill sergeant because I accidently missed her last game, so I cannot be late. You can meet the other daughter." Lorelai laughs towards Sherry.

Sherry looks over at Chris with hopeful eyes. "Oh, yes, Chris, we should go."

"Yeah, I'd love to see Lauren in action. We'll follow you guys." Chris tells them.

Lorelai smiles. "Okay, great. Well, let's get going."

Lorelai, Rory, and Sookie start walking ahead of them. "So, he brought Sherry." Rory whispers to her mom.

"I know."

"This is a litte-"

"Yeah."

"Well, did you talk to her, is she nice?"

"She's a witch." Lorelai jokes.

"Good."

Back in Stars Hollow, Lorelai, Rory, Christopher, and Sherry are climbing the bleachers just in time before Lauren's game starts. Christopher points out Lauren for Sherry. Lauren is in her unifrom with her hair in a high ponytail, knee pads on, and she is kicking the soccer ball back and forth to her teammate.

"Wow, she looks so much like the both of you." Sherry says in awe.

Lorelai smiles. "Thanks."

Lauren looks up to find her mom and instead finds everyone. Lorelai catches her mom's eyes and looks at her in confusion. 'Sherry,' she mouths to Lauren. Lauren takes another look at her dad and his girlfriend before she walks out onto the field. Rory and Lorelai look at eachother. "That was odd." Rory says.

Lorelai sighs and turns back to her youngest. "Tell me about it."

The game starts and the girls start running back and forth to each side of the field, kicking the ball back and forth. Lorelai never really understood why Lauren liked the game so much. You were just running and kicking, and, well, in Lauren's case sometimes hitting, which was what she was doing now. It kinda freaked Lorelai a little because she had never seen Lauren have so much rage towards another team before. Now, she couldn't help but wonder if this was good idea to bring Christopher and his new girlfriend there.

An hour and a half later, the game was finishing up. Lauren's team was surprisingly in the lead considering how many of her teammates had to be led off the field because of Lauren. Now, Lorelai was worried. Lauren wasn't only hitting the other team, she was hurting her own, too. The whistle blows signalling game over so everyone started to head off the bleachers and exit off the field. Lauren didn't even look at her dad and his new girlfriend during the whole game. This was all just too weird. Sure, having her mom's boyfriends around was okay, but she never seen Christopher, and finally when he starts making recent visits he brings a woman with him? No, this is not how their relationship was suppose to be. When her dad left her that letter and those pictures, Lauren was actually looking forward to having a relationship with her dad. She was going to forgive him for not being there, but also tell him thank you, because if he was then she may not have ever known all the amazing people she knows now. But, Sherry was here now. She was going to take him away again.

Lorelai, Rory, Christopher, and Sherry meet Lauren at the fence just as Lauren is walking out. She was dirty from the toes up considering she spent half her time on the ground. Lorelai and Rory looked curiously down at her. They knew something was up, but they weren't going to bring it up in front of Chris and Sherry.

"Hey, babe, look who surprised us." Lorelai says as she smiles at her daughter.

Lauren looks up at her dad. "Hi, Dad." She says, unimpressed.

Chris goes to hug her, but Lauren quickly backs away. "Hey, kid."

"Whoaa. Yeah, you do not want to hug this yet."

"It's true. She really stinks after her games." Rory teases.

Chris laughs and looks over at Sherry. "Sherry, this is my daughter Lauren, and Lauren, this is Sherry."

Sherry gives Lauren a little wave. "It is so nice to finally meet you, Lauren. You and your sister are all your dad talks about."

"Hm." Lauren says, not really believing it since Christopher didn't know much about them to brag about. "Yeah, I seen your Christmas card. You kinda look like a young-"

Lorelai hurries and covers Lauren's mouth. "We were just saying how young you look. You definitely keep yourself up. So much more than what I can say for myself." Lorelai jokes.

Lauren glares up at her mom and pulls Lorelai's hand away. "That wasn't what I was going to say, but whatever. It's nice to meet you." Lauren says, putting on a fake smile.

"Hey, I don't know how much time you guys have, but if you want to visit some more you can come over to our place." Lorelai offers.

"Yeah, that sounds wonderful. Christopher's told me all about you girls books. I would love to see those books." Sherry tells her.

"Alright. Well, let's go see the books." Lorelai grabs Lauren by her uniform and drags her away with Rory following close behind.

At the house, they girls walk in as fast as they can through the door.

"Rory, you do the living room, I'll do the kitchen, and Lauren while your in the shower try to clean up around the bathroom and your room." Lorelait orders them.

"What about your room?" Lauren asks as she makes her way to the stairs.

"Just close the door."

"Company is stressful." Rory says as she begins picking things up in the living room.

"Don't forget about your room!" Lorelai yells from the kitchen.

"Your room! She wants to see the books."

"Well, I'll hit it next."

"Uh, they're probably gonna want something to eat or drink!" Lorelai panics.

"Well, company usually does."

"We have nothing."

"We must have something."

"Only if Divine Providence has placed a brie and cracker plate in the fridge."

"We have leftover Halloween candy."

"Waste that on company?" Lorelai scoffs. "Lauren would kill us."

"Well, having company is about making sacrifices. Lauren is just going to have to suck it up."

Lorelai grabs the candy from the cabinet and walks into the kitchen. "Martha Stewart?"

"I paraphrased Proust."

"Fine." Lorelai grabs a bowl, too, and sets it down on the coffee table. "Presentation is everything."

"Hello?" Chris yells from the entrance.

Rory and Lorelai try to hide things before they walk all the way into the house. "Hi, Dad!" Rory yells.

"Are you going to need some more time to clean up?"

"He knows us too well." Lorelai says while she tosses some clothes behind the couch.

"Come on in." Rory and Lorelai walk towards the door. "How'd you we were cleaning?" Rory asks.

Christopher closes the door behind Sherry. "Well, when you cut us off in the parking lot and sped off doing 60..." Lorelai grabs both their coats. "I figured you were trying to beat us home for a reason."

"I hope we're not completely ruining your day." Sherry says.

"No, we love company. Please, come in." Lorelai gestures to the living room and they all walk in.

Sherry starts looking around. "Your house is great."

"Thanks, we like it. Have a seat."

Chris and Sherry take a seat on the couch while Lorelai and Rory sit on the chair in front of them. "Rory, you were wonderful in the debate today."

"Thanks."

"That Paris.." Chris laughs. "..is a little intense."

"A little?" Lorelai questions. "The opposing team could bring her up on war crimes."

"Yeah, her approach will come in handy when she becomes a CEO or a dictator of a country or something." Rory tells them.

"Well, you were very poised, very sure of yourself, just like your dad." Sherry compliments her.

"And your mom." Chris adds.

"Oh, shucks." Lorelai laughs.

"And your uniform is darling. I love the blue." Sherry tells her. "Of course, I'm sure you look good in anything."

"Oh, yeah, you should see her in chaps." Lorelai jokes.

"Really?"

"No." Rory answers. "That was just my mom being funny."

"Oh."

"Yeah, it comes and goes. You'll notice the signs." Lorelai assures her.

Lauren runs downstairs, hairbrush in hand, with fresh clothes, and her long brown wavy hair wet. "Okay, I'm clean." She announces.

"Good." Chris smiles as he stands to face her. "I can hug you now."

Lauren smiles the first geniune smile they've all seen all day, and hugs her dad around his waist. Lauren pulls away and goes sit down in front of her mom on the floor. "Lauren, your hair is so long." Sherry says in amazement.

"Yeah, I know." Lauren says as she hands her mom the brush. "Braid, please?"

"Of course." Lorelai says, taking the brush and she starts fixing Lauren's hair. "She hasn't had a good cut since she was, what, ten?"

"Yeah, but I like it this way."

"Well, it's gorgeous. And you were so great at the game." Sherry says.

"Thanks." Lauren tries to avoid eye contact with Sherry.

Sherry figured she wasn't going to be able to keep a conversation going with Lauren so she turns back to Rory. "You know, I was in private school?"

"Really?" Rory asks.

"Except that our colors were white and bright red. I looked hideous."

"Oh, she's being self-deprecating." Chris tells them. "You looked cute in that outfit."

"No, no. I looked like a peppermint stick. Lauren, do you plan on going to Chilton when you get in high school like your big sister?"

Lorelai finishes Lauren's braid then ushers up onto her lap. "No. I'm going to stay at good old Stars Hollow." Lauren says, proudly.

"But she had enough time to change her mind." Chris says, smiling at his youngest.

Lauren rolls her eyes and glares at her dad. "No. I'm not going to Chilton like Rory. I want to stay here."

Lorelai could tell that Lauren was getting upset, and Sherry could sense it, too, so she quickly moves on. "I think that's where my addiction to clothes comes from: trying to make up for all the years of having to wear the same thing every day."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Rory agrees.

"We should go shopping sometime for clothes or whatever."

"Yeah. We could do that."

"Lauren?" Sherry looks back at Lauren hopeful.

Lauren doesn't say anything so Lorelai pokes her in her side. "Uh, yeah, yeah. Sure."

"Soon, okay?" Sherry asks the girls.

"Sure." They both say.

"Hey, drinks. Who wants something to drink?" Lorelai asks. "I've got water, soda.."

"Uh, just water for me." Chris says.

"Me, too." Sherry says, too.

Lorelai scoops Lauren off her lap and onto the floor as she stands up. "Making it easy. I love it."

"I'll help you." Sherry says, standing up and following Lorelai.

"You don't have to help me." Lorelai tells her feeling awkward.

"No, I want to." Sherry smiles.

"Kay, great." They start walking to the kitchen. "So, do you want flat water or sparkling? I hope flat, cause I don't have sparkling. Or flat. Or ice cubes. I have cups, I think."

"It's a little awkward, isn't it?" Sherry asks.

"What?"

"Us. You and me. Our being here."

"Oh, no not really."

"But kinda of, right?"

"Well, we're just not used to company."

"I mean, you and Christopher were so close. I know it was years ago, but these things are never simple."

"Well, just in general, things like this are always awkward slighty, but only slightly." Lorelai opens the fridge and takes out some apple juice. "Hey, apple juice. With a perfectly respectable expiration date."

Sherry chuckles. "Look, I just want you to know that you should not feel like you need to get to know."

Lorelai turns around. "Oh."

"At all."

"Okay." Lorelai was definitely feeling the awkwardness in the room now. Not get to know her? If she was going to be around her kids she was going to have to get to know her.

"Just because Christopher and I are close doesn't mean that we need to be close." Sherry explains. "Or friends. Or anything, for that matter."

"No, I guess not." Lorelai smiles as she walks with the cups and over to the table.

"Except for our unexpected visit, we may never have even met."

"Well, I think we would have met eventually."

"Perhaps at some function or other."

"Yeah, you, me, Martin Sheen, all chained to the same tree." Lorelai laughs.

"But I do desperately want to know Rory and Lauren."

"Sure, they're great kids."

"That's okay with you?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"I'm so glad to hear that, because things are kind of speeding up between me and Christopher and-"

"Really?"

"Rory and Lauren are so important to him."

"Yeah, I know. They are."

"He told me how he really wasn't around in Rory's life for years, and how he missed a lot of Lauren's, but he'd like to make up for all that time that he wasted."

"Well, he's been doing really well lately." Lorelai tells her.

"I know. He is obsessive about his call dates to them. I mean, it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing he's got to call his girls Wednesday nights at seven. I like that about him." Sherry says, smiling with admiration.

Lorelai smiles back for different reasons. "Yeah, me, too."

"He wants me to bond with them, too. It's important with everything we have coming. Even though he did say Lauren was going to be the most difficult one because he was still getting to know her also, but I'm ready to try as hard as I can.."

"I totally understand." Lorelai says, hoping to stop this conversation.

"Good. I'm glad. So, what are the chances of Rory and I getting together on this trip?"

"This trip?" Lorelai asks, surprised.

"How about tonight?"

"Tonight?"

"They both seemd up for it."

"Tonight. Uh, it's kinda of last minute and we're supposed to go somewhere."

"The Friday-night dinner with your parents."

Lorelai looks wide eyed at Sherry, surprised that she knew so much. "You know about those?"

"All about them. But Christopher said you can get her out of them if there's a pressing need."

"That's true to a certain extent, but-"

"This is pressing. I am so forcing myself here, it's embarrassing. But that's how important it is. I mean, who knows when this opportunity is going to present itself again, right?"

"Right."

"So?"

"Well.." Lorelai looks towards the living room before turning back to Sherry. "Sure." She says, forcing a smile. "You'll have to ask Rory and Lauren, but if it's okay with them, it's okay with me."

"You know, you're as great as Christopher said you were."

"Well, he's an excellent judge of character."

Sherry takes two of the drinks from Lorelai. "Okay. I'll see you back out there?" She says before turning away and heading back out into the living room.

"Everything okay?" Chris asks now sitting next to both his daughters.

"Yeap, she found apple juice." Sherry says, setting the cups down as the home phone rings.

"Hey, Rory, will you get that, please?" Lorelai calls out from the kitchen.

"Let the machine pick it up." Rory yells back.

"It could be important."

"Okay." Rory gets up and picks up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's me." Lorelai whispers from the kitchen.

"Oh, hi." Rory says, finding it weird that her mom was calling her.

"I'm still in the kitchen. I just wanted to tell you that Sherry asked me if the three of you could go out tonight. You and Lauren and her. She trapped me into saying I'd get you our of Friday dinner, but I said I had to ask you so you can get out of it." Lorelai explains.  
"But it may be good to get this over with, cause it seems inevitable. So, if you're okay with her, say, 'Sorry, Leonard, I'll call you back."

"Sorry, Leonard, we've got company. Call you back." Rory repeats.

"Oh, okay. Bye." Lorelai hangs up and so does Rory. Lorelai walks back into the living room. "Okay, here's your drink. Who was that?"

"Um, that was Leonard." Rory tells her mom.

Lauren looks up confused. "Who's Leonard?"

"That's my new friend from the diner." Rory lies.

"Did you tell him we have company?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah."

"You guys are making friends at the diner without me?" Lauren asks, a little hurt.

"Oh, so it's both of your friends?" Chris asks, curiously.

"Mutual friend." Lorelai tells him.

"Yeah, it's pretty much equal. Lauren, I'll introduce you to him tomorrow. He's always there." Rory tells her.

Lauren just looks at her mom and sister with a strange look as they take their seats again. Lauren sits down on her mom's lap again to give her the chair. "Rory, Lauren, can I run something by you two?" Sherry asks.

"Sure."

"Your dad and I are around for another night, and he's totally sick of me." Sherry jokes.

"Not true." Chris says.

Sherry smiles at him. "Anyhow, I was wondering if you girls wanted to do something with me tonight."

"Oh, sure, that would be nice." Rory says.

"Really?"

"But we have Friday night dinner." Lauren reminds them. "Wow, I never thought I'd be happy to say that." She whispers to herself.

"Oh, no, I can get you both out of it." Lorelai tells them.

"Great. Of course, this does leave you a sad little orphan." Sherry says sadly to Chris.

"Oh, it's okay. I'll have one of my patented White Castle bachelor dinners." Chris tells her.

"Or you can come with me tonight, if you want." Lorelai suggests.

"To your parents?"

"Yeah, cause with Rory and Lauren not there, I might need a hostage."

"Oh, yes do it." Sherry says happily.

Chris shrugs, thinking about it. "Okay, it's good grub. You sure they won't be mad?" He asks, Lorelai.

"They like you." She reminds him.

"True."

"We shoud go get cleaned up for tonight." Sherry tells Chris. "Thanks for having us over like this."

"Anytime." Lorelai says as she stands up along with Rory, but Lauren just stays sitting, moving into her mom's spot on the chair.

"So, we'll swing by around six?" Sherry asks them.

"Sounds good."

"Bye girls." Chris kisses both Rory and Lauren on their cheeks.

"Bye, Dad." Rory says.

"Bye, Leonard." Chris whispers to Lorelai who grimaces cause she's been caught.

Chris and Sherry walk out and Lauren stands up stomping her feet. "Hey!" She says loudly to her mom and sister. "Do I get any say in this? What if I don't want to go out with her?"

Lorelai sighs as Rory looks over at her mom to answer this one. She was not getting in the middle of Lauren's dramatic fit. "Lauren, it's just for one night."

"But I don't want to hang out with her." Lauren says again. "I don't even know her!"

"That's the whole reason why we're going. To get to know her. For her to get to know us." Rory explains.

"But I don't want to get to know her. She is nothing to me." Lauren complains again.

Lorelai was really confused on where this sudden anger was coming from. Lauren was suppose to be her carefree child. Her do whatever child. This was very weird. "Lauren, Sherry is dating your dad. She wants to get to know you because your dad loves you so much. Just give her this one night. Please?" Lorelai begs, hoping to stop this little argument.

Lauren wasn't quitting, though. That actually made her even more angier than before. "Are you kidding me!? I don't care who he is dating. She is just another girlfriend and it's not like Dad even knows me. Why should I give her the privilege of getting to know me? I never get a say in what I want to do. This is so stupid!" Lauren yells, as she dashes upstairs and slams her bedroom door seconds later.

"She is so dramatic." Rory tells their mom. "She gets it from you."

Lorelai sighs and looks upstairs. "Don't remind me. Please, just watch her."

"She won't go anywhere, Mom. No worries." Rory assures her.

"And don't let her say anything mean or crack a joke about how Sherry looks like Tammy Faye, because that she also gets from me." Lorelai says, somberly.

Rory giggles. "She won't. I'll make sure of it. It'll be alright. We may actually have a good time and she'll enjoy it. Lauren is full of surprises." Rory walks away to go get ready for their night while Lorelai continue to stand there thinking about what just happened and how she could possibly try to fix this."

Later that day, after a lot of begging and looking through all of Lauren's clothes. Lorelai finally managed to force Lauren into something nice. As much as she wanted to yell at her daughter for acting this way, she kinda was feeling the same way. She didn't want her daughters getting to know this woman, and she didn't want this woman getting to know her daughters. Who knew how long Chris and Sherry were going to be together? Chris was kinda like her. He moved around a lot when it came to relationships, but she never got her kids involved either. So, Lorelai just let Lauren's ramble and complain about how all of this was going to be so stupid and boring, which Lorelai was secretly hoping so that they didn't have to ever do this again.

An hour or so later, Lorelai was finally done getting herself ready as she runs down the stairs.

"Rory, Lauren, hurry, they said six!" Lorelai yells.

"It's six Dad-time, so it's more like 6:30." Rory tells her as she gets her purse and coat.

"But Dad-time is linked to Sherry-time." Lorelai reminds her oldest. "And Sherry seems awfully punctual."

"That's annoying."

"They have to live with their deficiencies."

The phone starts ringing so Rory walks over and answers it. "Hello?"

"Humongous snag in the CD drop plan." Lane tells Rory from the other end.

"What happened?"

"Bible class has been moved an hour later. All to accommodate the teacher's handball schedule."

"The reverend plays handball?" Rory says in confusion.

"I'm just as appalled. So, it's a ten instead of nine."

"Okay, I'll make the necessary adjustments."

Lane is smiling from ear to ear with happiness. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, anything new?"

"My dad brought his girlfriend to my debate and to Lauren's soccer game."

"The potential stepmom? My God. Tell me what she's like? What'd she say? And tell me in like eleven seconds cause that's the time I have left."

"That's too much pressure."

"Then write a long, descriptive letter about it all and slip it into the CD booklet. Include a candid Polaroid of her if you can."

"I'll try."

"Gotta go."

"Bye." Rory hangs up.

"Lauren Lorelai Gilmore, get your cute little butt down here!" Lorelai yells from the bottom of the stairs. Lauren groans as she exits her room. "Full of happiness. I love it." Lorelai says sarcastically.

"Hey, can we come in?" Chris asks as he opens the front door.

"Yeah, come on in." Lorelai tells them.

Lauren comes downstairs and stands in front of Lorelai. "You look great." Sherry says, complimenting Lorelai. "Lauren, I love the top."

"Thanks. My MOM got it for." Lauren says with attitude.

Sherry nods her head, but notices Lauren's attitude towards her which she totally was ready for. "Well, your mom has great taste." Lorelai smiles at Sherry before she pushes Lauren a little on her shoulder which makes Lauren glare upat her. Rory walks into the foyer where they are all standing now. "Hey, you ready to go?" She asks, Rory.

"All set." Rory says, grabbing her coat.

"Okay, so, we won't be too late, probably around ten." Sherry tells Lorelai.

"Well, if you want to grab a drink, Rory's got the list of places that serve minors."

Rory holds up her purse. "No, Lauren put the flask back in my purse."

Sherry looks at them with wide eyes as she tries listen to them. "Okay, I'm going to have to drink a lot of coffee to keep up with you three."

Lorelai laughs. "Damn, our secret's been revealed."

"Bye, love." Sherry kisses Chris and heads out the door.

"Have fun." Chris tells them.

"Bye, sweets." Lorelai kisses Rory on her cheek before she walks out, and then she bends down and kisses Lauren as well. "Be nice." She tells her.

Lauren rolls her eyes and follows her sister out. Chris turns to Lorelai. "There they go."

"Yeah."

"Sherry's really excited about this. Such a great opportunity. Thanks for making it happen."

"That's what I'm here for. Let me just get my coat, and we can go." Lorelai turns around and walks into the living room.

"Great."

"Can I ask you a quick question?" Lorelai asks him.

"Sure, what?"

Lorelai turns back around to face Chris. "When Rory invited you to her debate was Sherry with you?"

"Yeah, she's been with me the whole trip. Why?" Chris walks towards Lorelai.

"It's jus that you gave the girls no indication that she was with you."

"What?" Chris says confused "I must have."

"No, singular pronouns all the way."

"I don't remember what I said." He says, honestly.

"I do. You said, 'I'll be there,' as in just you."

"Well, I may have said that, but I wasn't making a point of saying that. It just came out that way."

"Okay, whatever. I was just wondering." Lorelai walks passed him, but Chris notices the long face that Lorelai is carrying with her.

"It's okay that I brought Sherry along, isn't it?"

"Absolutely." Lorelai lies. "It was just a surprise, that's all. It's just that, Lauren is very sensitive these days. And since your call she was actually excited about you coming for the first time. Just you."

"Well, she didn't look like she had a problem with Sherry."

Lorelai looks at Chris, skeptically. "And that's when she knew that her father didn't know her at all." Lorelai narrates.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about my angry kid who's been stomping around here ever since she got back from her game. She thought it would just be you. You can't just spring this stuff on us."

"Us?" Chris questions.

"Rory and Lauren. You know what I mean."

"No, I don't think I do." Chris says, shaking his head.

Lorelai sighs. "Look, I'm the one that has to deal with the problems around here. I just wish you would have told me so I could work Lauren up before you got here. I'm just saying."

"By the end of the night, I guarantee Lauren will love her. I swear."

Lorelai smirks knowing her daughter well enough that she doesn't get attached so quickly. "Okay. If you say so." She says, putting on her coat and walking to the front door. "So, you weren't trying to hide the fact?"

"No. I mean, obviously you'd find out she was with me once we arrived."

"Obviously."

"Okay, then." Lorelai opens the door and walks out into the yard with Chris following her. "So, what do you think of her?" He asks.

Lorelai looks at him. "I don't know her well enough to judge."

"That's never stopped you from judging people before."

"Hey, buddy, I'm trying to grow here." Lorelai laughs.

"She was saying really nice things about you."

"Really?" Lorelai asks, a little unsure.

"Yeah. She said you guys had a really nice talk in the kitchen."

"Well, if that's what she said, then I guess we did."

Chris chuckles. "Lorelai, come on."

"What?"

"You're being cryptic. Did something happen between you two?"

"No, I just...I thought our conversation was a little odd."

"And this is being less cryptic?"

Lorelai takes a deep breath. She really didn't want to start an arguement with Chris right before they head to her parents. She had enough to deal with. "It's just that she went on and on about how we never have to be friends or get to know eachother at all or try to force any kind of relationship."

"Really? She never mentioned that part." Chris walks passed Lorelai and opens the car door for her. Lorelai eyes him quizzically as she steps into the jeep. Chris closes it and Lorelai waits for Chris to go around and get into the passenger side before she starts talking again.

"How come she figures she never has to see me?"

"Well, I'm sure she was trying to make you feel at ease around her. Because, it's true, you guys don't have to force anything."

"Huh. Where'd she get this 'don't force it' philosophy?"

"Not from me."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

Lorelai shrugs. "So, she just wants to get to know my daughters, not me."

"Well, I did steer her toward bonding with Rory and Lauren."

"But not with me." Lorelai repeats.

"Rory and Lauren are my daughters, Lorelai. Sherry has to get to know them."

"I know."

"I wasn't purposely omitting you or saying not to interact with you."

"Oh, good, so you're not having me killed?"

"No, in fact, I was going over my 'people to kill' list, and I don't think you were on it." Chris jokes.

"Because by the very fact that Rory and Lauren exists, I am in the picture." Lorelai points sternly at him.

"You can back off, you'll be in Sherry's life."

"Good." Lorelai turns back to the front and starts her jeep.

"Not that you thought to do the same thing when you were in my shoes." Chris says remembering the boyfriends, fiance, that Lorelai had around his girls.

"What? What are you talking about?" Lorelai laughs.

"You had a fiance, I believe."

"Yes. Max."

"Right, Max."

"That was not the same thing." Lorelai argues.

"Really? Max knew Rory and Lauren. Max got close to Rory and Lauren, right?"

"Yes."

"He and I never met. I didn't know he existed until late in the game. Hell, I didn't know you were engaged till you called me from your bachelorette party. And I wasn't invited to the wedding. Or did my invitation get lost?"

"You moved a lot this past year."

"I was never part of that equation."

"Okay, maybe. But trust me, you would have been part of the equation eventually." Lorelai promises him. Chris laughs not believing her. "Really, Christopher, you would have."

"Well, trust me, Lorelai. Eventually, you would have been part of this one."

Lorelai glares at Christopher playfully as she starts backing out of the driveway.

At the grandparent's house, the doorbell rings and Emily answers the door. She's surprised when she sees Christopher standing next to Lorelai.

"Christopher."

They both smile at Emily. "Hello, Emily." Chris greets her.

Emily laughs. "Well, this is a surprise. Where's Rory and Lauren?"

"Uh, a last minute thing came up." Lorelai says looking at Chris. "But I brought a good substitute. Half their genes in a nice, nifty Christopher package."

"Well, we're letting the freezing air get in. Come in." Chris and Lorelai walk and begin taking off their coats. "Are they both sick?" Emily questions with worry. "There are terrible things making the rounds these days."

"No, she's not sick." Lorelai says as they walk into the living room area. "Hi, Dad."

Richard is making drinks. "Hello, Lorelai. Christopher, this is a surprise." Richard shakes Chris' hand.

"A nice one, I hope."

"A very nice one."

"How are you, Richard?"

"You're looking well."

"So are you. You playing a lot of golf lately?" Chris asks.

"Uh, more like it's playing me." Richard laughs. "Oh, let's not stand here. Come into the living room. Now who wants a drink? Martini, Manhattan, some scotch?"

"Yes, please." Lorelai tells him.

"Uh, you want to narrow that down?"

"Hooch is hooch, Dad."

"I'll have a Manhattan." Chris tells him.

"Same here." Emily says. Richard turns back around to get the drinks. "So, you never said where Rory and Lauren are."

"They're not here?" Richard asks, looking around suddenly.

"Richard, you didn't even notice your own grand-daughters weren't here?"

"Well, Rory is so quiet, and Lauren is so small. They sometimes slip in unnoticed. One cherry good for everybody?"

"Fine with me." Chris tells him.

"Me, too." Emily agrees.

"Eight, please. I'm peckish." Lorelai says.

"Well, I noticed that the girls weren't here." Emily says very proudly.

"You've got that eagle eye, Mom."

"I'm afriad it's my fault, Emily." Chris says with sympathy. "My girlfriend and I were passing through town and we dropped by Stars Hollow for a visit. She and the girls are off doing something together."

Emily sits there, staring at Chris, with a blank expression. "You have a girlfriend?"

"Sherry."

"And she and the girls are out together?"

"I'm sorry. I should have called, Mom." Lorelai says.

"That would be have been thoughtful. We set a place for them at the table."

"Well, Chris is here." Lorelai reminds her. "So one of them won't go to waste."

"Well, normally I demand my own customized place setting." Chris jokes.

"So, how long have you been with this woman?" Emily asks.

"Eight months."

"I'll bet she's pretty." Richard says, while handing out the drinks.

"Yes, she's very pretty." Lorelai agrees, while winking at her dad.

"Something in your eye, Lorelai?"

"I got it." Lorelai says playing it off since no one was getting it.

"You've met this woman?" Emily asks her daughter.

"Yes, today. And she's very nice."

"What does she do?" Richard asks, joining them. "Does she work?"

"She's the East Coast sales rep for L'Oreal cosmetics." Chris tells him.

"That sounds like a lot of responsibility."

"It keeps her busy, involves some travel."

"What are they doing?" Emily asks. She was clearly not going to give this up. She was already annoyed with this woman and she hadn't even met her.

"What?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"Rory, Lauren, and Christopher's friend. What are they doing tonight?"

"Dinner and movie. Something like that." Lorelai guesses. She could sense her mother's bitterness towards this whole thing. "It's my fault that we didn't call."

"Your work has you traveling, too." Richard says to Chris. He was definitely not as concerned as Emily was about this.

"Some." Chris says.

Lorelai keeps taking glances at her mom. She was just waiting for Emily to explode at any second. "Everyone thinks that traveling on business is so glamerous." Richard continues. "But what they don't realize is that the business traveler never sees the places her visits. My last trip to Rome I spent the whole four days in a conference room by the airport. Might as well have been in French Lick, Indiana."

"My trips are mostly local, just me nad my Volvo."

"You have a Volvo?" Emily asks, surprised.

"That's new, isn't it?" Richard asks.

"I just got it." Chris says.

"Excellent choice. It's nice and safe. That's a good family car."

"It's also excellent for cranking Metallica." Lorelai jokes.

"Cranking Metallica?" Richard questions. "If that's some sort of drug reference, it isn't funny."

"So you're planning on having a family?" Emily asks.

"What?" Chris asks taken back.

"With this woman."

"Her name's Sherry, Mom. You're putting him on the spot here." Lorelai says, hencing for her to stop.

"Well, he bought a family car. It's a natural question."

"Dad called it a family car. I'm sure the sales contract doesn't say you have to have a family to buy it."

"Though I didn't read the fine print." Chris tells her.

"You always drove a motorcycle before, didn't you?" Emily asks.

"I still got it."

"A family man shouldn't ride a motorcycle." Richard tells him with a shake of his head. "The accidents I covered for the firm involving motorcycles, the worst. Grisly. They use this industrial machine to scrape the victims off the road like a huge spatula."

Lorelai chokes back some cherries after hearing that. "Hey, mouthful of cherries here."

"Are you living together?" Emily asks, getting a little too nosey for Lorelai's liking.

"Mom, get out of the interrogation lamp, why don't you?"

"It's okay." Chris says. "Yeah, but we're looking for something bigger in the Boston area."

"There are a lot of nice, historical places." Richard tells him.

"Something historical in our price range would be perfect."

"You know historical homes are infested with mold, don't you?" Emily asks, curiously.

"Mold?" Lorelai says, glaring at her mom.

"It gets inside the walls and grows out of sight and shoots off spores that slowly kill you and your family." Emily explains grusomely.

"You should get a show on the Home and Garden Channel, Mom."

Richard looks at Emily with a confused look. "When did you become an expert on mold, Emily?"

"It was in the New York Times Magazine. I'd hold off buying a place with this woman until you look into this."

"Sherry." Lorelai says sternly. "Sherry."

"It's actually just going to come down to whatever we can afford." Chris says, trying to break the awkwardness. "It might be a newly built place."

"With their shoddy craftemanship? You don't want that."

"What does that leave them, a teepee?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm sorry. I just don't think that Rory and Lauren should miss our dinners for something other than sickness or emergencies. That was the agreement." Emily was finally letting it out, thankfully.

"I'm sorry, Emily. Really." Chris says.

"Chris has apologized a hundred times." Lorelai tells her. "How many more do you want?"

"Listen, I can call Sherry and have her and the girls come by after their movie. That way, it won't be a totally Rory and Lauren-less evening."

"That's not what I want." Emily says, raising her voice.

"Mom, we're desperately trying to work with you."

"Working with me is one thing, patronizing me is another. Excuse me." Emily sets her drink down and gets up, walking to the kitchen.

"I feel horrible." Chris says to them.

"Don't, son. That's just Emily." Richard assures him.

"I'll go see what I can do." Lorelai says while she gets up and follows her mom. Lorelai walks in to find Emily fixing herself another drink. "You wanna tell me what's going on here?"

"How can you let that horrible woman take Rory and Lauren like that?" Emily asks.

"Hey, Mom, calm down. It's only one night."

"That's how it starts. She's getting her claws into them."

"Her claws?"

"We'll never see Rory or Lauren again if that woman has her way." Emily says with such anger that it was actually scaring Lorelai a little.

"Mom, hold it. Rory and Lauren are my daughters, you know. I have some control over this."

"You can't let her take them on weekends. It can't happen."

"What is this about?" What are you so upset?"

"Lorelai, are you blind?" Emily stresses. "Or just that humiliated?"

"Humiliated?" Lorelai questions.

"Christopher gets his life together with that woman."

"So that's good."

"It should have been you."

Lorelai wasn't sure if she was hearing what he mom was yelling at correctly. "What?" She asks her.

"Don't play dumb, Lorelai. You know, deep down, I know you're heartbroken."

"I'm not heartbroken."

"I am." Emily confesses. "I always pictures the four of you together. After all these years, and the bad things that happened. Rory and Lauren with both their parents. Now that Christopher's got his life together, it's with her, not you."

"Mom, the timing was never right for us."

"That's because you dawdle time away. You could've had that effect on him. It could've been you helping him get his life together, but you made no effort."

Now Lorelai was getting angry. She was being blamed, like always. "So, now, this comes down to something I didn't do? Don't put that on me, Mother!"

"What other explanation is there? He's always been crazy about you, but you always kept him at arm's length, like you do everyone."

"That's not true."

"It is true. Your destiny was to be with Christopher. Now it's too late."

"Then it wasn't our destiny!"

"So you're saying you don't have feelings for him, that all of this is fine with you?" Emily asks.

Lorelai looks down, avoiding her mother's eye contact. "That's not important."

"It's not?"

"No. What's important is that Christopher is doing well and he's happy and we should be happy for him."

"You're impossible. I need to lie down. Tell Christopher...tell him whatever you like, I don't care." Emily walks off leaving Lorelai standing in the kitchen alone.

The next morning, Lorelai walks into the diner.

"Hey," Luke greets her.

"Hey." She says back.

"You alone this morning?"

"No, Rory and Lauren are with me. They had to run an errand." She says going over to the counter.

"Well, take whatever table you want."

"Okay."

Luke notices the not so happy look on Lorelai that she was usually carrying around when he seen her. "You okay?" He asks, curiously.

"Yeah." She lies.

"You don't seem your chipper self."

"I brought some sparklers. I'll light them later and do some kicks."

"You know, if you want I can clear the counter and you can play bagel hockey."

"You can't play by yourself."

"I'll play with you. You'll have to explain the rules."

"It's okay." Lorelai laughs. "I'm jus recovering from last night. It was one of those nights where you begin stepping in quicksand and end up with a 16-ton anvil on your head."

"I've had lot of those. I'll get you some coffee."

"Can't hurt." They both turn away from eachother and Lorelai walks to a table just as Rory and Lauren walk into the diner.

"You order?" Rory asks her mom.

"No, just coffee." They walk to the table and sit down. "I must have been sound asleep when you both got home last night."

"You were snoring like a buzz saw." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai grimaces. "I believe that's defined as a superfluous comment."

"Yes, you were sound asleep." Rory tells her, rolling her eyes, playfully.

"So, I'm dying to hear about your night with Sherry. How was it?" Rory takes a glance at Lauren who just looks away. Lorelai notices and becomes instantly worried. "Oh, no. What did she do? What did you do!?"

"It was nothing bad." Lauren says.

Rory looks at her mom. "First she refused to eat. Which made Sherry beg and beg and eventually cause her to buy the biggest ice cream on the menu for Lauren." Lorelai grins at this. "And then while we were at the movies, of course it was something we've already seen, but I didn't want to make Sherry feel bad so I didn't tell her anything, but Lauren decides just as the movie starts to repeat every single word throughout the whole movie."

Lorelai hits her head on her hand. "Oh, no. What did the other people do?"

Lauren giggles at this. "A few of them starting repeating along with her. Apparently, we're not the only ones who see movies more than once." Rory tells her. "But Sherry was really embarrassed and ended up going to the bathroom until the movie was over. She was claiming the food messed her up."

"See, it wasn't anything horrible." Lauren tells her.

"Kid, you are a mess." Lorelai laughs.

Lauren shrugs. "Well, I didn't want to go."

"But she is what she seems." Rory says.

"Details, please." Lorelai begs.

"She's a very cautious driver, she doesn't roll through stop signs, doesn't speed, always signals before she turns.

"Commendable, but not who I want driving our getaway car. What's her music taste?"

Lauren groans. "She's a big Bruce Springsteen fan, seen him twenty times."

"Blue collar roots or is she just slumming?"

"Oh, her father had a shoe store, her mom taught kindergarten." Rory adds in.

"Wow, you guys really got into details." Lorelai says, surprised.

"She was definitely in bondng mode."

"Yeah, the only way she ever stopped talking is in the movies, and I didn't even have to deal with her for long." Lauren smiles.

"So, what else?"

"She's very touch-feely, hand on the shoulder, lots of hugs." Rory says.

"It's very gross." Lauren adds.

"Did she try to get fresh?" Lorelai jokes.

"Gross."

"Go on."

"Um, she's had one prior serious relationship in her life." Rory says.

Lorelai grins evily. "Finally, the juicy stuff."

"It lasted eleven years."

"Eleven years and she never got married?" Lorelai asks.

Rory shakes her head. "She never thought about it because of her career, but now she is, more and more." Lauren makes a gagging noise. "In the past couple of years, she hasn't dated anyone unless she thought for sure if could a lasting relationship. And she's got specific goals now concerning children."

"Which are probably changed now after spending time with Lauren." Lorelai and Lauren exchange satisfied grins at one another.

"She said she wants at least two. And before she met Dad, she was considering single parenthood."

"That's wanting kids." Lorelai confirms.

"That's about it."

"She works for L'Oreal." Lauren tells her.

"I heard that."

"Yeah, that was the only thing I listened to when they started talking."

"So, how was your night?" Rory asks their mother.

Lorelai sighs. "Fine, just took Mom five minutes before she left the room in tears." Lauren and Rory look on with worry. "She freaked out that you both were with Sherry. Believe that?"

"She freaked?"

"Totally. She kept calling her 'that woman.'"

"Hm. Grandma and I will have lots to talk about them come Friday." Lauren says.

"What did she think? You'd come home and find a rabbit boiling on the stove?" Rory asks.

"No, it had to do with her and Christopher. Anyway, eventually, she came down and had a pouty dinner."

"It ended up okay?"

"For the most part."

"Is she mad at us?" Lauren asks.

"No, the angel children, never." Lorelai chuckles.

Luke walks over and hands them each coffee. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

Luke walks away and Lorelai continues their conversation. "So, I want to ask you both something."

"Ask." Rory urges her.

"When you've guys thought me and your dad what have you been thinking all these years?" Lorelai asks, curiously. She had never asked her children or wondered what they thought about the relationship she had with their dad until, of course, her mother brings it up.

"What do you mean?" Lauren asks, confused.

"I mean, did you ever picture us potentially together like, 'we are family' together?"

Lauren looks over at her sister who is smiling kinda of embarrassingly. "Not really." She tells their mother.

"But, sort of? It crossed your mind?" Lorelai asks.

"I'll admit I have pictured the four of us living together at various times, but in a way that all kids picture their estranged parents living together. The way they should be together, but it's stupid."

"It's not stupid." Lorelai looks down at her youngest. "What about you?"

Lauren shrugs her shoulders sadly. "I mean, I have, but now with Dad. I've pictured you with someone else, who was rich, with a huge house and pool. With horses and two dogs, maybe a monkey." She giggles.

Lorelai and Rory laugh. "A monkey?" Rory asks.

"Hey, it's what I pictured. I can't help if my mind wants a monkey."

Lorelai couldn't help but laugh at her youngest. She was such a firecracker, like her, when she wanted to be, but easily amused by the silliest things. Lorelai reaches over and kisses Lauren on temple. "You are crazy, and I like it." She tells her.

"Well, I've also pictured you with Pee Wee Herman." Rory laughs, as do Lorelai and Lauren. "And we lived in his playhouse, and we'd be talking to Cherry and Captain Carl would be walking by."

"Fun." Lorelai laughs.

"Hey, have you been in my head?" Lauren asks her big sister, suspiciously.

"Oh, and later, I pictured you marrying Matthew Broderick. And we lived in New York in this great apartment in the Village, and we would talk about his Ferris Bueller days."

"Just think how easy Producers tickets would be to get." Lorelai imagines.

"It would be fourth row center every night." Lauren tells them.

"I'm sorry that Matthew and I couldn't work it out, honey."

"I'll try to get over it." Rory says, trying to act sad about her mom's make believe life.

Lorelai takes a second just looking at her beautiful daughters sitting in front of her. "So should it have been me?" She asks them.

Rory looks down at her watch and notices thetime. "Oh, sorry, zero hour." She says, quickly to Lauren as she looks out the window. "I have to go. I'll be right back." Rory and Lauren get up quickly and head for the door. But Lauren turns back around and opens the door, looking at her mom.

"I'm glad it wasn't you." Lauren tells her mom, putting a smile right on her face before Lauren jets out again to meet her sister.

The girls run over to the gazebo, hiding, as they watch Mrs. Kim and Lane walk out of their house. As they are walking onto the street, Rory pushes Lauren in front of her, towards them, to go and distract them.

Lauren walks over to them and stands in front of them, blocking them from going any further. "Excuse me, Mrs. Kim? I'm Lauren."

"I know, Lauren, I've known you since you were born." Mrs. Kim tells her.

"Well, I'd like to make sure people still remember my name."

"We do. You are Lorelai Gilmore's girl, and Rory Gilmore's sister. We know. We're in a hurry."

"I won't take up much more of your time, but I was just wondering what your store hours are again? Rory couldn't remember and she can't call Lane to ask, so I thought I'd ask you in person. See, my grandmother is thinking about coming back here since you made her an awesome deal last time." Lauren explains.

"For people who come to buy things, it's ten to six, Sunday through Friday. For those who wander, blocking aisles, touching with dirty hands, never buying, asking for 80% off, we're closed."

"I should really write this down." Lauren digs in her back pocket to get her notepad and pen as Michel, in a jogging suit, runs by and dumps a cd quickly into Lane's open bag without Mrs. Kim seeing. "You said ten to six. That's 10 a.m.?"

"Yes."

Lauren writes it down. "Okay. Thanks for your time. My grandmother can't wait to buy more stuff from you." Lauren says with a smile as she watches Mrs. Kim and Lane walk passed her. Lauren runs back over to Rory just as Michel approaches them. He is out of breath and is sweating all through his jogging suit.

"Oh, my God. Michel, are you okay?" Rory asks.

"I've been running around this stupid square for over an hour."

"Why?" Lauren asks.

"Because the plan was to drop this Cd at nine."

"No, it got changed to ten." Rory tells him. "I told my mom, and she said she'd pass it on. She didn't pass it on, did she?" Michel collaspes on the steps of the gazebo.

"Definitely not." He says, tiredly.

"Well, the mission was a success."

"Yes, my cardiologist will be thrilled."

"Can we do anything for you?" Lauren asks.

Michel puts his hands up to guard Rory or Lauren from touching him. "Get away from me, evil girls. Never will I do anything for you again ever, ever, never!"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, you had a really good form." Rory tells him.

Michel glares at Rory while he gets up. "You're your mother's child."

"Thank you." Rory yells as she walks away.

Back at the diner, Sherry and Christopher walk in and find Lorelai still at the same table she was at with her girls.

"Hey, guys." Lorelai smiles at them.

"Hi." Chris says back.

"We just wanted to say a last goodbye. The girls aren't here?" Sherry asks looking around.

Lorelai turns to look out the window to see if she could see her girls. "They went outside somewhere. You could probably find them."

"Oh, okay." Sherry smiles. "I think I will. We had such a great time last night. So I hear your dinner was good."

Chris looks at Lorelai from behind Sherry and nods his head. "Oh, yeah, it was great." She lies.

"I would love to see that house, especially the portrait of Rory and Lauren in the study. Anyway I could get a picture?"

"I can send you one."

"That would be great. So, they're outside?"

"Somewhere."

"I'm gonna try to corral them." Sherry tells Chris.

"Bring them by so I can see them, too." Chris tells her.

"Okay. Bye, Lorelai. Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome. Bye." Lorelai smiles and waves her off.

Chris goes and sits next to Lorelai. "So, quite the evening of theater last night."

Lorelai laughs. "Yes, the Gilmore family players rival the Barrymores for their sophisticated, dramatic productions."

"I never thought she'd freak over Rory and Lauren not being there. I never wanted you in that position."

"You couldn't have known." Lorelai assures him.

"I mean, the girls missed dinner before."

"This was compounded by other things."

"What other things?"

"You should know that when it comes to Emily Gilmore, it's never simple."

"Got it." Chris looks outside and sees Sherry and the girls talking. "Looks like they found eachother." Lorelai turns around as well to look out. "You know, Sherry had a really good time last night. I hope the girls did, too. I mean, she told me about Lauren, but I figured she'd be the tough one to crack."

Lorelai nods her head. "Yeah, she's our wild one. But she's just not used to this whole thing, ya know?"

"Yeah, I get it. Well, I'm going to go say goodbye." Chris gets up and walks out of the diner. Lorelai turns around and watches Chris hug both Rory and Lauren. She wasn't sure why she was feeling the way she was feeling, but it was weird. It was a weird feeling..

_Brutal Love_

* * *

Thanks for reviews again, guys. You are all amazing. Please continue it. I love hearing your inputs. (:


	34. Let's Hear It For The Boy

In the square, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking to the diner. Lorelai has a bandage wrapped around her hand.

"It still hurts!" She complains.

"Do you needs stitches?" Rory asks, examining the wrapped hand.

"Probably."

"We should go to a doctor." Lauren tells them.

"No. No doctors." Lorelai begs. "You go into a hospital, you don't come out again!" She says, dramatically.

"Well said, Ida Morgenstern." Rory says, rolling her eyes.

"I'm starving. I need pancakes."

"Can I just ask what you were doing?" Lauren asks, curiously.

"I thought I was being a self-sufficient woman."

"But you hate ladders and heights." Lauren reminds her mom.

"We needed our rain gutters cleaned."

"Well, hire somebody." Rory suggests.

"Oh, well, aren't we suddenly a Rockefeller." Lorelai says a little surprised.

"Well, it's better than you killing yourself."

"Yeah, I need you for a least a few more years, Mom." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai sighs and dramatic sigh. "I'm fine. I'm just being dramatic. It's what I do."

"No more ladders." Lauren tells her sternly.

"I promise."

"Okay."

Lorelai peeks inside her bandage. "I think I have gangrene."

"You do not." Rory says, also taking a peek.

"And vertigo."

"Oh, boy."

"One leg feels shorter than the other."

Lauran and Rory glance at eachother. "This is gonna be the Vanity Fair paper-cut incident all over again." Rory tells her littler sister.

Lorelai opens the bandage to get a better look at it and gasps. "Wow."

"Leave your bandage alone."

"Look, it's turning purple, but a really glowy purple! Look!" Lorelai says, trying to show Rory and Lauren her hand.

"No, thanks." Rory grimaces.

"I'll look." Lauren says happily as she pulls Lorelai's arm down to get a better look at her mom's hand. "Hey, maybe our rain gutters are radioactive or made out of some kind of alien metal so that when you cut your hand, you got infected with an extraterrestrial substance which is altering your internal makeup."

Lorelai gasps. "Maybe I'll turn into a superhero!"

Rory shakes her head. "No more Smallville for you both."

"Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and suddenly be able to shower really fast."

"We'll go pick out your cape after breakfast." Rory tells her mom as she ushers Lorelai and Lauren into Luke's.

Inside, Lorelai and her girls sit down at a table.

"Oh, God. I'm starving." Lorelai says dramatically. "Must be from the loss of blood."

"Yes, that must be it." Rory dramatically says back.

"I'm getting pancakes with a side of pancakes." Lorelai smiles. "Where's Luke?"

Lauren shrugs as they look around the diner. "I don't know. Storage room?"

Lorelai turns and sees Caesar in the kitchen. "Oh, no." She groans.

"Why is Caesar cooking?" Rory complains.

"I don't know."

"That's bad."

"His pancakes stink." Lauren tells them. "So do we resort to donuts?"

"Wait here." Lorelai gets up and sneaks up the stairs to Luke's apartment. When she reaches the door she knocks. "Hey, Luke, are you in there?" She hears a faint ow inside. "Luke, are you okay?"

"Stupid lamp!" He yells from inside.

"Hey, Luke, are you being attacked by your possessions again?" Luke opens the door. He has a sock just hanging out on his shoulder. "Hi."

"Hey."

"What're you doing?"

"I'm looking for my supply ledger."

"Is it going well?"

"It's going fine."

"You have a sock on your shoulder." Luke looks at his shoulder. "Is it helping you look?"

Luke grabs the sock and backs back into the apartment. "What're you doing up here?"

Lorelai follows him. "Rory, Lauren, and I are starving. We need you to cook us breakfast." She says as she closes the door behind her. She looks around and sees the apartment looking a complete mess. "Oh, my God."

"Caesar can make you breakfast."

"What happened to this place?"

"Nothing."

"This is what I always pictures the inside of my head to look like." Lorelai says as she walks further into the apartment.

"See if you can find a brown leather ledger." Luke says to her as he continues to look as well.

"I've never seen so much stuff. It looks like a white-trash Hearst Castle."

Luke knew Lorelai wasn't going to be much help. "I'll find it myself."

"Where'd all this stuff come from?"

"Jess. Liz shipped the rest of his stuff last week." Luke tells her. "He finally unpacked it."

"He did a very nice job." She says sarcastically.

"I know, it's crazy now, but I just have to get it all organized figure out where to put everything, buy another dresser, a portable wardrobe, some storage bins."

"A can of gasoline, box of matches."

"Did I mention Caesar can cook you breakfast?" Luke says getting annoyed.

Lorelai smiles. "But he doesn't make the good, fluffy pancakes like you do."

"Then order eggs."

"No." Lorelai says like it was a sin or something. She picks up her hand to show Luke the bandage. "See, I had a near-death experience today."

"Really?"

"Yes. I almost fell off the roof trying to clean the rain gutters, so I have to have pancakes. Please?" She begs. "I'll help you shower when I become a superhero."

The bathroom door opens and Jess walks out. "You've been in there for two hours." Luke says with frustration.

"Yeah, well, my hair just ain't bouncing and behaving today." Jess tells him as he walks passed the two.

"There are other people living here, too."

"Huh, learn something new everyday." Jess grabs a few books and walks out.

Lorelai turns back to Luke. "Well, his people skills are really improving."

Luke points to the door. "Go downstairs. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Luke grabs Lorelai by the shoulder and leads her towards the door. "How long is that?"

"I don't know."

"An estimate."

"I don't know."

"Ball park figure. Off the top of your head."

"Will you-"

"Did I mention I almost fell off my roof!?"

"I'd lie down if I could find the bed."

As Lorelai is walking and looking around she sees exactly what Luke's been looking for. She picks it up and shows him. "Hm. Is this what you're looking for?" She asks.

"Great. Thank you." Luke reaches for it, but Lorelai holds it up, away from him.

"Not unless you make the pancakes."

"Give me the book."

"Give me the pancake!"

Giving up Luke finally just walks to the door himself. "Come on."

"Thank you."

Lorelai opens the door. "You sure you weren't almost pushed off the roof of your house today?" Lorelai laughs as they walk out.

Later that day, Lorelai and Rory are walking down the sidewalk in the square. They were going pick Lauren up from Elizabeth's then they were going to Luke's.

"I think I'm finally ready to get a tattoo." Lorelai smiles.

"Oh, please." Rory rolls her eyes not believing her "Mom, you've been saying that for five years."

"But I mean it this time."

"Fine. What are you getting?" Rory asks.

"Mel Brooks."

"Why?"

Lorelai looks at her daughter. "What do you mean 'why?' The 2000 Year Old Man, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie. You don't think Mel has earned the right to have his face on my butt?"

"I am so sorry, Mel."

"Oh, he'll love it. Trust me." Lorelai and Rory walk up to Elizabeth's porch and ring the doorbell. Elizabeth answers it and she is laughing hysterically at something which makes Rory and Lorelai laugh.

"Oh, hey, Lorelai. Hey, Rory." Elizabeth says.

"Hey, Liz. We're here to pick up Lauren." Lorelai tells the girl.

"Okay." Elizabeth says, still laughing. "I'll get her." Elizabeth turns away and Lorelai and Rory walk into the house.

"Should I be surprised that her mom isn't here?" Lorelai asks her oldest.

Rory shakes her head. "I never am."

"Lauren, you're mom and sister are here!" Elizabeth yells as she walks into the kitchen.

Lorelai and Rory follows Elizabeth and when they walk in they see Lauren sitting on the floor, holding a towel on her arm. "Hey, kid." Lorelai says when she sees her youngest. "What are you doing on the floor?"

"What happened to your arm?" Rory asks.

"Hey." Lauren says quietly. "Uh..." She hesitates. She didn't want to tell her mom what happened.

"She fell." Elizabeth answers for her. "It was so funny. I mean, not the getting hurt part, but the following and taking everything down with her was pretty hilarious."

"It was funny. But I'm hurt." Lauren sighs as she looks up sadly at her mom and sister.

Lorelai and Rory walks quickly to Lauren and kneel down next to her. "What did you do?" Lorelai asks as she pulls the towel off of Lauren's arm, but she quickly puts it back when she sees a lot of blood. "What the hell happened, kid!?" Lorelai panics.

"I'm fine, Mom. I was just trying to get something, and I slipped. I kinda slipped and hit a knife."

"You stabbed yourself!" Rory yells.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I didn't stab myself, Rory. The knife stabbed me."

Lorelai was suddenly not in the mood to know exactly what happened. She just knew her kid was just stabbed in the arm with a knife. "Okay, let me look at it again. Elizabeth, do you have any bandages?"

"Yeah, I think in my mom's room. I'll got get it." Elizabeth runs out of the kitchens and goes upstairs.

"I'm okay, Mom. I promise. It only hurts a little." Lauren goes to stand up and in the process she moves her arm out. She hurries and tucks it back into her stomach. "And a lot when I move it." Lauren groans in pain.

Lorelai takes Lauren's arm and starts examining it. The blood wouldn't stop coming out so she took Lauren over to the sink to rinse it to see how deep the wound is. "Can't you and Elizabeth ever do normal things when you guys are together? Like read a book. You two are always getting into trouble." Rory tells her.

"We are not like you and Lane." Lauren reminds her. "We like to have fun."

"Yeah, well, look where that fun got you." Lorelai tells her as she wipes the blood.

Elizabeth runs back in holding a first aide kit. "At least my mom always keeps this around." Elizabeth says as she hands Lorelai the kit.

"The wound isn't deep. I don't think you need stitches. We can just bandage this up and you should be good to go." Lorelai says as she begins grabbing the tape and bandage.

"Hey, Mom, we are twins!" Lauren says, happily, nodding over to Lorelai's hand that is bandage as well.

"Hey, maybe you will turn into a superhero, too." Rory jokes.

Lauren's eyes get wide. "Hey, we can fight crime."

Lorelai shakes her head. "You have quite the imagination. Alright, you're all done. Where's your mom, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth looks around. "Uh, I'm not sure exactly. But she always comes home before 12 so it's all good."

Lauren looks up at her mom cause she knew Lorelai was worried. She was always worried. "Well, we were just on our way to get rocky road hot fudge sundaes and some whipped cream, if you want to join us."

Elizabeth shakes her head. "Oh, I'm good. But thanks for letting Lauren come over."

"Alright." Lorelai says, as she and her girls walk towards the front door. "Call us if you need us."

"Always." Elizabeth smiles and waves them off.

As they are coming down the porch Lauren is holding her arm. "Hey, stunt girl. Do you think you can handle a couple more hours until we get home?"

"Yeah, I can hang." Lauren says as they walk passed Luke's.

Lorelai stops when she sees Luke sitting at a table, watching something on a really small tv. "What's he doing?"

"What is that?" Lauren asks when notices the small tv in front of him.

"Hey, you two go get the ice cream and make sure they give us maraschino cherries."

"Okay. Come on, cripple." Rory says, leading Lauren away.

"Now you're going to make fun of me?" Lauren asks.

In the diner, Lorelai walks. Luke turns around and is surprised to see her.

"Hey." She says.

"What are you doing?"

"Rory and I just picked up Lauren, and now we're on our way home to eat something you wouldn't approve of."

"Sounds good."

"What are you doing?"

"Uh, watching tv." Luke points to the small tv in front of him.

"Oh, wow. That's cute." She says, looking at it. "Is it the first time it's been away from its mother?"

"It's a very good tv."

"Mm. Black and white, coat hanger antenna, really bad reception."

"It's fine."

"Don't you have a fully grown tv upstairs?" She asks him.

"Yeah, well, Jess is upstairs."

"So?"

"So when Jess is upstairs that means the stereo's blaring and the place is a mess. I just need a little privacy." Luke explains.

"So you came downstairs to sit on an uncomfortable chair in an empty diner that smells like onion rings."

"Yes."

"Calgon take me away!"

"It was very peaceful until two minutes ago." He tells her as she sits down next to him.

"Hey, Luke, did you ever think that maybe you should get a bigger apartment?"

"I don't need a bigger apartment."

"That place upstairs was your father's office. You made it an apartment. It wasn't meant to be lived in."

"It's fine."

"It's too small for two people. It's too small for one person if they have any kind of life."

"We'll make do. We just need to-"

"No, you don't need to organize. You need to move."

"I like my apartment."

"It's not just your apartment. Jess lives there also." Lorelai reminds the grump.

"Jess is fine."

"Are you sure? He could be pinned under a box for a year in that place and you wouldn't know it until the neighbors started to complain about the smell."

Rory and Lauren walk in holding their ice creams. "Hi, Luke." Rory says when they enter.

"Rory. Perfect. Get her out of here."

"Oh, okay, fine. I'm leaving." Lorelai says. "Think about what I said." Lorelai stands up and grabs her ice cream from Lauren.

"Oh, hey, did you ever hire anybody to do that work for you?"

"What?"

"The rain gutters?"

"Oh, yeah." Lorelai lies as she points to Lauren. "Lauren did them."

Luke looks at Lauren who is smiling at him until he notices the bandage that has blood on it on her arm. "What they hell, Lorelai? What did you do to her?" He panics as he looks at Lauren's arm.

Lauren starts laughing. "Luke, Mom's lying. I didn't clean the gutters. I fell at Elizabeth's."

"Oh, thank god." He says letting out a breath of relief.

"So, are you offering to clean my gutters, Luke?" Lorelai asks.

"No, I was actually thinking about Jess."

Lorelai hesitates for a moment. "Oh, Jess."

"He's always looking for a little extra cash. He doesn't make that much here, and I hate to think of where else he might try to get it. I mean, you don't have to pay him the same as you would someone else. You save a little. He keeps busy."

Lorelai smiles. "Yeah, well, maybe. I actually have to check with a couple of people that I'm supposed to hear from, but if they can't do it, then, sure."

"Great. Just let me know."

"I will. Bye." Lorelai opens the door and they all three walk out.

"So, who are all these people you asked to clean out our gutters?" Rory asks her mom as soon as the door closes.

"Oh, well, you know."

"I do?"

"Yeah."

"Remind me?"

"Okay, there's Cid." Lorelai makes up a name.

"Mom we don't know a Cid." Lauren tells her.

"Oh, and there's Moose, if Doris will let him out of the house again, you know, after that incident at Chicky's bachelor party."

"Mom, I thought you said you were gonna give Jess a chance."

Lorelai sighs and looks at both her girls sad and concern faces. "I am."

"Then why don't you hire him?" Rory asks.

"I'm just..not very comfortable with him, Rory."

"Well, try and get comfortable."

"Mom, he really helped me. We need to help him." Lauren tells her.

"Well, I don't know if I can."

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, but I can't help it."

"How many times do we have to tell you-" Rory starts.

"That I don't know the real Jess?" Lorelai finishes for her.

"You don't."

"Fine, I don't know him, but I'm not too fond of his stand-in."

"People are different once you get to know them. And, you remember, you weren't too fond of Luke at first."

"That's not true."

"You called him Duke for two years to make him mad." Lauren reminds her.

"And let me tell you, it worked." Lorelai smirks.

"But then you guys talked and eventually, time went by. Now you love him." Rory tells her. "We're just asking you to give Jess that same chance."

Lorelai stops walking and gives her daughters both a serious look. "Rory, you like him. Lauren, you like him. But I don't have to like him."

"Please." Lauren and Rory both say, begging.

"Can I at least call him Tess for awhile?"

"You've give him the job?" Lauren asks, hopeful.

"I'll give him the job." Lorelai says.

"Thank you." Rory says.

"You're welcome." They start walking again, but as they are walking, Lorelai gets in front of Rory and stares hard at her. "Tell me something."

"What?"

"Why is it so important to you that I like him? I know why Lauren wants me to, but why you?"

"Well..." Lorelai smirks because she could tell that her daughter likes him even thought she knew she would never admit it because of Dean. "I just think that he's Luke's nephew, and we like Luke, and we eat at Luke's everyday, we see Jess when we eat there everyday, and that it just might make things nicer if you liked him." Rory explains.

Lorelai nods. "And that's the only reason? It's all about Luke and the diner?"

"Yes."

"It's got nothing to do with you."

"No."

"So you and Jess aren't...friends?"

"Well, yeah, we're friends."

"Uh huh." Lorelai says, waiting for more."

"I mean, we're not good friends, but we're friends. We're friendly. But that doesn't mean that we're friend in the traditional Webster's Dictionary definition of 'friends.'"

"Riiight."

"'Friendish' might be a better term."

"Okay. 'Friendish.' Got it."

"Mom, can we get home before my arm falls off?" Lauren begs. She was tired of all this Jess talk.

"Yeah, we have to change your bandage." Lorelai says as she puts her arm around her daughter.

The next morning, Lorelai let Lauren go back to Elizabeth's. Why? She wasn't sure. But she sorta felt bad for Elizabeth always being alone and Lauren was a good friend always wanting to be there, so Lorelai had to be a good mom and let her daughter be there for her friend. So, while Lauren is away, Lorelai was bored and was now sitting in her living room playing with her new alarm clock.

Rory walks in. "Mom?" She calls out.

"Come here. Come here. Come here." Lorelai says, quickly.

"I'm here." Rory rushes into the living room. "What's the matter?"

"Sit. Sit. Sit." Lorelai sets the alarm clock back on the table. "Okay, that should do it."

"Do what?"

"Wait." Lorelai says, as she stares at the clock.

"What are we waiting for?"

"Patience, grasshopper."

They wait a little longer. "Are we close?"

"Very close." A few seconds later. "Getting closer."

"Should I get chips?"

"Ready? And.." The clock turns to four and it starts squealing like a pig making Lorelai laugh.

"The clock is grunting."

Lorelai turns it off. "This is a state-of-the-art CD clock radio that enable you to wake up to the barnyard animal of your choice."

"That is great." Rory says very impressed.

"I have selected the Perky Piggies. You might choose the Cheery Chickens, or Lauren may choose the Goofy Goats."

"This is as close to a farm as I wanna get."

"Amen, sister-friend."

Someone starts knocking on the door. "I'll get it." Rory gets up and goes to the door. She opens it and Jess tosses a cd to her.

"Here." He says.

"The Shag?" She asks, showing him.

"Trust me."

"Okay. You're very punctual."

Jess walks in. "Yeah, well, it was this or continue apartment hunting with Luke." He says, while closing the door.

"You're moving?"

"I don't know. Luke flipped out last night. The next thing I know, he's dragging me all over town, measuring square footage. It's crazy."

"A new place might be nice. More space. Maybe you'll get your own room."

Jess looks at Rory's hair. "You changed your hair?"

"What?"

"Your hair looks different."

"Segue's not your thing, huh?" She asks, awkwardly.

"Is it?"

"No, I wear it like this a lot. Why?"

"Just looks different."

"Oh. Bad different?"

Jess smirks, but before he can saying anything Lorelai starts yelling. "Hey, ducks!" She says.

They turn around when they hear quacking coming from the living room. "We just got a new alarm clock." Rory tells him.

"Bet I know the lead story in tomorrow's Stars Hollow Gazette." He jokes.

Lorelai walks in very excited. "Hey, did you hear the ducks because they are great. Jess, you're here. Terrific."

Rory looks at Lorelai to see if she was going to say anything else, but suddenly her mom and Jess turned mute. "So, would you like to come in?" Rory asks him, gesturing towards the living room.

"Oh, yeah. Come on in." Lorelai tells him. "Sorry, I was just so excited about the ducks that, uh, do you want something to drink?" Lorelai walks to the kitchen, and Rory follows, leaving Jess standing in the foyer. "You have good timing, cause we shopped yesteday, and in addition to a case of Maybelline Fresh Lash mascara..." Jess enters the kitchen where Lorelai is opening the fridge. "I also bought some of that new freaky Coke with the lemon in it. It's very addictive."

Rory looks over a Jess. She could tell her was feeling weird. "You can sit, you know?"

"No, thanks."

"So, Jess, what's new?" Lorelai asks.

"Not much."

"Jess and Luke are looking for an apartment." Rory tells her mom.

"Oh! You guys see anything good yet?"

"Nope."

"You know, there's some really cool places over on Peach, or on Plum. Orange. Basically, any of your fruit named streets are pretty nice." Lorelai chuckles. Lorelai turns around and smiles at Rory before walking back to the table. "Okay, I guess you should get started. Um, there's a ladder right out front and some buckets and gloves and stuff on the porch. If you need anything else just walk against the wind."

Rory was annoyed with Jess because she could tell that her mom was really trying hard and Jess wasn't trying at all. He kept answering Lorelai with one words, but whenever he talked with Rory he said whole sentences. "Come on. I'll show you." Rory says.

Jess walks out the back door and Rory and Lorelai look at eachother. Lorelai shrugs. "I'm trying."

"Keep it up." Rory walks out and goes over to Jess who is looking through the bucket of stuff. "Question."

"Yes?"

"You come over. You seem to have a very firm grasp of the English language. You put together several full sentences using a couple of words that contain two or more syllables. And then my mother appears, and suddenly, we need a thought bubble over your head to understand what you're thinking. Why?" Rory was now very agitated with Jess, and she didn't want to be. She wanted Jess to feel comfortable in her home.

"The verbal thing comes and goes."

"I would really appreciate it if you would try to get along with my mom."

"I took the coke."

"I know."

"Personally, I think it's a little crazy to put lemon in Coke, but I took it anyhow."

Rory sighs in frustration. "Stop it."

"Stern face." Jess teases.

"Look, I went out on a limb for you..." Rory follows Jess down the steps. "..trying to get my mom to give you the benefit of the doubt. Okay? So, I don't think it would hurt you to try to be nice."

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because she's my mom and she's a friend of Luke's."

"So?"

"What do you mean 'so?'"

"Because she's your mom or Luke's friend doesn't mean I have to get along with her."

"Jess, my mother is a great person. She's also my best friend in the world. So if you about me or Lauren at all, you will consider that and be mildly polite to her."

"What makes you think I care about you?"

"I don't mean care, like 'care.' I mean if you like me or my sister at all...not 'like,' like." Rory stutters making Jess smile. "I just meant that if you think of me remotely as the sort of person that you could occasionally stand to talk to then you will try to get along with my mom." Jess just stares at her, making Rory even more annoyed. "You care about Lauren!" She finally yells, growing very frustrated with herself and Jess.

Jess laughs. "Yeah, I do. Whatever. I will. Okay?"

"Okay?"

"I can't guarantee that it'll work, but I'll try."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. I should probably get to work."

"Right. Sorry. Go ahead." Rory turns back around and goes into the house, leaving Jess outside to get started on the gutters.

By the library, Dean is sitting on a stoop, looking very bored, surrounded by all kinds of books when Rory walks over and hands him another one.

"Inherit the Wind. Seventy-five cents." She tells him.

"Great."

Rory sits down next to him. "Now, here's a copy of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet which I already have, but in hardback. This is paperback. It fits perfectly in a coat pocket, and it's only $1. I'm torn. Opinions?"

"Get it."

"You look bored."

"I'm fine."

"You sure you don't want to look? They have great stuff."

"I looked."

"For five minutes."

"No, I looked for twenty minutes, and then I stopped and you continued for another two hours."

Rory smirks and punches him playfully in the arm. "It has not been that long." Dean lifts his arm and shows Rory the time on his watch. "Oh, sorry."

"No big deal."

"Let's go." Rory starts grabbing her books.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah, I've looked enough."

"You're not done." Dean laughs.

"No, I'm fine, really. Let's go."

"Rory, stop it. You want to keep looking. I know you."

"No, I want to hang out with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll just pay for these, and then we can go."

"I thought we could go see The Lord of the Rings again." Dean suggests.

"Oh, okay." Rory says, not really interested.

"What?"

"Nothing." She says, grabbing the rest of her books.

"I thought you loved The Lord of the Rings."

"I do."

"You said you wanted to see it 100 times."

"Yes, and we're being very literal these days."

"Fine. We'll see something else."

"Lord of the Rings is fine. Can you help me with these?" She asks as she walks away and goes over to the register.

"Wow. You made it like a bandit." Gypsy tells her as she looks all the books Rory is carrying.

"Well, you've got great stuff this year." She says while Dean walks up.

"Hey, did you see the astronomy section over there?"

Rory looks over. "Oh, yeah." She says, trying not to look like she wanted to go.

"You didn't find anything?" Gypsy asks a little surprised.

"Nope." Rory lies.

"Wait. I didn't see you look over there." Dean tells her.

"I did."

"Go look."

"I told you, I'm done."

Dean sighs and shakes his head at Rory's stubborness. He then notices Rory's bracelet isn't on her wrist when she picks up her jacket. "Hey, where's your bracelet?"

"What?" Rory looks confused and looks down at her arm.

"You're not wearing your bracelet. Where is it?"

Rory feels around her arm to make sure her bracelet really wasn't there. She never remembered taking it off. "Oh. I took it off." She lies.

"Why?"

"Well, because I got this weird rash on my wrist."

"From the bracelet?"

"No, just a fluke thing. Actually, I think my Spanish midterm gave it to me."

"Oh." Dean breathes out in relief.

"But it's getting better. It's almost gone."

"Good."

"And as soon as it's completely gone, that bracelet goes right back on." Rory says, nervously.

Dean pulls Rory away from the register. "So, uh, compromise."

"What?"

"You go look at the astronomy section, we'll see Lord of the Rings, and on the way home, we'll rent Autumn in New York and mock it for the rest of the afternoon."

"With full on impressions?"

"Yes."

"Deal." Rory smiles. "I just want to see if they have some stuff for Lauren."

"Go. I'll wait here." Dean promises. Rory gives him an unsure look before she goes. "Smiling. Not at all bored."

Rory kisses Dean and quickly runs over to the table.

At Elizabeth's, Lauren and Elizabeth are sitting around the kitchen bar, doing homework, and eating.

"So, it's Saturday." Elizabeth says, looking up at Lauren, curiously.

Lauren continues to write, not taking her eyes off her paper. "Yeah? And?"

Elizabeth throws her pencil down. "It's Saturday, Lauren. Why are we sitting in the house doing homework on a Saturday!?"

Lauren looks up. "Because it's Saturday and there's nothing else to do in Stars Hollow. Plus, we need to finish this paper."

"We can do it tomorrow." Elizabeth takes Lauren's books away before Lauren can write again.

"Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth stands up. "Lauren, let's do something fun. We can finish the paper tomorrow. Hey, my mom won't be home until late tonight. Probably after midnight. Let's go snoop around."

Lauren looks nervously at Elizabeth. "Liz, you know we're not around in your mom's room. If it was my mom's room, sure, yeah, but not your's. Remember when we were little and she caught us in there doing our make-up? She freaked and wouldn't let me come over for days."

Elizabeth rolls her eyes. "Don't be so scared, Lauren. We're older now. And my mom's never around. Please." She begs her best friend.

Lauren thinks about it and smirks. "Let's go." She jumps off the stool and she and Elizabeth run for the stairs.

Back at the house, Lorelai walks into the kitchen and heads straight to the refridgerator. It was getting close to lunch and she was starving. So, she takes out the leftover Chinese food and sets it on the table. She grabs a plate, and starts walking towards the table, but stops when she hears the banging on top of the roof. Lorelai looks down at the plate and figures it may be a good idea to try the whole Jess thing again. Lorelai walks down the side stairs.

"Jess!" She yells. Jess continues to bang the gutters, not hearing Lorelai. She finally comes into his view. "Hey, Jess!" She yells again.

Jess stops and looks at her. "Sorry. Too loud?"

"Oh, no, it's fine. It's just that I got a ton of leftover Chinese food in the kitchen, and I thought you'd like some lunch."

"No, thanks."

"Okay." Lorelai smiles and goes to walk away.

Jess starts to work again, but stops when he remembers what Rory said to him. "Chinese sounds great." He yells, changing his mind.

Lorelai turns back around a bit surprised. "Really?"

"If you're sure you have enough."

"There's plenty." Lorelai chuckles at the thought of not having enough take-out. "We decided to take on the chicken column last night."

"Ambitious."

"Well, it's all out on the table, so come in when you're ready."

"I'm ready now."

"Okay. Then I'll see you inside." Lorelai walks back inside and grabs another plate for Jess. Jess walks in and looks around on the table at the food. "So, basically, everything here is chicken. You've got garlic chicken, Kung Pao chicken, Szechwan chicken, chicken in brown sauce, which looks like the Szechwan chicken except it's got these peppers, and if you eat them, you die. Plate?"

Jess puts his hands up. "I thought I'd..."

"Oh. Soap's on the counter." Lorelai points to the sink.

Jess walks over and starts cleaning his hands. "So, when was the last time you had those gutters cleaned?"

"It's been awhile."

"Yeah, I found an 'I like Ike' bumper sticker up there."

"Is it really bad?"

"It won't be by tomorrow."

Jess dries his hands and walks back over to Lorelai who hands him a plate and a fork. "I like hearing that." She says with a smile.

"So, you guys aren't too hot on vegetables." He notices.

"What are you talking about? There's green peppers in the Kung Pao."

"My mistake."

"So are you a healthy eater like Luke?" Lorelai asks him while they fix their plates.

"No." He says, quickly. "No one's a healthy eater like Luke. Euell Gibbons wasn't a healthy eater like Luke."

"Wow. It's been ages since I heard a good Euell Gibbons reference."

"Many part of the pine tree are edible."

"Right."

"That's right." Lorelai agrees. "Wonder what the research process was like to get that information."

"I'd say fairly painful."

"Here." Lorelai takes Jess' plate and goes put it in the microwave to heat up. "So, how's school?"

Jess sits down. "It's still there."

"You on any teams or anything?"

Jess shakes his head. "No. No. No."

Lorelai sits down next to him and laughs. "Not a jersery guy?"

"Definitely not a jersey guy. Though the thought of throwing a ball at some jock's head isn't entirely unappealing." They stay quiet for a few seconds. "Look, I'm not really good at this small-talk thing." Jess says, honestly.

Lorelai shrugs. "You're doing okay."

Jess smirks and just looks on, waiting for his food, but then a hysterical Rory burst through the front door. "Mom!" She yells.

Lorelai looks up in worry at her daughter's screams. "Right here. What?" She asks, as she quickly makes her way over to her daughter. Rory is in the foyer looking through all the coat pockets that are hanging up.

"Mom!" Rory yells again.

Lorelai runs over. "What's going on?"

"I don't know where it is." Rory tells her, panicking.

"What?"

"My bracelet. It's gone."

"What are you talking about?"

Rory runs into the living room. "How could I lose my bracelet?" She says, not believing that she went this long without noticing.

Lorelai follows her. "Honey, tell me which bracelet. Maybe I stole it from you, or Lauren. You know how she likes to take your stuff."

"Dean's bracelet."

"The one he made you?"

"Yes."

"It's gone? Where?"

"I don't know where." Rory says, flinging her arms dramatically as she searches some more. "If I knew where, I would have it.

"Well, when did you first notice it was gone?"

"When he pointed out I wasn't wearing it."

Lorelai gasps. "What did you say?"

"That I had a rash and had to take it off until it healed."

Lorelai watches as Rory looks through all the cushions of each chair and the couch. "Nice save, Gretzky."

"It's not here. It's not here!"

"Okay. Let's retrace your steps. When was the last time you remember wearing it?"

Rory tries to think. "Um..I don't know."

"Think hard. Yesterday?"

"I don't know." Rory repeats.

"The day before?"

"I don't know."

"The day before that?"

"Yeah."

"Really!?"

"No. I don't remember. I can't remember. Help me move the couch."

Lorelai follows Rory to the couch and they push it back. "What about your locker at school?"

"I don't know why it would be there. I never take it off at school. I never take it off at all."

"Anything?"

"Just Grandma's pen." She picks up.

"Leave it there."

"Why?"

"It makes like fun."

They stand back up. "I'm gonna freak out." Rory whines.

"We'll find it." Lorelai assures her.

"I'm going to have to tell Dean that I lost it."

"Let's not go there yet."

"He made it for me."

"He'll make another one."

"But he's going to be mad."

"He'll understand."

"How do you know?"

"Um, looking at the track record all signs point to it. Did you look in your room?"

"No." Rory runs towards her room.

"I'll check the car, and don't worry. If worst comes worst, and we can't find it, we'll follow Dean to work, hide behind the cantaloupes..." Lorelai walks to the front door and grabs her jacket. "...jump him, blind him, and he'll never find out."

"As long as we have a plan!" Rory yells.

Outside, Lorelai runs out. Jess is standing on the side of the house, still working on the gutters when he watches Lorelai search the car.

Back at Elizabeth's, Lauren and Elizabeth are up in Liz's mom's room, snooping around. Elizabeth sits down on the floor and opens up her mom's nightstand. From across the room, Lauren looks at her friend with a worried look.

"I don't think you should be going through that." Lauren tells her.

Elizabeth rolls her eyes and opens the drawer anyway. "It's fine. She'll never find out." Elizabeth pulls out random stuff, a book, some pens, paper, a notebook, calendar, and..."Oh, hey, some mints." She says showing Lauren. Lauren runs over and sits down next to Elizabeth, while Elizabeth hands her a mint. "She has nothing good in here. I'm going to check the closets." Elizabeth stands up and runs to her mom's closet, leaving Lauren sitting there looking at all the stuff Liz dragged out. She picks up the bottle that the 'mints' came out of and starts reading it.

"Oh, no." She whispers with wide eyes.

At the Inn, Lorelai wasn't due to be at work, but she wanted to help her daughter out so she went to look for the bracelet. Lorelai is at the front desk, on the floor, looking all around, with Michel standing above her.

"What is this?" He asks, looking through the mail.

"Let me see." Michel puts the envelope closer to her. "Maintenance."

"Are you going to be down there long?"

"Uh, I just want to make sure Rory's bracelet didn't get kicked behind something."

"And so earlier when you asked me to look for the bracelet and I told you I did look, and I did not find it, you..."

"Just decided to double-check." Lorelai tells him.

"Yes, though another theory is that you did not believe me."

"I did, too."

"No, I believe you thought I was lying, that I did not actually get down on my hands and knees in a brand new Donna Karan suit and crawl around on a floor where people who have stepped in mud and garbage and animal waste have been traipsing all day long."

Lorelai pops up. "It's not there." She sighs.

"No? Why, I'm shocked."

"Okay. I'm sorry I doubted you, Michel."

"Well, that means a lot. Thank you." He says, sarcastically.

"We turned the house upside down. Rory's having a heatattack. It's awful." Lorelai says.

"Yeah, well, as soon as my dry clearning bill is paid, you will have my sympathies."

"I will pay for your suit, Michel."

The phone rings and Michel picks it up. "Independence Inn." He answers. "Hold on, please." Michel hands the phone to Lorelai. "It's for you."

Lorelai takes it. "Lorelai here."

"I don't want a wood-burning fireplace." Luke tells her.

"Luke?"

"But if I take an apartment with one, even though I could give a rat's ass about it I have to pay an extra $200 a month for it."

"Yeah, but..."

"And three of the places make you put down a $500 deposit if you have a dog! Can you believe that!?"

"You don't have a dog." Lorelai reminds him.

"I know, but it's wrong."

"Agreed. What else?" Lorelai asks, playing along.

"Parking!" He yells. "How can people ask you for a monthly fee for a parking space? I mean, they're making money off your rent, your utilities, when you use their coin-operated washer and dryer. That's cash directly in their pocket. And it's not even that good of a parking space. It's out in the open under one of those trees that drop the sap on your car that eats away the paint."

"Luke?"

"Who's gonna pay for my car?" He continues on complaining, clearly not listening to Lorelai. "Where's my $500 paint-killing, tree-sap deposit?"

"You haven't found a place yet?" She guesses.

"And I've been looking all day."

"There wasn't one place you liked?"

"No."

"Not one place that gave you a little feeling of: 'Huh. That has a nice vibe about it.'"

"I don't use the word 'vibe.'"

"Luke."

Luke lets out a big sigh. "Maybe one place wasn't so bad."

"Oh, good! Describe it to me."

"I don't know. It had walls with a kind of a floor with a light." He explains.

"Okay. Hold on here. If you tell me it's got a roof I'm stealing that baby from you." She jokes.

"I just can't tell anymore. I need a second opinion."

"You want me to come look at your apartment?"

"It's not my apartment, and yes."

"Done." Lorelai smiles.

"Now."

"What?"

"Please." Luke begs her. "I promised the woman I'd give her an answer today."

"Okay, give me the address."

"62 1/2, B Street, and that's another thing, what's with this 'half' business? Why do all these apartment have this 'half' thing going? It's stupid. If 62 is taken, move on to 63."

"Luke, I'll meet you there in twenty and a half minutes."

"Thank you."

"Bye."

At Elizabeth's, Lauren is standing the kitchen, panicking. She is walking back and forth while Elizabeth just stands there watching her.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe this. I can't believe this." Lauren repeats over and over again.

Elizabeth shrugs. "Look, I didn't know they weren't mints. They looked like mints. Did they taste like mints?"

Lauren glares at her friend. "Of course they did, or I wouldn't have ate them. Why didn't you eat one?"

"I didn't want it." She says, simply.

"What am I going to do?" Lauren groans. "My mom is going to kill me. Your mom is going to kill me!"

"Look, your sister will be here in a few minutes. She'll be able to tell us what you took and if it'll hurt you."

"That isn't helping the situation, Elizabeth!" Lauren was angry. She was so mad that she couldn't even control herself right now. The doorbell rings, and Lauren doesn't hesitate to answer it. She runs and opens the door to find her big sister standing there.

"Hey, we need to go. I need your help to find my bracelet." Rory tells her.

Lauren looks at her in confusion. "You lost Dean's bracelet?"

"Yes." Rory says, clearly still annoyed at this whole thing. "Come on."

"Rory, I can't. I need your help first." Lauren says, on the verge of tears.

Elizabeth steps into Rory's few, looking scared. Rory notices and then looks back at her sister, rolling her eyes. "What did you two do now?" Lauren takes her sister's hand and pulls her while they run upstairs, back into Elizabeth's mom's room. "Why are we in Liz's mom's room?" Rory asks, as she looks around.

Lauren runs to the nightstand and takes out a bottle. "I need you tell me what these are." Lauren says, as she shows Rory.

Rory takes them out of her sister's hand and starts reading the bottle. "Nicotine pills. They are suppose to help you quit smoking. Why am I looking at these?" Rory looks back up at her sister's worried and scared face. "Lauren?"

"I took one." Lauren admits.

Rory's eyes widen. "You, what!?" She yells.

"Elizabeth just wanted to snoop around, so we did, and came up to her mom's room. Elizabeth started digging in the nightstand. I didn't know what they were. Elizabeth said they were mints and we just opened it without looking to see what they were and I ate one. Not Elizabeth. Just me. What are we going to do? Am I going to die!?" Lauren was not hysterical.

"I'm so sorry, Rory. I didn't know." Elizabeth says from behind them.

Rory take a deep breath and tries to think. "Lauren, you aren't going to die. You are just going to be able to stop moving because that's an affect they have on people."

"So, what? I'm going to feel like this all day?" Lauren asks.

Rory shakes her head. "Not all day. It'll eventually wear off. Why did you take this without looking at it first? You are twelve years-old, Lauren, you're not a little kid anymore. Be smarter."

"I didn't know, Rory, okay!?" Lauren yells. "And your yelling at me isn't making me feel better!"

"We have to tell Mom."

"No!" Lauren and Elizabeth both yell at the same time. "You can't tell, Mom, Rory. She'll kill me."

"Yeah, and she'll kill me if she finds out and I didn't tell her. We have to, Lauren." Rory puts the bottle back into the drawer and closes it. "Come on." She grabs her sister's hand, forcing her out of the room.

"Rory." Lauren says, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. She looks at her sister with worried eyes. Rory knew her little sister was scared, and right now she had to make sure she knew that it was all going to be okay. "You're going to be fine. I promise. We have to go, though." Rory opens the door and she and Lauren walk out, leaving a lonely Elizabeth alone once again.

At the apartment complex that Luke ended up liking. The realtor is showing Luke and Lorelai both around.

"It's a very quiet street and the owner keeps the building up beautifully." The realtor tells them as she shows them around. He hasn't remodeled it at all. Plus, I bet he could be persuaded to give the floor a little spruce if you like."

Lorelai smiles. "Oh, yeah, we'd like spruce."

"Spruce is unnescessary." Luke says, from behind her.

"Hey, you never turn down a spruce."

"She's right." The realtor laughs. "Listen to her."

"Yeah, listen to me."

Luke glares at her. "You rarely give me a choice."

"Come here so I can lick your face." Lorelai jokes.

"What?"

They follows the realtor across the room. "Now, I went over the square footage and the details of the lease with your husband this morning. Did he fill you in?"

"What? No-" Luke starts, but Lorelai grabs him, shutting him up.

"He didn't, but you know how men are." Lorelai laughs, playing along. Luke looks down, rolling his eyes, as Lorelai smiles at him. "The minute that ball game comes on all the realities of life just go right out the window."

"Don't I know it." The realtor laughs.

"I mean, I could answer the door wrapped in cellophane, but unless I was wearing a Yankees cap, he wouldn't even notice."

Luke shakes his head. "Geez." He groans.

"Oh, don't be embarrassed, snuffy. I'm just teasing. It'd be a Mets cap." Lorelai playfully flirts.

Feeling awkward enough, Luke tried to hurry this thing along. "Uh, Mary, could you possibly leave me and little missus alone for just a minute?"

"Of course."

"I promise we won't do anything dirty." Lorelai giggles as she pokes at Luke's face.

"Oh, please. If my husband and I looked anything like the two of you we'd never get dressed."

"Oh, you are bad!" Lorelai laughs as the realtor walks out. Luke jumps back away from Lorelai's touch. "Oh! Thirteen shades of red!"

"What is wrong with you?" Luke asks, fuming.

"You make it too easy."

"By standing here?"

"Oh, relax, snuffy. What do you think?" Lorelai asks, while she looks around the room.

"I don't know." Luke groans as he looks around, too.

"Okay, then. Break it down. List your concerns."

"Well, it's too big."

"It's not too big. Next."

"I don't need two bathrooms."

"Yes, you do. Next."

"I like being on the bottom floor."

"Top floor's quieter. Next."

"You know, some how I think this would be easier if you listed your concerns first."

Lorelai smiles, agreeing. "Okay. Um...I don't have any. It's great."

"You do?"

"Yeah, it's light and airy, it's got good windows, but not too many so that the sun bakes you in the afternoon."

"Thank you."

"It's close to work, the price is good, you're taking the spruce, and it's a two year lease. What's two years?"

"I don't know." He says, unsure.

"You need to do this. You and Jess will kill eachother in your place."

"Yeah, but who knows how long he's gonna be there?"

Lorelai looks concerned. "Why? Did something happen?"

"No, but you never know."

"No, you don't. I think his mom sending his stuff is a pretty good sign."

"And even if he does stay it'll only be for another year and then he'll go off to college or Attica, and it'll just be me again. I'll be stuck in a new apartment, probably with neighbors I hate who are constantly cooking really strong smelling food."

"Okay. Back up here. Yes, Jess may go off somewhere someday, but that doesn't mean you will be along forever."

"I am not getting a pet."

"I'm talking about a lady friend."

"Oh."

"A red-hot mama."

"Okay."

"Big, pretty dish of loving with a spoon made especially for you." Lorelai teases some more.

"Boy, do I not feel good now."

"Luke, Rachel's not the only woman in the world for you. You'll meet someone someday, probably at a Timberland store. You'll ask her out, you'll pick her up take her on a patented 'Luke Danes night of romance.' Juice bar, then the batting cages, and then you'll ask her back to your apartment."

"Any amount of money if you stop now."

But Lorelai contiues on. "You'll bring her back to your place, lead her upstairs to the apartment door. You pause, gace into her eyes. The stage is set. Fate is waiting." Luke glares at Lorelai. "You open the door, and she sees your teeny, tiny apartment, one room and no closet space, and Jess' feet sticking up in the air cause you never did get rid of the body-"

"Stop, please." He begs.

"And to make matters worse, she spots it..the single bed!"

"What's wrong with a single bed?"

"You know what they say."

"What?"

"Never, ever date a guy who owns a single bed. It means he's not open to a commitment. It says, 'There's no room in this life for anybody else.'"

"No, it says, 'There's no room in this bed for anybody else but me."

"Okay, see, that's not much better."

"This discussion is over."

"Luke, as long as you're in that apartment, you'll have a single bed. Don't you want the possibility of more?" Luke was standing there, quiet. He was actually taking everything Lorelai was saying in, but he didn't want to do it. "Come on, Luke, it's time. Make a move, take a shot. Entertain the possibility of a non- Unabomber existence. What do you say?"

"You got a pen?"

"Of course." Lorelai digs in her purse and hands Luke the pen. "I'm not taking the spruce."

"Yes, you are."

Back at the house, Lorelai finally walks in, feeling so tired from all the events that happened so fast that day just to be hit with another when she finds Jess walking out of Rory's room. Jess stops and locks eyes with a confused Lorelai.

"Hey." She says, looking into Rory's room.

"Hey." Jess says back.

"Did you get lost?"

"No, I was looking for Rory's books."

"Uh-huh." Lorelai was not believing a word.

"I wanted to see if she had Franny and Zooey. She does." He confirms.

"Okay."

"I was gonna get it for her if she didn't."

"That's very nice of you."

"Yeah." They stand there a few more seconds just looking at eachother. "Okay. I should probably get back to work." Lorelai just nods her head, suspiciously, as Jess walks out of the kitchen door and into the backyard to continue cleaning. Lorelai peeks into Rory's room to make sure nothing is out of place.

Later that day, Jess is walking down from the ladder as Rory and Lauren walk up. Rory was looking very depressed about this whole bracelet thing, while Lauren just couldn't stop moving.

"You look good." He says, sarcastically to Rory.

"I'm fine." She lies. "Lauren, go in the house."

Lauren groans and looks at Jess. "Bye, Jess." She waves before running into the house.

"Talk." Jess orders Rory while they both sit down on the steps.

"I lost my bracelet." Rory tells him.

"Uh-huh."

"Dean gave it to me."

"How thoughtful."

"I've been all over town looking for it. I've been to Lane's, I've been to Luke's, I've been to the bus stop, I've been to Miss. Patty's, and I've circled Stars Hollow twice, and nothing. I don't know what I'm going to do."

"It's really that big a deal?" Jess asks, curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I know it's got an 'I've been pinned, Bye Bye Birdie' kinda of implication to it, but it was just a bracelet."

"I don't think Dean will see it that way."

"You didn't lost it on purpose."

"I know, but things have been a little weird between us lately and you couldn't care less." Rory says, realizing who she was talking to.

"Oh, yes, I could."

Rory takes a deep breath. "I just think Dean will read something into this."

"Should he?"

"No."

"I think you should keep looking."

"Where?" Rory says, thinking about of all the places she had already looked.

"Anywhere. Things you lose are usually right in front of your face. Check the house again."

"I've checked the house."

"I'ts probably laying in your room."

"No. I tore that room apart. It's not there."

"Fine. Give up. No biggie." Jess says, not really caring anymore. "Dean will just have to get over it."

Rory sighs, thinking maybe Jess is right. Maybe she was just overlooking it. "I'll go look again." She gets up and walks inside.

Lorelai is sitting on the couch, reading a magazine when Rory walks in. "Hey, can you please explain the spastic twelve year-old I have that just ran through this house, tripping on her own two feet to get to her room. I get no hi. I get no bye. I just get confused."

Rory closes her eyes remembering what happened at Elizabeth's. "Oh. Uh, Mom, I have to tell you something."

Lorelai turns around and sits up straight to face Rory, who walks further into the room. "What's wrong?"

Rory looked at her mother's concerned face which she knew would quickly turn into anger. "Okay, well, Lauren is going to be really mad at me for telling you this."

Lorelai grimaces. "Oh, no. What did they do now?"

Rory takes a seat in front of her mom. "Lauren really should be telling you this, but she is in no condition to. Okay, it was an accident. Let me just start there. She and Elizabeth decided to be nosey, considering Elizabeth's mom is gone, and, well, they went up to Elizabeth's mom's room."

"Did they get in trouble with her?" Lorelai asks.

Rory shakes her head. "Not exactly. While they were snooping around her room, Elizabeth came across a bottle filled with some pills. They thought it was mints, so Liz handed Lauren one. She didn't think anything of it and took it. It was a nicotine pill."

Lorelai gasps. "What!?"

Lorelai stands up to go upstairs. Rory grabs her mom's arm to stop her so that she could finish. "She only took one. And the side affects are going to make her just really anxious, which you can already tell. She is really upset about it, and scared."

"Elizabeth?" Lorelai questions.

"No. It was just Lauren."

Lorelai sighs and looks up the stairs. "I better go talk to her."

"Okay. I'm gonna go check my room again."

"Haven't you already looked in there 1,000 times?" Lorelai asks as she climbs the stairs.

"A thousand and one."

Upstairs, Lauren is walking back and forth in her room. She was really scared about what was about to happen when Rory told her mom. She hadn't heard her mom yell, yet, so that was a good sign. Lauren knew her mom was going to be angry, with not only her, but with Elizabeth, too. Lauren jumps when she hears the knock on her door. It opens and Lorelai pokes her head in. Lorelai sees the tear stains on Lauren's face and knew instantly that her daughter was feeling really bad.

"Hey." Lorelai says as she walks in.

"Hey." Lauren says back looking deep into her mom's bright blue eyes that once look so of life and happiness but now were filled with worry and concern. "Mom.."

Lorelai holds her hand up for Lauren to stop talking. "Sit." She says, pointing to bed before she sits on it.

Lauren hesitates for a second before she moves quickly to sit by her mom. "I didn't..."

"Stop, Lauren. I know you didn't mean it." Lorelai says, sympathically. "You don't mean to do a lot of things and half of them aren't even your fault to begin with."

"Mom, don't blame Elizabeth. She didn't know." Lauren begs as her tears start to fall again. "I didn't read the label, and neither did she. We didn't know."

"First off, you should have been in her mom's room anyway. If you guys want to snoop around, please, come snoop in my room, but good luck finding your way out."

"I didn't want to do it." Lauren says, looking away. "I told her it was a bad idea, but she said it would be fine."

"Do you know how serious this all could have turned out if you had took more than one, or it could have been something worse than that. Lauren, I don't want to live this life without you." Lorelai says, looking very serious at her younger daughter, who was avoiding her mom because she was embarrassed.

"I know." Lauren nods.

"I should be yelling at you right now."

"Then why aren't you?" Lauren asks, looking back up at her mom.

"Because I'm not that kind of mom. I understand that you didn't know, and you're only twelve. You are going to make mistakes, but, Lauren, I don't think I can handle this anymore."

Lauren had never heard her mom say that before and it was kinda scaring her. "What are you talking about?"

Lorelai knew what she was about to say was going to hurt her daughter. Shatter her little heart to pieces. But it was something she had to do. At least, for right now. "Lauren, you're not allowed to see Elizabeth anymore. At least not for a very long time."

Lauren jumps up with anger. "What!? Are you kidding me? Mom!"

"Lauren, you both get into too much trouble, and it's always Elizabeth's brilliant/stupid ideas that get you in trouble. Look, I know her mom isn't around much, but I will be calling her to tell her what happened today. She needs to know so that she can hide those pills."

Lauren couldn't believe what she was saying. The pill was actually doing what Rory told her it was going to do and she could feel her heart beating like crazy. "Mom, you can't do this!" She yells. "Elizabeth is my best friend! I am all she has!"

"Then you both are just going to have to hang out with some other people."

"I hate you!" Lauren yells, scaring her mother. Lorelai had never heard those words come out of either daughters mouth until now. And, of course, it was her easy-going, wild child, outgoing Lauren.

Lorelai decided to not yell back, but instead take a breath. She knew Lauren didn't mean it. She knew it was just pill running its course, but it still hurt. "I'm sorry you feel that way." Lorelai says, while she gets up and walks to the bedroom door. "When you want to talk some more, I'll be downstairs."

"I don't ever want to talk to you ever again!" Lauren yells just as Lorelai shuts the door.

Lauren falls to the floor, crying hysterically. Outside, Lorelai leans on the bedroom door, listening to her baby girl's cries. Just knowing that she caused that hurt like hell, but she had to. She had to make Lauren see what she was seeing. She needed Lauren to fix herself before she ended up turning out like her.

"Mom!" Rory yells from downstairs. "Come here! Hurry!"

Lorelai stands up straighter and runs to the stairs. "Rory?" She calls back. "Are you okay?"

"Mom!"

Lorelai runs downstairs and runs to Rory's room. "What? What?"

Rory holds up her bracelet excitingly. "I found it!" She tells her. "I looked under the bed, and there it was. I thought I had looked under the bed, but I don't know, maybe I was too panicked. Or, I don't know. Who cares? I got it!"

Lorelai smiles for her daughter. At least one of them were happy. "That is amazing." Rory gives her mom the bracelet.

"Put it on. Make it tight."

"Oh, I'm cutting off circulation here, baby."

Rory looks at it on her wrist. "Ooh. Look at it. It looks even better than before."

"I think the time away from home did it good."

Rory changes her expression to concern as she looks at her mother. "I heard yelling. Is everything okay?"

Lorelai sighs remembering her youngest upstairs crying her eyes out. "It will be. I banned her from seeing Elizabeth."

"You banned her?" Rory asks, surprised. "But Elizabeth is her best friend."

"Yeah, I know. It killed me doing it, but I knew I had to. Lauren has been getting into too much trouble. I need them both to take a break from eachother for awhile. Figure out some things. It might do them some good." Lorelai hopes. "She told me she hates me." Lorelai says, sadly.

"You know she didn't mean it." Rory says, quickly to reassure her mother.

"Yeah, I know." Lorelai nods. "But it still hurt."

"Okay, I am going tell Lane she can stop praying." Rory says running out of her room.

Lorelai laughs and smiles lovingly at her daughter as she watches her go. She then looks outside and sees Jess cleaning up his mess. She knew the bracelet didn't just appear. Jess had to have something to do with it. So, Lorelai leaves Rory's room and heads outside to confront him.

"Leaving?" She asks, when she sees him packing up.

"Yeah, all done." Jess tells her.

"You weren't gonna come get your money?"

"I figured I'd get it eventually." He says, as Lorelai meets him down the steps. "It's not like I don't know where you guys live."

"Huh. That's true. You certainly do know where we live. Well, here." Lorelai holds out the money for him to take. "After all, you earned it."

"Thanks."

"You took it, didn't you?" Lorelai asks before Jess could walk any further.

"Excuse me?"

"Rory's bracelet. You had it the whole time."

"No idea what you're talking about." Jess lies.

"How'd you get it?"

"I didn't get anything."

"What? Did you break into our house? You got all dressed in black and pulled Mission: Impossible?"

"Actually, I came down the chimey and pulled a Santa Claus." Jess jokes.

"Very funny." Lorelai says, not amused.

"A ridiculous accusation deserved such a response."

"So it's just a coincidence I catch you coming out of Rory's room a half an hour before she mysteriously find the bracelet under her bed?"

"Guess so."

"Why would you do this?" Lorelais asks with disgust.

"I gotta go."

"I mean, I know you hate the world, but I thought you liked Rory."

"I didn't do anything."

"Bull."

"Whatever."

"Oh, don't you 'whatever' me, you jerk. You let Rory run around completely panicked thinking she lost the bracelet. She was miserable. Understand that?"

"I didn't take the bracelet!"

"You're jealous of Dean because he's great and Rory's madly in love with him." Lorelai assumes. "But you taking the bracelet didn't hurt Dean, it hurt Rory. That bracelet is the most precious thing she owns. She never takes it off. It means everything to her. And you stealing it was unbelievably cruel."

"The most precious thing she owns?" Jess asks.

"Yes!"

"If it's the most precious thing she owns why did it take her two weeks to figure out it was gone?" Lorelai is taken back by that. "You might want to reevaluate how madly in love she is. I wouldn't start calling him 'son' yet."

"Get out of here."

"You read my mind." Jess turns around and storms out of the yard while Lorelai does the same, going into her own house. They were both angry. Angry about a lot things, and angry about everything. This whole day has been a whole big mess. Lorelai knew she should have never agreed to help Jess.

Suddenly there is a knock on her front door and Lorelai is turning around to open her door once again. This time it's Luke yelling at her.

"I just spent $100,000, and it's all your fault!"

Luke walks passed and Lorelai closes the door, not looking surprised at all that she was being blamed for something once again. "Good." She says, sarcastically before following an angry Luke into the kitchen.

"I ran into Taylor at the market. And I found out he owns the building that apartment was in."

"No way!"

"That and several others in town."

"So weird."

"He's systematically buying up the town." Luke stresses dramatically. "He'll turn it into Taylorville, where everything wears cardigans and have the same grass heigh."

"Do you want to sit?" Lorelai asks Luke, considering he was hysterical and kinda acting crazy like Lauren was not too long ago.

Ignoring Lorelai, Luke rambles on. "And the nhe said he'll buy the building next to the diner and turn it into a plate shop for freaks who don't have the brainpower to collect stamps! And then I lost it!"

"I can't picture it."

"I walked around in a blind rage. I was crazy. I bought a Belgian waffle with ice cream dipped in chocolate."

"You ate that?" Lorelai asks, stunned.

"No, I didn't eat it. I'm upset, not suicidal. I just had to do something. I had your voice going around in my head."

Lorelai chuckles. "Yeah, it's kinda like the Small World song."

"'Take a chance, Luke. Make a move. Can't have a single bed.' So I bought the building!"

"You what?"

"I went to the bank, got a cashier's check, signed the papers, and I bought the building."

"Wow..."

"I own the building!"

"Okay, don't worry, you can still get out of it." Lorelai assures him so he'll calm down to figure it out. "You can tell them you lost your mind. Or I bet you could sell it to Taylor."

"Yeah.."

"So, relax. You can still get out of this, unless you don't want to get out of this." Lorelai says, a little unsure.

"No, I want to get out of this. Why would I not want to get out of this?"

Lorelai shrugs trying to think of some good reasons. "Owning that building gives you some options."

Luke suddenly becomes interested and calms down, getting closer to Lorelai for her explain. "Like?"

"Like you can expand Luke's if you wanted to. Or you could rent it to someone else. Someone else who might drive Taylor crazy."

"Maybe I should think about this."

"Sure, sleep on it."

"Right."

"Do you want some tea?" Lorelai asks as Luke sits down at the table.

"Tea's good. Sure. Yeah."

Lorelai starts heating up the stove as Luke cools down. She smiles over at him. "Hey, Luke, um, does Jess every talk to you about Rory?" She asks, curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. They just seem to be thrown together quite a lot lately. And I was trying to figure out if that's a coincidence-"

"Or if there's something going on? I don't know. Jess doesn't exactly confide in me."

"Right."

"If there was something going on, I think it'd it be great."

Lorelai looks surprised. "You do?" She asks.

"Yeah! Rory's a great kid. She'd be really good for Jess."

"Oh, yeah she would." Lorelai agrees hesitantly.

"You think there may be something going on?"

"I don't know." Lorelai says, quickly.

"Huh." Luke leans forward, thinking about it. "Boy, that would be great."

"Yeah." Lorelai smiles. "Great." She really didn't think it was a great idea at all. She was actually scared of it, but she would never admit that to Luke. Now, Lorelai had to watch both her girls protectively.

Back at Luke's apartment above his diner. He storms with a satisfied look on his face. There is music blaring and Jess is sitting on his bed reading a book when Luke walks passed him and over to his closet. Jess sighs because of all the noise Luke is making and decides to turn around to see what he was doing. He watches Luke take out a sledgehammer. Jess gets up, quickly, and follows Luke to the other side of the apartment. With no second thoughts, Luke pulls the hammer back and slams it right into the wall, making a huge hole. He turns to Jess and smiles.

"That's your room. Finish up. We'll hold hand and skip afterwards." He repeats the sarcasm Jess had told him earlier that day before walking out and slamming the door behind him causing dust and more of the wall to fall down on the floor at Jess' feet.

What a wonderful world.


	35. Crazy Girls

At the diner, Luke is underconstruction to make his apartment above bigger, which is also making the diner look like it was underconstruction also since everything above kept calling down below. Luke is walking through the diner, angier than normal, when Lorelai and Rory walk in and sit down.

"Geez. This place is a mess." Lorelai says as she looks around.

Luke hurries and runs over to them. "Nope. You can't sit here." He tells them.

"Why not?"

"Three people got nailed in the head here earlier."

"Their food was okay, right?"

"Will you just move?" Lorelai's phone starts ringing. "Outside." He orders her.

Lorelai looks through her purse for her phone. "You know, if I sit here one more second I just might be outside." Luke walks away. Lorelai picks up her phone. "Order me some coffee." She tells Rory before getting up and going outside.

Jess walks in wearing a hardhat and holding an umbrella. He goes over to Rory and hold it above her head. Luke looks up, not amused. "You are really funny." He says, sarcastically. "You and Tom should put an act together." Jess ignores Luke and continues working. "I'd leave it open." Luke tells Rory.

"Alright, Mom. I can hear you now." Lorelai says, from outside.

"I wanted to know if you'd like a gift certificate for a weekend at the Birchgrove Spa." Emily asks her daughter.

"Are you serious?"

"I bid on it at the DAR Symphony Fundraiser, and I won." Emily says, proudly.

"It's supposed to be an amazing place. Why don't you go?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, I've never had any real desire to go to a spa."

"Then why'd you bid on it?"

"For charity. I had to bid on something. And I certainly didn't want another portrait of George Washington. I've got four in the attic already."

Lorelai smiles, gratefully. "I'd love it."

"Good."

"Two days ot total mind-numbing pampering. Massages, facials, aromatherapy." Lorelai names.

"My goodness. You make it sound like Heaven." Emily smiles as she listens to her daughter ramble about the spa.

"It's the closest you'll ever come to being a dog."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know, a whole life of nothing but eating, sleeping, lying on your back and getting rubbed." Lorelai explains.

"I'd love the comparison to stop there."

"So, when's it for?"

"This weekend, actually."

Lorelai gasps. "Oh, well, I'll be there!"

Emily thinks for a second. "So will I." She says, surprising Lorelai.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, the certificate is for two. And since you make it sound like the most wonderful place in the world I might as well try it with you."

Oh, but-"

"That's alright, isn't it, if I join you?" Emily asks.

Lorelai wanted to say no, but she knew she'd just hurt her mother's feelings. Why couldn't she just be nonchalant about the whole thing? "No, I don't mind at all." Lorelai lies.

"Wonderful. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning. You know, I'm actually looking forward to this."

Lorelai puts on a fake smile. "Oh, yeah, me, too. Thanks, Mom. Bye-bye." Lorelai hangs up and sighs. Lorelai walks back into the diner and sits next to Rory who still has the umbrella hanging above her head. "I'm going to spa with my mother." Lorelai says, unenthusiastically.

Rory just looks at her. "Lean forward." She motions Lorelai, who leans in under the umbrella just as dry wall falls from the ceiling and on top the umbrella.

The next day, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are in Lorelai's room while Lorelai is on the phone, Rory is packing her mom's stuff, and Lauren is just laying on the bed watching her sister. Lauren was still upset with her mom. She'd try to not go anywhere with Lorelai so that she doesn't give her any satisfaction. Of course, Lauren hated being mad at her mom, and she knew her mom just wanted Elizabeth and her to take a break from eachother, but they have been best friends since they were five years old. It's kinda hard to take a break when you've never taken a break before. So, needless to say, Lauren was pretty happy that her mom was going away for the weekend especially with her grandma. Her mom would be miserable just like she's been the last week.

"So, we're all set up? Great. Thanks so much for your help." Lorelai says, over the phone before she hangs up. "Yess." Lorelai says, evily.

"That was an evil 'yes.'" Rory says.

"Not an evil 'yes.' It's a 'yes, I'm pretty, but, hello, I'm smart.' kind of 'yes.'" Lorelai explains.

"Oh, my mistake."

"So here's the deal. I go into my facial just as my mother is finishing her Salt Glow which'll end ten minutes after I've hit my scalp treatment which puts me in the Watsu massage pool six minute into her back facial. The day is so well planned, I won't see her until dinner, which'll be cut short by the food poisoning I plan to contract."

"You are twelve and disgusting."

"I am trapped and desperate."

"You really think you can avoid Grandma the entire weekend?" Lauren asks her mom.

"Hey, I'm nothing if not a great organizer. Now, let's talk about what you girls are gonna do tonight. Throwing a party, I hope." Lorelai smirks. "Inviting hundreds of bikers and lowlifes who are gonna trash the place."

"I am going to do laundry, watch TV, order Indian food, and go to bed early." Rory tells her.

Lorelai smiles and nods her head perfusely as she looks at Lauren. "And then come the bikers and lowlifes who are gonna trash the place?"

"Absolutely." Lauren smiles at her mom.

"I may even fall asleep on couch with the TV on." Rory continues.

Lorelai points to Lauren. "Good child." Then she points to Rory. "Boring child. Where did I go wrong?"

"Somewhere between 1990 and now." Lauren says, sarcastically.

Lorelai glares at her youngest. "Hush. Rory, you have to do something bad when Mommy's out of town. It's the law. You've seen Risky Business, right? Now, I'm not asking for a prostitution ring but how about a floating craps game or something?"

"I'll see what I can do." Rory tells her, while zipping up her mom's luggage.

"I'd greatly appreciate it."

A horn goes off outside. Lauren jumps out the bed and runs to the window. "Grandma's here." Lorelai and Rory walk up behind her. "Cool! A limo!" Lauren runs out the room.

Lorelai rolls her eyes and follows her daughters outside. "What are we going to the prom?" Lorelai asks Emily as she and her girls walk towards the limo.

"I just thought since this weekend is all about relaxing we should start with the ride." Emily tells her.

"This is cool, Grandma." Lauren says, while looking inside the car with her sister.

"Thank you, Lauren. So are we all ready to go?"

"I guess so, Miss Daisy." Lorelai jokes. "Bye my sweets." Lorelai kisses both her daughters on their cheeks.

"Bye. Bye, Grandma." Rory says.

"Goodbye, Rory."

Emily gets in the car. "Bikers and lowlifes." Lorelai tells her daughters before getting in.

"I'll get right on it." Rory tells her.

At school, Lauren is sitting in class, not really paying attention to the teacher. She has her head down and is scribbling in her notebook when a note gets tossed on her desk. She looks around, not seeing anyone looking her way, so she opens it and realizes that it's Elizabeth's handwriting. She looks at Elizabeth who is sitting on the far side of her, and she is looking at Lauren. Lauren turns back to the note and reads it. _'I know it's just been a week, but I miss my best friend." _Lauren writes back then tosses it back to Liz, who opens it quickly. _'Yeah, I know. I miss you, too. My mom is wigging out for no reason. But, I know I'm totally going to get killed if anyone finds out, but my mom is gone for the weekend with my grandma. It's just me and Rory." _Elizabeth writes back and tosses it back to Lauren, who opens it. _"So, are you saying what I think you're a saying?" _Elizabeth writes and tosses it back to Lauren. Lauren smiles when she reads it. _'Yeah. Rory is going to be busy doing her own thing. That's the good thing about having my room upstairs, no one ever goes up there unless they need something. I can sneak out the window. Rory will never know." _Lauren writes and tosses it back. When Elizabeth reads it she looks at Lauren with wide eyes. _'I've never seen you like this before. Are you sure you are willing to risk it?" _Elizabeth tosses it back to Lauren. _'And we never thought my mom was one of those moms to banned me from my best friend. I guess us Gilmores are full of surprises." _Lauren tosses it back and Elizabeth laughs when she reads it. _'Well, I'm grounded so I'd have to sneak out, too. Is seven good?" _ Elizabeth tosses it back and Lauren quickly writes back. _'Well, you should be good at that, and, yeah, see you then old friend.' _Elizabeth balls the paper up and looks at Lauren with a smile, and nod of her head confirming it. Lauren nods back before turning back to the teacher. Lauren was really hoping she could get away with this. She had so much to talk to Elizabeth about. She needed this.

Emily and Lorelai walk into the spa. Lorelai was already annoyed with her mom from the drive up there so she was happy when they made it knowing she'd have time for herself all weekend.

"Oh, look at this place." Emily says, admiring the place. "It's lovely." They walk further into it. "And that smell. What is that? Eucalyptus?"

"I don't know." Lorelai says.

"Well, it's lovely." Emily walks over to a stand where there's water. "Oh, Lorelai, come over here. Look. They have cucumber slices in the water."

"Wow. Now, if they have rance dressing in the soap dispensers, this place is great." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

Emily helps herself to a glass to cucumber water. "You know what? I love it here."

"Careful, Mom. That's how they get you in the Moonies."

"I feel more relaxed already." Emily takes a sip of the water. "Mm! This is the most delicious water I've ever tasted. Have a sip."

"Let's just check in, shall we?" Lorelai asks, leading the way to the front desk.

"Hello. I'm Emily Gilmore. This is my daughter Lorelai." Emily tells the young man.

"Ah, yes." He remembers. "Welcome to Birchgrove. My name is Bobby. I have everything all set for you. Do you have luggage?"

"It's in the Luca Brasi mobile out front." Lorelai tells him.

"Okay. We can take care of that for you. Here are your room keys and a copy of all your spa activities. You ladies are booked solid, I see."

Emily smiles with excitement. "We intend to leave her completely different people."

"Yes, I'm going to be Ted Nugent." Lorelai jokes, but no one finds it amusing.

"Anyhow, your rooms are right down this hall. Fruit and yogurt is served by the pool in the mornings. And your lunch and dinner seating are on that itinerary." Bobby tells them. "Any questions?"

"Yes. Where can one get a cup of coffee around here?"

"Uh, we don't serve anything with caffeine here."

"And you think that's safe?" Lorelai glares at him.

"Thank you, Bobby." Emily smiles, pulling Lorelai away knowing things would get ugly if she didn't. "We're sure we're going to have a wonderful time."

"Mom, there's no coffee."

"It won't kill you to go two days without coffee."

"No, I think it will."

"Lorelai, just focus on all the pampering we're going to have." Emily holds up the itinerary. "Look at all the things we have to look forward to."

Lorelai gasps as she reads it. "Oh, no." She says, noticing that they screwed everything up.

"What?"

"Oh, I'll be right back. They screwed up out appointments."

"Again?" Emily scoffs.

Lorelai looks at her mother. "What do you mean 'again?'"

"On the way to your house, I called to confirm our schedule and found out they booked up separately for every one of our treatments." Emily explains, not making Lorelai excited about this trip anymore. "Luckily, I insisted on speaking to a manager and was able to straighten everything out. Yes, those are right."

"They are?" Lorelai questions taking the intinerary from her mom to get a closer look.

"I even had them move the pedicure tubs together in the same room so we can talk during it." Emily says, excitingly.

"I'm really gonna need a cup of coffee." Lorelai smiles at her mom while they walk towards their room.s

"Have some cucumber water."

"No, that's not gonna do it-"

"Drink, Lorelai." Emily orders her.

"Cucumber water. Yuck." Lorelai says, before drinking it anyway.

Back in Stars Hollow, Dean and Rory are standing under a tree, making out.

"Well, your lung capacity certainly has improved." Rory tells her boyfriend.

"Well, I've been playing a lot more basketball lately." Dean says.

"Yet another reason to contiue the fight to keep physical education in schools." Rory says, leaning in for more.

"So, tonight..." Dean says between kisses.

"Yes?"

"I was thinking..."

"Yes?"

"Since your mother's going to be gone, maybe I'd come over." Dean says.

"Oh." Rory says, her face changes slightly causing Dean to notice.

"What?" He asks, confused.

"Actually, I was thinking of pulling kind of a hermit thing tonight."

"Why?"

"I don't know. J.D. Salinger seems to dig it."

"You don't want me to come over?" Dean asks a little hurt.

"No, I just...I almost never get the house to myself, and I thought with my mom gone I can finally do my laundry exactly the way I like it. You know, not separating into whites and colors, but the colors separated into darks, mediums, and lights." Rory explains. "With a separate pile for white T-shirts and T-shirts with writing on them like 'Rock Start,' 'Evil,' or 'Kafka Was Here.'"

Dean was looking more confused than ever. "You want to be alone to do laundry?" He asks.

"And watch TV, and eat the Indian food I love but my mom hates the smell of and go to bed early, and...are you mad?"

"Why would I be mad? You want to spend tonight alone. But, you do know that your sister will be there and you won't exactly be alone."

Rory shrugs. "I know. It's a really good time for me and Lauren to hang out, too. She and my mom have kinda been..not so great, lately, and I just want to hang out with my little sister, too. But tomorrow, the whole day is all about you." Rory says, smiling. "I mean it. From morning till night. You plan it, or I'll plan it. Or we can get a professional to plan it, whatever you want. Just don't be mad."

Dean sighs. "I'm not." Rory looks up, unsure. "I'm not mad." He says again.

"Good."

"I'm confused, but I'm not mad."

"Fine."

"I'm a saint, but I'm not mad."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"So, deep breath, and..." They start kissing again.

Back at the spa, Lorelai is in her room, alone, unpacking her stuff for the weekend when there's a knock on her door. She turns around and walks to the door. When she opens it, there's no one there, so she walks out in the hall to see if they walked away, but the knocking starts up again. Lorelai walks back into her room and opens up the side door.

Emily walks in wearing her robe. "How do I look?" She asks her daughter.

Lorelai chuckles. "Like a landlady. What is this?" She asks walking into the room Emily came.

"I got adjoining rooms so we don't have to go out in the hall to see eachother."

Lorelai sighs, heavily, as she walks back into her room. "Great thinking." She says, sarcastically.

"God, this robe is fabulous." Emily says, while she rubs herself. "How do they get it so soft?"

"I think having about forty other people wear it first is part of the secret." Lorelai tells her while she continues to unpack.

"Oh, stop it. So are you all ready for our skin-rejuvenating and revitalizing collagen facial and eye treatment?"

"Almost." Lorelai says, faking Emily excitement.

Emily opens the itinerary. "It has vitamin C and plant extracts in it which is the hottest thing in skincare these days. And they eye treatment is supposed to reduce puffiness and minimize the appearance of fine lines."

"Okay, no more brochures for you." Lorelai closes the drawers. "Alright. I'm ready. Let's go."

"Aren't you going to wear your robe?" Emily asks.

"What?"

"Your robe. You're supposed to wear a robe." Emily says, looking down at Lorelai jacket and sweatpants.

Lorelai shrugs. "They'll give me one when I get there."

"But these robes are wonderful."

"Mom." Lorelai says, growing annoyed.

"They help you relax."

"We're late, Mom.'

"They're wonderful, relaxing robes."

Lorelai sighs. "Oh, my God."

"Yes you stand there like it's some badge of honor not to put your robe on like everyone else." Lorelai turns around and walks into her bathroom closing the door behind her. "This isn't for me, you know. It's for you." Emily yells. "I already have on my robe. I am already relaxed. What are you doing?"

"You're kidding me, right?" Lorelai asks, from behind the bathroom door.

"Well, hurry up. We're going to be late."

Lorelai opens the door in her robe, smiling. "Happy?"

Emily looks down at Lorelai's feet. "Apparently, you didn't see the matching slippers."

Lorelai turns back and goes into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

In one of the spa rooms, Lorelai is laying down in her robe with her hands in the hand warmers and a face mask on.

"So, how are we doing?" The lady asks her.

"So good." Lorelai tells her.

"Okay. I'm gonna leave you to sit for a few minutes, so relax and enjoy and I'll be right back."

"Thanks." Lorelai smiles as she watches the lady walk out.

The light dims as Lorelai closes her eyes and relaxes. With everything that has been happening at home and work, she was glad she was by herself, without her mother for once, and able to relax and think. But suddenly the door opens again, and instead of it being the lady, it's Emily. Emily grabs the chair that is by the door and slides it over to the side of Lorelai who had yet to notice her mom. "Are your feet sweating?" Emily asks, looking down at the feet warmers Lorelai has on.

"Mom?"

"Those booties make my feet sweat. Don't they make your feet sweat?"

"What are you doing in my room?" Lorelai asks in frustration.

"Magda left me sitting for twenty minutes. FIne time to take a coffee break."

"She's not taking a coffee break. Your skin is supposed to be absorbing the moisture in your mask. In your room."

"Let's see what's next on our agenda, shall we?" Emily asks, taking out the itinerary from her pocket, clearly ignoring Lorelai's pleas to leave her alone. After their mud bath, Lorelai and Emily walk down a hall to get to another room. Lorelai could not take the talking anymore that her mother kept doing. "I still can't get over it. It really was mud. I mean, I know it said mud bath but I didn't really think they meant a real mud bath. And the odd thing is, I should've been more repulsed by it. Sitting in a tub of hot dirt, which is basically what mud is should have made me ill, and yet, I really enjoyed it. Did yours have twigs? Mine had twigs." Lorelai makes her way into another room, with Emily still talking behind her. "When I asked the woman about them she told me they were there because of the healing qualities." The door opens again. "What are you doing? Lorelai, stop it! You're pushing me." Emily stumbles out of the room as Lorelai looks behind the door and points to the quiet room sign. Emily sighs as they walk back into the room. This time in silence.

In the massage room, Lorelai is laying down on her back while a man massages her shoulders.

"How's the pressure?" He asks her. "Too much?"

Lorelai looks over at her mother who is right beside her getting a massage, too. "Yeap."

"Sorry. I'll go lighter."

"Your hands are amazing." Emily tells her guy. "Compliment your masseaur's hands, Lorelai."

"Oh, my God." Lorelai groans, quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing." She lies.

"You were muttering under your breath. Years of experience have taught me that when you do that it's usually about me."

Lorelai sits up, resting on her elbows as she looks at her mom. "Mom, you signed us up for a couple's massage."

"So?"

"A couple's massage is for a couple, not a couple of people."

"It's more efficient this way. We finish at the same time."

"Mom, do you know what most people who get these massages do about five minutes after it's over? They have sex, together, probably while wearing their robes."

"Could the two of you excuse us for a moment, please?" The guys start walking away. "Thank you." This time Emily sits up. "Well, that was appalling."

"Well, that was true." Lorelai argues.

"You're determined to spoil this, aren't you?"

"Why, because I want a quiet, private massage?"

"You've been pouting and sulking and sighing.."

"I haven't been sighing."

"..rolling your eyes, mumbling."

"Well, that's how I detox."

"Ever since you've made it your mission to be as miserable as possible."

"That's not true."

"It's completely true. And if you don't care about hurting my feelings maybe you care that you're wasting all your relaxing time acting like petulant four year-old."

Lorelai looks away and lays back down. "Well, I'm sorry."

"Do you want me to try to get myself another room?" Emily asks.

"No."

"I saw a supply closet down the hall. Maybe my masseaur could finish me in there."

"Okay, Mom."

"Or perhaps I could roll myself against a stucco wall eliminate the need for a masseur altogether." She says, dramatically.

"Lie down, Mom, please."

"If you say so." Emily says, laying back down. "Lorelai?"

"Yes, Mom?"

"Would you go get the boys, please?"

Lorelai sighs, but gets up anyway with her blanket wrapped around her. She was just ready to get this weekend over with already.

Back at the house, Lauren comes downstairs to where Rory has all her clothing and is on the phone separating each piece. She looks at her sister with a crazy look.

"No, that's two orders of garlic nan, six samosas, and two Chicken vindaloo." Rory says over the phone. Lauren gets excited when she realizes her sister is ordering Indian food. "And rice. And the green sauce. And no salad. And...oh, wait. Sorry, can you hold on a sec?" Lauren sits on the side of Rory looking at the pile of clothing surrounding her. Rory takes the next line. "Hello?"

"Hi. This is Phil's Liquor." Lorelai says, in a horrible version of a man's voice. "I'm supposed to be deliver a keg there tonight."

Rory rolls her eyes. "Hold on." She clicks back to the other line. "Hi. Sorry. Yeah, that's it. Forty minutes. Great. Bye." Rory hangs up and picks up her mom's line. "Hey."

Lorelai laughs. "Who was that?"

"Sandeep's."

"Oh, you're ordering the Indian food."

"Yeap."

"Good, enjoy. Can you burn the house down after? It's the only way to get the smell out." Lorelai tells her.

"Absolutely. How's the spa?"

"Tranquil."

"Really?"

"I wasn't done. Tranquilizers will be required if I have to spend one more minute with my mother."

"Please tell me you're at least trying to get along with her."

"Oh, I'm being a peach."

"Really?"

"Well, I smell like a peach. Was that the doorbell?"

"Yeah. Here. Talk to Lauren." Rory hands the phone to her sister as she gets up to answer the phone.

"Hey." Lauren says. Truth be told she missed her mom, but she wasn't going to let her know that.

"Hey, babe. How are things going?" Lorelai asks a little suspiciously.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Good. Good. And no I haven't hung out with Elizabeth, but thanks for asking."

Lorelai sighs. Her youngest was too much like her, it was freaky. "Alright. Alright. Well, you'll be happy to know that I am miserable. Huh? That cheers you up, right?"

Lauren thinks for a second. "Actually, it does." She smiles.

Lorelai smirks. "Who was at the door?"

Lauren turns around and sees Paris. "It's Paris."

"What does she want?"

"I don't know. Let me go see while you enjoy your time with Grandma."

"Mean."

"Bye." Lauren smiles as she hangs up.

Paris walks in without being told to. "I tried to stay home and study myself, but I can't. I don't know what anything means anymore. I can't even read my own handwriting. What does this say?" Paris asks Lauren. "The person who wrote this should be dressed in a clown suit, stuffying bodies under their porch."

"I agree." Lauren smiles.

Rory shakes her head and pushes Lauren's head down to make her sit back on the floor. "You're in your pajamas." Paris says, noticing Rory's clothing.

"I know." Rory says, looking down.

"This was the big night you planned? A rendezvoud with Mr. Peanut?"

"Well-"

Paris looks in the living room to see all the clothing everywhere. "You're doing laundry."

"Yes."

"You're doing laundry in your pajamas."

"My mom's out of town and it's just me and Lauren."

"You mean, you never go months without seeing your parents, just getting a postcard that doesn't have a courtesy 'Wish you were here' written on it? That does suck. Don't let me stand in the way." Paris says, sarcastically, before walking back to the door.

"Wait!" Rory stops her.

"No. I don't wanna get in the way of your big night! I hear there'll be some hot knitting going on."

"Fine, I'll study with you."

"You will?" Paris asks.

"You will? Lauren repeats surprised.

"For one hour." Rory tells her. "That's it." She say looking at Lauren. "We can do a quick review and a pop quiz, and then you're going home. Deal?"

"Deal." Paris agrees.

"Okay. So, go sit on the couch. I'll be out in a minute."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go change." Rory says, walking away.

"Okay, but my hour doesn't start till you get back out here, right?" Paris walks back into the living room where Lauren is sitting.

"Hey, do you want to study maybe longer than an hour?" Lauren asks Paris. Paris raises her eyebrows wanting to hear more. Lauren waves her closer. "Come here." She says, before whispering into Paris' ear.

Back at the spa, Lorelai is just finishing getting ready when Emily knocks on the door before walking in.

"You ready?" She asks her daughter.

"Wow, you look great, Mom." Lorelai says, looking at her mom's outfit.

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No, I'm being completely serious."

"Oh, well, thank you." Lorelai walks over the mirror and begins putting lipstick on. "That's a pretty color. What is it?"

"It's called 'Vicious Trollop.'" Lorelai tells her.

"Stop it." Emily chuckles. Lorelai shows her mom the name on the lipstick. "Now why would you name a lipstick something like that?"

Lorelai shrugs. "Cause 'Dirty Whore' was taken?"

"You frighten me."

Lorelai smiles. "You wanna try some?"

"No, thank you."

"Go on, Mom, try it."

"It won't look good on me."

"Sure it will."

"Well, alright, but if I look ridiculous-"

"I'll be the first one to point it out." Lorelai assures her. Emily takes the lipstick and starts dabbing it on. "You're a vicious trollop. You're a vicious trollop." Lorelai sings.

"Lorelai."

"Sorry."

"Well?" Emily asks looking back up at Lorelai.

Lorelai gasps with a smile. "I like it."

"You do?" Lorelai nods her head as Emily takes a second look at herself. "I like it, too."

"Good, let's go then. I'm starving."

"Oh, me, too. What are they serving for dinner tonight?"

"Well, let's see." Lorelai picks up the menu and she and her mom start reading it.

"Hm. They certainly do like their tofu here, don't they?" Emily asks.

"And the word 'steamed.' Well, they have dessert at least. Cookies sweetened with sprouted mung bean." Lorelai reads.

"That sounds dreadful."

"Yes, it does." Lorelai tosses the menu down on the bed and walks away from Emily.

"Where are you going? You're not changing? Our seatings in ten minutes." Emily reminds her.

Lorelai takes her coat from her closet. "Get your coat." She tells her mom.

"I don't need a coat to go to the dining room."

"We're not going to the dining room."

"Where are we going?"

"Out."

"Out where?" Emily asks very unsure of this.

"We're going to leave the sap, find a restaurant, and have a steak." Lorelai smiles just thinking about it.

"A steak?" Emily questions.

"Who's gonna stop us?"

Emily makes the same face Lorelai was making earlier as she thinks about the steak. "A steak."

"Come on, Mom. What's it gonna be? Vicious trollop or the wide world of mung beans?"

"Let's go." Emily smiles widely leading Lorelai out of the room.

"I'm right behind you."

Back at the house, Rory is sitting on the couch studying, like she promised, with Paris.

"So, given that those are the reactions occuring in the two half-cells what do you do next?" Rory asks.

Paris is walking around the living room as she listens to Rory read. "Well, we add them together doubling the coefficients of the silver half equation but not the voltage. We get the equation for the complete reaction."

Rory nods her head. "You're in much better shape than you wanna think you are."

"Impossible." The doorbell starts ringing so Rory gets up to answer. "Where are you going?"

"That's my food." Rory tells her.

"Another half hour. Please." Paris begs.

"No. You got your hour, you need to go." Rory commands right before she opens the door to find Jess holding a box of Luke's food in one hand and Lauren by her hat of her jacket. Rory looks confused.

"Delivery." Jess grins.

"What're you doing here? And why do you have my sister by the jacket? Why were you even outside? How did you get outside?" Rory starts questioning Lauren, who was not thrilled to be caught especially by Jess.

Lauren folds he arms and looks away, not wanting to answer. "Luke figured since you two are alone you wouldn't have food in the house, and I found Lauren climbing out of the window." Jess explains.

"I don't need a care package. I ordered from Sandeep's."

"Really? Plan on burning down the house afterwards?"

"Jess."

"The only way to kill the smell."

"Are you going to let go of me now?" Lauren asks him.

Jess turns towards her. "Are you going to run if I do?" Lauren glares up at Jess. She was so not liking him right now. Rory huffs and grabs Lauren by her arm, pulling inside and by her side. "Where should I put this?" He asks Rory. "Kitchen?"

Jess makes his way through without an invitation and goes to the kitchen. Rory stumbles on her words as she watches him. She had a full house of people now. This was not the plan. "Sure." She mumbles. She drags Lauren with her as they follow him into the kitchen. "Why were you climbing out of your window?" Rory starts questioning her. "Were you going see Elizabeth?"

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I don't have to tell you anything."

Rory grabs the phone off the table. "Fine. Then you can have fun telling Mom." Rory tells her while she dials the number to the spa.

Lauren's eyes widen and she hurries to grab the phone from Rory. "Okay. okay! Yes, I was going to see Elizabeth. It's just not fair that I can't see her. She's my best friend." Lauren groans.

Rory sighs and sets the phone back down on the table. "I know she is, Lauren." Rory says, feeling a little sorry for her sister. "But just think, this all could be over with in a couple weeks. Don't ruin it by sneaking out."

Lauren nods her head, understanding. "You're still going to tell her, huh?"

"Were you expecting me not to?" Rory laughs.

"Rory, please? Can't this just between us. Sister to sister. I promise it won't happen again. Please!" Lauren begs as she gives her sister puppy dog eyes.

Jess stops from unpacking the box and looks at the sisters. "Yeah, Rory. I caught her before she could go anywhere anyway."

Lauren and Rory both look at Jess, surprised before Lauren smiles and nods her head. "I knew I liked you for a reason." She tells him.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Alright, fine. It can stay between the two of us. But if you do that again, Lauren, I will tell her. Everything."

"Pinky promise." Lauren says, holding up her pinky. Rory holds up her own and they twist them together.

"Pinky promise." Rory agrees. Rory looks back at Jess who is continuing to unload the box. "God, how much food is in there? This could feed twelve."

"Excuse me, I've seen you two eat." Jess tells her.

"Fine, six." Rory says, helping him.

"Well, he wanted you two taken care of. Wasn't sure how long your mom would be gone for."

"Just tonight." Lauren tells him.

"He didn't know that."

Rory smirks. "Now you can tell him."

"I will."

"So, how come Caesar didn't bring this over?"

"I volunteered."

"Why?"

"I just wanted to get out of the construction zone. There's nothing but banging and yelling. Place gives me a headache. Why, did you think I wanted to come over and see you?"

"No."

"I just needed some quiet."

"Fine."

"That's all."

"Got it."

"Clear my head."

"I understand."

Lauren looks at the both of them with a smile on her face. Sometimes she wished they would just kiss already. "So aren't you gonna eat?" Jess asks Rory.

"Eventually."

"It gets cold fast."

"I can heat it up."

"Reheated French fries really suck."

"They do suck." She agrees.

"Yeah, so eat."

"I'm going to eat." Lauren quickly grabs a few plates and starts digging in.

"Lauren's going to eat." Jess tells Rory.

"Okay, fine. I'll eat." Rory says. She looks at Jess who is still standing there very awkwardly. "You're still standing there."

"Yeah, I know. You didn't give me a tip." He jokes.

"You want money?" Rory questions.

"No. I'll take a fry, though."

Lauren holds a plate up for Jess to take. Rory looks at her sister and sighs. "Yeah, okay. Have as much as you want."

"Okay, great." Jess takes his jacket off and grabs the plate from Lauren before he starts digging in as well.

Rory looks confused. "What are you doing?"

"Getting ready to eat."

"You're staying?"

"Didn't you just invite me?"

"No, I-"

"I did." Lauren says, raising one of her hands up.

"Yes, you did." Jess says with a smile before pointing to Rory. "And you told me to have all I wanted. That sounded invitation-like."

"You want to stay here and eat?"

"Beats being at Luke's."

"But-"

Paris storms in. "I can't find my flashcards."

"I didn't know you had company." Jess says looking at Paris.

"This is Paris. We were just studying."

"Don't worry. I was just leaving. If you find my flashcards, call me."

"No."

"What?" Paris and Lauren both say in confusion.

"Stay for dinner." Rory tells her.

"But I thought-"

"We have a ton of food and we can go over the notes more later."

Paris looks skeptically at Rory. "You sure?"

"Positive."

Paris smiles. "Is that mac and cheese?" She asks when she sees Lauren eating.

"Sure is." Lauren smiles.

"I love mac and cheese."

"Great." Rory smiles as well.

"I'm not allowed to have mac and cheese."

"Splurge. Come on, Paris, stay."

"Do you have a 24 hour pharmacy in case I have an allergive reaction?"

"Believe it or not, we do."

"Okay." Paris walks towards the kitchen table and Lauren holds out a plate, smiling, as Paris takes it with a huge smile on her face.

An hour of so later they were all still eating and discussing literature and other things. Rory walks back over with a drink and sits down next to Lauren.

"A tragic waste of paper." Paris says to Jess.

"I can't believe you just said that."

"Well, it's true. The Beats' writing was completely self-indulgent. I have one word for Jack Kerouac: edit."

Jess looks over at Rory who was laughing. "It was not self-indulgent. The Beats believed in shocking people stirring things up."

"They believed in drugs, booze, and petty crime." Paris tells him.

"Well, then you can say they expose you to a world you wouldn't have otherwise known." Rory says. "Isn't that what great writing's about?"

Paris shakes her head. "That was not great writing. It was the National Enquireer of the '50s."

"You're cracked." Jess says.

"Typical guy response. Worship Kerouac and Bukowski. God forbid you pick up anything by Jane Austen."

"Hey, I've read Jane Austen." Jess argues.

"You have?" Lauren asks, a little surprised.

"Yeah. And i think she would have liked Bukowski."

Paris watches Jess pour salt and pepper together. "What are you doing?"

"Salt and pepper dip. It's the only way to eat a fry."

"Really?"

"It's fast food gospel." Rory says as she and her sister dip their fries before Paris follows.

"Wow. That's good." Paris smiles. "That's really good."

The phone starts ringing and Rory gets up to answer. "Do you like hot sauce?" Jess asks her.

"I don't know. Should I?"

Jess and Lauren exchange glances. "I think it's wise." He says, before pouring her little.

"Hello?" Rory answers.

"Hey!" Dean says, loudly on the other end.

Rory looks around suspiciously, thinking Dean could see through the phone at who she was hanging out with. "Oh, hey. Where are you?" She asks, while she walks towards the living room.

"On my way to see you, if that's okay."

"Oh, well-" Rory hesitates.

"I know you wanna be alone. I'll only stay a minute. I just want to say hi."

"You said hi." She reminds him from when she answered the phone.

"Well, I want to say hi a little closer."

"But I'm a mess. Really. It's not pretty. You won't recognize me." Rory lies.

"Well then put a nametag on, 'cause I miss you."

"I miss you, too, but-"

"But what?"

"But...Paris is here."

"Why?"

"She freaked out about a grade and wanted to go over notes. And you know her, she will not be denied."

"Okay, well, I'm not really ruining your alone night. Someone else did that."

"Yes, but-"

"I'll see you in a sec." Dean says quickly before hanging up.

Rory hurries back into the kitchen. "Geez, you know I just noticed the time. It's getting really late."

Lauren turns and looks at the clock on the oven. "It's seven, Rory."

"I know, but Paris and I still have a lot more studying to do. Jess, please thank Luke for me." Rory says, as she grabs Jess' coat. "It was really nice of him."

"Who was that on the phone?" Jess asks.

"No one."

"'No one' wouldn't be heading over here, would he?"

"Jess."

"What's going on?" Paris asks.

"Nothing."

"Rory's boyfriend is on his way over." Lauren tells her.

"And Rory doesn't want him to find me." Jess finishes.

"Why?" Paris asks.

"Yeah, why?"

Rory sighs. "You know why." She tells Jess.

"We're just eating dinner."

"Jess, I'm asking you as a friend." Rory begs. "Just please leave now."

"You really want me to go?"

"I really want to avoid a fight with Dean." Rory says, growing impatient.

Jess puts down his food and takes his jacket from Rory. "Okay, I'm going."

"Thank you."

Jess walks to the front door with Rory and Lauren following closely behind. "Give him my best." Jess smirks before opening the door to find Dean watching from porch, looking very angry. "Actually, I guess I could do that myself."

"Dean, Jess just came by to bring me some food." Rory tells him, quickly.

"From Luke's."

"He wanted to make sure I ate."

"Luke did."

"Right, Luke did."

"Personally, I could care less if she eats."

"Yeah, true. He could care less."

"I see you brought a little something, too." Jess says, noticing the bag in Dean's hand. "Is that ice cream? That's so nice. A tiny little ice-cream package just big enough for two. Hey, are you guys gonna feed eachother? Cause that's just so darn cute." Dean walks up the porch and stands in front of Jess, looking down at him. "Whoops. You're doing that towering-over-me thing. Huh. I tell you, you've really got that down. It helps that you're 12 feet tall. But this Frankenstein scowl really adds to the whole-"

"Jess!" Rory yells to get him to finally stop talking.

"Okay, I'm going." Jess walks down the porch. "Look, man, I really was just dropping off some food so don't get all West Side Story on me, okay?" Jess walks away leaving the two finally alone.

"So, do you want to come in?" Rory asks him.

Dean ignores Rory and storms into the house, and into the kitchen where Lauren is now sitting back with Paris. "What the hell is going on!?"

Paris looks up, startled. "Dean, you remember Paris, right?"

"Yeah, hi." Dean says, not really expecting to see Paris. "So Jess just dropped this off?" He asks noticing the food sprawled out all across the table. Rory hesitates as Dean walks around the table. "Now, I know you and your sister eat fast, but this is a lot of food to put away that quickly even on your best day."

"Okay, he didn't just drop it off." Rory admits.

"You told me you were doing laundry."

"I was."

"And now you're here with Jess."

"And Lauren and Paris."

"Jess, Rory!"

"I swear, I didn't-"

"You didn't what? Know he was coming over?"

"I didn't."

"And you also didn't know he'd stay?"

"It just happened."

"How does that just happen?"

"Well, he was...and the diner was...And I..."

"And you what? Say something!"

"Stop yelling!"

"You totally lied to me."

"I didn't."

"Turn the situation around, Rory. How's it looking?"

"Complicated, and I'm trying to explain it."

"That's crap."

"It's my fault." Paris blurts out.

"What?" Dean asks.

"It's my fault that Jess was here." Paris says, standing up next to Lauren.

"Yeah, Paris saw him in the diner the day she came to Stars Hollow and she thought he was cute, and since she's not great at the flirting thing she asked Rory to help her." Lauren says, continuing the lie for Paris.

"Yeah, I thought she could maybe get him over here, we'd have a chance to talk, and I don't know." Paris sighs. "It seems totally stupid now and it obviously didn't work, shock, but that's why he was here." Paris smiles at Rory. "Thanks for trying to cover for me."

"That's okay." Rory says.

"So, take a breath, Shrek. Rory wasn't lying to you." Lauren says to Dean. Now she knew why she didn't really like Dean. He was so possessive.

"Anyway, I should get going. I'm probably gonna break out in some sort of rash any second now." Paris walks away and Lauren follows her leaving a stunned Dean standing there thinking.

"So Paris likes Jess." He repeats.

"Yeah." Rory tells him.

Dean looks down at Rory. "Rory, is this true?"

"Yes, it is."

"Paris and Jess?"

"I know. There's no explaining attraction. Dean, listen to me. If I was going to have anyone over tonight it definitely would have been you." She promises.

"Okay."

"Really?"

"If you say so, then I have to believe it, don't I?" He asks.

"Yes." Rory smiles.

"Okay, then. I'm sorry that I yelled."

"Completely justified under the circumstances."

"I gotta get going."

"No, wait. Don't you wanna stay for ice cream? We could hang out."

"No, I'm just gonna go."

"I'm still seeing you tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, sure." Dean goes to walk away, but Rory grabs him by the arm and kisses him gently on the lips. "See you tomorrow." He says, before he walks out.

Rory walks into the living room where Paris is packing up her stuff and Lauren is sitting beside her, watching, on the couch.

"What was that?" Rory asks them.

"What?" Paris questions.

"That. The story. The save. You helped me. Why would you do that?"

Paris stands up. "I don't know. Lauren came back in and made everything up, but I just figured out when the say it."

Rory smiles and looks at Lauren who is looking at her. "You made that up?"

Lauren shrugs. "I am Lorelai Gilmore's daughter, aren't I?"

"Well, you have no idea what you both did."

"It was no big deal." Paris tells her.

"No, it was a very big deal. It was a huge deal."

Paris starts putting on her jacket. "Well, you helped me tonight when you didn't want to, so I owed you."

"Thank you." Rory says, sincerely.

"You're welcome. Okay, I'll let you get back to your alone night."

"Yeah, me, too." Lauren says, as she gets up from the couch and tries to head upstairs.

"Oh, no, you don't." Rory grabs Lauren by her arm. "If you want to go anywhere it's to my room or no where else."

Lauren sighs. "I figured." Lauren walks to Rory's room as Paris heads for the front door.

"You should stay." Rory says to Paris.

"Stay?" Paris asks.

"Yeah."

"We could hang out, maybe watch some tv. You can even spend the night if you don't want to drive back."

"Spend the night?" Paris says, unsure. "Like a slumber party?"

"Sort of."

"You're just doing this cause I lied to Dean for you, right?"

"I'm doing this because it's what you do with friends." Rory says with honesty.

"We're friends?"

"I'm not sure if there's an exact definition for what we are but I do think it falls somewhere in the bizarro friends-ish realm." Paris laughs. "Come on, stay."

"Okay." Paris gives in. "But if you're doing all this so you can freeze my bra, I'll kill you."

"Duly noted."

At a restaurant, Emily and Lorelai are sitting at the bar eating the food since there were no tables available for them.

"This is either the greatest steak I've ever eaten or I'm so hungry, I'm delirious." Emily says. "Pass the horseradish please."

Lorelai laughs. "I never knew you were a spicy girl."

"Oh, believe me, I can handle my heat. One summer when were first married your father and I stayed in this village in Thailand where we spent two weeks eating viciously hot chilies and skinny dipping."

Lorelai gasps with disgust. "Stop, Mom."

"You certainly couldn't put your clothes on after eating those."

"Stop it! I like to think of parents the old-fashioned way. In separate bedrooms." The music starts to play and everyone goes to the dance floor to dance. Lorelai looks behind her mother at a guy staring at them. "Um, Mom. There's a guy staring at you."

"What?" Emily asks, turning around. "Where?"

"Uh, he's coming over." Lorelai says, quickly.

"Excuse me." He says, walking on the other side of Emily causing he to whip her hair quickly to look at him. "I hope I'm not interrupting. But I couldn't help but notice that you two are having more fun than anyone here."

"Well, that's true. We are." Lorelai tells him.

"Well, good." He sets his drink down and sits next to Emily. "I've come to the right place. Hi, I'm Chad."

"Hi, Chad. I'm Lorelai. This is my mother, Emily." Lorelai introduces.

"Your mother?" He says, surprised.

"Chad, if your next words are 'you can't possibly be old enough to be her mother,' I'll have to cause you sever physical pain."

"Emily, do you share this rather extreme opinion?"

Emily smiles a little embarrassed by all of this. "I think I'll stay out of it."

"In that case, let me just say that I think you look more like sisters than mother and daughter. I went for a variation." Chad says to Lorelai.

"I'll let it slide this time." Lorelai says, shrugging it off.

"So, you two local or just visiting?"

"Visiting." Lorelai answers. "Mom's from Hartford, and I'm from-"

Chad interrupts clearly more interested in Emily's town. "Hartford? Great town. Little of the old, little of the new. You like living there?"

"Yes, I do." Emily answers.

"And how about you, Chad? Where do you live?" Lorelai asks.

"Here. And by here, I mean this very bar stool."

"Wow. Admitting right off the bat that you spend your life in a bar." Lorelai says, very impressed. "Do you find that people are impressed by that?"

"Until now." He laughs.

"Oh, I love this song." Emily says, looking back at the band.

"It's a great song for dancing."

"Yes, it is." Emily agrees.

Chad looks at Lorelai for a little help. "Oh, God. Help me out here, will you?"

"I think he's asksing you to dance." Lorelai tells her mother.

"What? No, I couldn't." She says, shaking her head.

"Rumor has it you love this song." He says.

"Oh, yes, but I don't dance."

Chad laughs. "Oh, I can't believe that."

"And I shouldn't leave my daughter alone."

"That's okay." Lorelai assures her. "The sitter will be here any minute."

"Really? I'm serious. You should ask someone else."

"Is it my dancing?" Chad asks. "Because you two can work out some 'save me' signal incase I really embarrass you."

"Go ahead, Mom. It'll be fun." Lorelai tells her.

Chad stands up and walks to the other side of Emily. "Come on, the song's almost over. You'll hardly have to spend any time at all with me."

Emily smiles and stands up. "Oh, alright." She says, taking Chad's hand and they begin dancing on the floor. Emily is having a great time. But when the song is over she starts to walk away but Chad takes her hand again, making her dance to a slow song. Emily was feeling very nervous about the whole thing. "I'm sorry I've got to go." She says, releasing herself from him and walking to the bar to grab her things.

"Mom?" Lorelai asks, worriedly when she watches Emily grab her purse and walk towards the front. Lorelai smiles nervously at Chad and follows Emily. "Mom, what's wrong?"

"We're leaving." Emily tells her.

"What happened?"

"I shouldn't be doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Fraternizing with other men."

"Oh, what are you talking about?"

"I practically cheated on your father."

"You did not cheat on dad." Lorelai assures her.

"I danced with another man."

"You've danced with other men before." Lorelai reminds her.

"Not like that, not without your father present."

"Oh, Mom. It was just as dance. You were having fun."

"I need to get out of here. How hard is it to find a coat?" She asks the woman in the front.

Lorelai was pretty sure her mom had officially gone insane. "Mom, you didn't do anything wrong."

"I don't know why I let you take me to this chophouse. I don't go to chophouses. What were you thinking?"

"Need food now?" Lorelai asks.

"And I certainly don't eat at bars. Hookers eat at bars."

"Only if they can't get a table."

"You're not funny. You knew this whole evening made me uncomfortable and yet you kept pushing."

"I was trying to do everything right." Lorelai argues. "You manipulated me into taking this trip and still I came. You told me I was acting like a teenager so I tried to be nicer. You said you needed to eat so I made that happen."

"Yes, but sitting me at a bar where you forced me to engage in inappropriate behavior."

"What?"

"You let me get 60-40'd."

"You are crazy. Do you know that? We were having dinner, Mom, a nice dinner. We were talking. Hell, we were having fun."

"Watching your mother make an ass of herself is fun." Emily scoffs.

"God, you don't have any right to complain about this relationship if you're not willing to let your guard down once in awhile and just be normal."

"There's a way for a mother to behave with her daughter." Emily takes her coat. "I'm sorry if you don't like it, but that's how it is." Emily walks away leaving Lorelai sulking as she follows her mother.

Back at the spa room, Lorelai is packing her things when there's a knock on her door.

"Come in." She says very somberly.

Emily opens the door. "I called the bellman to get the bags. He said it would be ten minutes."

"Okay."

"Thank you for agreeing to leave early."

"No problem."

"I guess this whole thing was a silly idea anyway. I don't know why I pushed it. We can't even have dinner without a fight. What was I thinking putting us together for a weekend?"

"It was a nice thought, Mom."

"Yes, well, I guess it's the thought that counts, isn't it?"

"You know, if you want, I can just bring our bags down. They're not that heavy. Then we don't have to wait." Lorelai offers.

"Well, that sounds fine." Lorelai goes to grab her mom's bag but Emily stops her. "Why can't we have what you and your daughters have?" Emily asks.

"Rory, Lauren, and I are different."

"We're mother and daughter. You're mother and daughter. It shouldn't be different."

"It's completely different. It couldn't be more different."

"But why?"

"I grew up in a different environment."

'You mean an oppressive environment." Emily says, bitterly.

"No, I mean a different environment." Lorelai repeats. "And plus, I was so young when I had Rory, and only five years older when I had Lauren."

"So because I waited until I was grown and married I can't have a relationship with my daughter." Emily sits down on Lorelai's bed.

Lorelai sighs and sits next to her. "No."

"Well, then, why?"

"My girls and I are best friends, Mom. We are best friends first and mother and daughter second." Lorelai explains. "I mean, as much as I want to strangle Lauren sometimes because she is so much like me, she is my best friend. And you and I are mother and daughter always."

"I wasn't taught to be best friends with my daughter."

"I know."

"I was taught to be a role model for my daughter."

"I know that, too."

"I did what I thought was right, what I had to do to protect you. Because of this, we have no relationship."

"Mom, we have a relationship."

"We do?" Emily asks, surprised. "What? What is our relationship?"

Lorelai shrugs. "Well, we..."

"Exactly."

"Maybe an intense weekend together was not the best idea for us. Maybe we need to start with something simpler."

"Like what? A brisk walk around the block?"

"No, I hate exercise."

"Well, as long as you find this amusing."

"Mom." Lorelai groans. "Come on, there has to be something else. Something small."

"Like what?" Lorelai thinks and looks up before walking towards her bathroom. "Where are you going? Lorelai, come back here." Emily orders before following her daughter. "You don't just walk out on a person. That's rude." Lorelai walks out of her bathroom holding her robe. "That's a robe." Emily tells her.

"Yes. This is my robe. And I want you to go into your room and get your robe. And then, exactly at the same time we are gonna shove these robes in our suitcases and we're gonna walk out that door and leave with them."

"That's stealing!"

"Yes, it is."

"You want me to steal a robe? That's how we're going to bond?"

"Mom, you love this robe. You've talked about this robe since we got here. So this robe will be symbolic of our trip together."

"But that's crazy. As soon as they check the room, they'll know the robes are gone. Then they'll charge our credit card." Emily tells her.

"How do you know?"

"Because that's what the tag on the hanger says."

"Well, the littler tag on the hanger could be right, or the little tag could just be there trying to scare us away from trying. Either way, whether we get away with it or not it's something we did. You and I." Lorelai says. She was getting really agitated with this whole thing and just wanted to do something with her mother for goodness sakes.

"You're serious." Emily says, astonished.

Lorelai holds up the robe and starts walking slowly to her suitcase. "I am folding this robe up."

"Lorelai." Emily warns.

"I am putting this robe in my bag."

"That's lunacy."

"I am zipping up the bag that contains the robe."

"I have a perfectly good robe at home."

"The only question is am I doing it alone?"

"Did you ever steal a robe with Rory or Lauren?"

"Oh, no, Rory would never steal. She's far too moral for that. But if Lauren was here, she would have already been to the car." Lorelai tells her knowing that would get her mom going. "You, however, vicious trollop, what's it gonna be?"

Emily begins to smile. "I should have my head examined."

"We'll make an appointment when we get back."

"You do know in the course of one night you've turned me into an adulterer and a thief."

"I'll have you working at the Chicken Ranch soon."

"I cannot believe I'm doing this." Emily says with excitement as she runs into her room.

Lorelai smiles as she watches her mom. She knew she was doing the right thing, wrong, but the right thing.

Back at the house, Lauren is sleeping in Rory's bed when Rory walks in quietly slipping into the covers next to her little sister.

"You're late." Lauren whispers making Rory chuckle.

"I'm sorry. Go back to sleep."

"Rory, do you like Jess?"

Rory was taken back a little by Lauren's question. "No, I don't like Jess."

"Cause it's okay if you do." Rory smiles a little knowing Lauren couldn't see her. "I like Jess."

"Go to sleep." Rory repeats again.

A few seconds later though Lauren is talking again. "I'm sorry I snuck out. I just really missed Elizabeth."

"I know." Rory says, sadly. "It'll all be over soon. Mom doesn't want to do this, trust me."

"I know. I'm not mad at her anymore."

"Good."

"Night, Rory. Love you."

Rory wraps her arm around her little sister. "Love you, too, kid."

At the diner the next day, it is packed but Lorelai and Rory were able to score a table.

"You actually got Grandma to steal a bathrobe?" Rory asks.

"Although, I did catch her trying to return it while I was getting the car." Lorelai laughs.

"Still."

"I know. Life with my mother: one step forward, 5,000 steps back. It's kind of like the spastic polka."

Kirk walks up to them. "Excuse me. Are you done?"

"No, sorry, not yet."

"So, you're gonna eat half a piece of bacon that's been there for ten minutes?"

"Kirk."

"Of course you must be if you're saying you're not done. Because that's the only thing left. Unless you eat plates."

"Go away."

"You're hogging the table."

"If you keep it up, I'm ordering seconds."

"Fine." Kirk takes a step back and starts waiting again.

"So Paris looked a little green this morning." Lorelai says with worry.

"Yeah, she had a sugar carb hangover of monumental proportions." Rory tells her.

"People don't realize it, but it takes years of training to eat the way we do."

"Don't I know it."

"So what's on the agenda for today?"

"Lets see, Dean, Dean, and...oh, did I mention Dean?"

"Wow, he must have been crazy mad last night."

"I'd say that is a fair assessment. Okay, I'm probably gonna have dinner with Dean, so..."

"It'll just just be me and Lauren tonight. Life's funny, isn't it?" Lorelai laughs.

"I simply cannot stop laughing. I'll get the check." Rory gets up and goes to the register.

"Thanks, hon." Lauren walks into the diner and sits down on her mom's lap as soon as she walks up. "Well, hello. You were up and out early this morning."

Lauren sighs as she takes a bite of the half of bacon that's been sitting there from Lorelai's plate making Kirk sigh as loud as he possibly could. "Yeah, I know. I wanted to be the first one at the bookstore. Did you have fun with Grandma?"

Lorelai smiles. "We will have the night to ourselves which means I'll fill you in on everything."

"Cool." Lauren says, simply.

Lorelai smiles at her daughter while she watches her eat her food, on her lap, like she was still five. Lorelai wondered if Lauren would always think she was small enough to sit on her mom's lap even when she's forty. But Lauren felt the most comfortable when she was sitting with her mom. It was something they had. Not her mom and Rory. "How was your night?"

Lauren shrugs. "It was okay. Quite the entertainment." She laughs.

Lorelai smiles. "So I heard."

It gets quiet again as they just sit there. One eating and the other just watching. Lauren finally looks to her mom, nervously. "I know I've been really hard on you the last couple weeks, and I'm sorry. I don't hate you."

Lorelai reaches up and gently brushes her fingers through her daughter's wavy hair and kisses her gently on her cheek. "I forgive you. I just want to protect you."

Lauren nods her head, understanding. "I know."

"Do you want to come to the Inn with me?"

"Sure." Lauren stands up and follows Lorelai out the door.

Kirk quickly jumps right into Lorelai's seat and sighs with happiness.

Up at the counter, Rory is standing at the register where Luke is sorting out the check.

"Hey, Luke, I just wanted to thank you."

Luke looks up confused. "For what?"

"For the care package. That was sweet of you."

"What care package?"

Jess looks up. "Hey, Luke, I think they hit the water line again." He says, quickly knowing Luke would forget what just happened.

"What? Tom, you are dead!" Luke yells, walking away. "You hear me? Dead!"

Rory glares at Jess. "Huh. Interesting."

"You wanna pay?" Jess asks her.

"I don't think Luke knew about the food last night."

"That'll be $12.50." Jess says, clearly ignoring her.

"You lied about why you came over." Rory says, handing him the money.

"I don't have any quarters. I'll have to give nickels."

"Now, why would you lie about something like that?"

Jess hands her change. "Here's your change. Come again soon."

"You wanted to come over." Rory smiles.

"I have to get back to work."

"You're squirming. I've never seen you squirm. It's entertaining."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Outside, Lorelai and Lauren walk out and see Dean watching Rory and Jess through the window.

"Dean, hey." Lorelai smiles. "Rory's just inside paying. She's coming out to meet you after."

Dean nods his head. "Yeah, we're gonna spend the day together." He tells her before continuing to watch his girlfriend.

"That's great."

"Yeah, it is."

"So, listen, Rory told me everything that happened last night. She feels just terrible about it."

"I know."

"Good. You should. Cause it's just one of those freaky unfortunate things that happen."

Dean smirks knowing better than that. "Freaky and unfortunate. Yeah."

"She had nothing to do with Jess coming over, believe me. She did not want him there."

"That's what she told me. Rory wouldn't lie, right?"

Lorelai looks into the window at her daughter. "No, Rory wouldn't lie." She assures him.

She and Lauren begin to walk again. Lauren turns around a little and she and Dean lock eyes. She wanted Dean to know the truth and she wanted Rory to finally admit it. Dean looks at Lauren and sighs before looking back up at Rory watching her laugh and talk with Jess.

* * *

_You are guys are amazing by the way. Thank you so much for the reviews! I am so glad you enjoyed my last chapter. Stay tuned for more drama coming from Lauren in the next chapter! :)_


	36. I Know You're Gonna Be There

The phone rings in the Gilmore household while Lorelai is upstairs so before she could get downstairs the machine gets it. _'Hey, we're not in, so...OW! Bashed my thumb. Leave a message.'_Lorelai runs downstairs as fast as she can to the phone, but stops immediately when her mother's voice comes on.

_"I am so tired of this ridiculous machine. I get it every time.."_

"Oh! That was close." Lorelai says to herself.

_"You, Lauren, and Rory are always out. What is it that you do? Is your house that awfule you can't be in it? It's too much excitement if you ask me."_

"Well, what isn't in Emily's rules of conduct?"

_"I don't want to talk to a machine. I'll just call you later."_Emily hangs up.

"If you had you way, Mother, you'd lock us up like veal. You want veal children." Lorelai goes to walk away, but stops when the phone rings again. _'Hey, we're not in, so...OW! Bashed my thumb. Leave a message.'_

"It's me again..."

Emily's voice says through the machine once more.

Lorelai gasps. "You are talking to a machine." She reminds her mother.

_"...don't forget that my DAR meeting's on Tuesday..."_

"It's burned into my brain. It's there forever." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

_"3:00. And the women are all extremely punctual."_

"When I'm senile and gaga and drooling into a cup and I can't remember my name. I'll still remember that you DAR meeting is that Tuesday." Lorelai says over Emily's voice.

_"I'll talk to you about some other things later." _Emily hangs up.

"I'd have to be deprogrammed by cult deprogrammers to get that Tuesday out of my brain." The phone starts ringing again. _'Hey, we're not in, so...OW! Bashed my thumb. Leave a message.'_

Lorelai stands there staring at the machine waiting for Emily's voice to return and when it does she gasps once more. _"Your phone message is annoying..."_

"Unbelievable."

_"...you know how annoying it is?"_

"I think I have a standard against which to measure it."

_"...you heard it lately?"_

"Can't because I'm amputating my ears." Lorelai puts her hands on her ears and starts backing away from the machine.

_"...don't say your name. That thumb bashing thing, is that a joke?" _Lorelai goes upstairs not wanting to deal with her mother anymore, even if it was just through the machine. _"Why is that your jokes are always..."_

"What an earless world. What are dream!" Lorelai yells up the stairs.

Over at Stars Hollow Middle School, Lauren slams her locker shut after she puts all the necessary things in that she wasn't taking home with her. She looks over at Elizabeth's locker. She hadn't seen Elizabeth in a couple weeks. Since she tried sneaking out to meet her. When she did try to call Elizabeth to apologize, her phone would go straight to voicemail which Lauren thought was pretty weird. So, not thinking twice, and not caring if her sister or mom found out and she got into major trouble, Lauren ran out of the school and jogged her way over to Elizabeth's house. She didn't see Elizabeth's mom's car there so that was good, but she was also hoping Elizabeth wasn't dead inside either. Lauren climbs the porch steps and walks straight to Elizabeth's front door. She hadn't been here since her incident with the nicotin bottle. Lauren starts knocking on the door, harder than she usually would, hoping Elizabeth would hear it if she was upstairs.

Moments later the front door opens and Elizabeth and Lauren are finally eye to eye with eachother. Lauren thought Elizabeth would be happy to see her, but Elizabeth just stood there looking at Lauren.

"Hey!" Lauren smiles at her best friend.

Elizabeth looks around behind Lauren's back. "Uh, hi." She says, nervously.

Lauren glances back as well and then turns back to her friend. "I wanted to come by and check on you. I know I'm not suppose to be here, but I wanted to tell you how sorry I was for the other night. Jess caught me sneaking out and after that Rory wouldn't let me out of her eyesight. I tried calling."

"I know." Elizabeth says, simply.

Elizabeth was acting weird, and Lauren could definitely feel it. "Elizabeth, are you okay?" Lauren asks, worried.

"I'm moving." Elizabeth says, quickly, not looking at Lauren. Not wanting to see the hurt that reached Lauren's face in seconds of the word moving. Lauren was not expecting that one.

"You're moving?" Lauren repeats with tears forming in her eyes.

Elizabeth knew her best friend was upset. Hell. She was upset. But she did not want to watch Lauren cry. "Yeah. I'm moving with my dad in California. My mom thought it would be best for me. I'm sorry, Lauren. I have to go." And with that Elizabeth quickly shut the door in Lauren's face.

Lauren turned around, still her jaw is dropped and she is staring off. Elizabeth was moving. Her best friend was moving. Lauren didn't know how she was suppose to handle this. She was so upset. Angry. Lauren walks down slowly from Elizabeth's porch and walks out into the square. She goes into the road, missing a few passing cars that start honking when they pass her. A bus was coming now. Probably her sister's bus. Rory probably just watched Lauren leave Elizabeth's house. Why would that matter now? Elizabeth is moving and there was nothing Lauren could do or say to stop her. As the bus gets closer, Lauren is still moving slowly. Suddenly, Jess comes out of no where and picks Lauren up from out the road just as the bus stops in Lauren's spot. It obviously didn't phase Lauren because when Jess put her down on the sidewalk she was still staring, still mouth wide open, still confused. "Lauren!" Jess yells to get the twelve year-old's attention. "Lauren, you almost got hit by a bus, and few other cars." Jess tells her. "Hey, talk to me." Jess shakes Lauren a little and finally Lauren looks up at Jess' eyes. "Okay. You're there. Good."

"Hey!" Rory yells as soon as she makes it off the bus. She runs over to her sister and Jess. "What is going on?" She asks when she gets closer.

Jess just shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. She's in her own little world." Jess walks away leaving the two sisters standing there.

Rory bends down to get a better look at Lauren's sad face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Lauren quickly says. "I'm going home." Lauren turns away from a confused Rory and begins walking towards their house. Rory is following closely behind.

At the Inn, Lorelai and Sookie are standing at a table that Emily is sitting at, tasting the soups that Sookie has made for the DAR meeting.

"Haven't you already tasted that soup twice, Mom?" Lorelai asks.

"You're keeping a running count?" Emily asks her daughter.

"I'm morbidly fascinated."

"Well, Lorelai, when you're tasting anything, the first taste acclimates the palate, the second establishes a foundation, the third is to make your decision."

Lorelai turns to Sookie. "Oh, there's gonna be a third one."

"Isn't it what this is for, to taste the soup?" Emily asks.

"Taste them, yes. Not to orally deduce their chemical structures."

"Everything has to be at your pace."

"Or at a pace that can't be measured by the number of times the earth circles the sun." Lorelai whines in annoyance.

"You know, actually, I've heard that." Sookie tells her friend.

"What?"

"One is to acclimate, two is for foundation, and three is to judge."

"Traitor." Lorelai gasps.

"The women in my group are very picky." Emily tells them. "When the pate at the meeting Heddy Covington organized was slightly less chilly than appropriate, she was ostracized for a month."

"Well, that hussy Heddy had it coming."

"Lorelai." Emily warns.

"Okay, Mom, I got a lot of other things happening. They can't come to grinding halt for this."

"So, your full attention for a short period is too much to ask for?"

"Mom, I'm already giving you more attention that I would someone in these circumstances. No one else would get eigh separate soups to taste for a lousy DAR..." Emily glares at her. "...Sorry. A not-lousy DAR meeting. We only do this for weddings."

"Well, would you like me to pay for the tasting?"

"No, just decide in this calendar year."

'Hey, can I..." Sookie takes another soup from the side and switches it with Emily's. "I'm sorry. The mushroom is a great choice. It's super-popular and it's my Jackson's favorite."

"Whose?" Emily questions.

"Jackson, my fiance." Sookie smiles.

"Oh, you're getting married?"

"To the best man in the world." Sookie gleams.

"Hey, while we're on the subject, bridemaids outfits." Lorelai starts.

"Oh, I'm way ahead of you. I already got a couple of ideas."

"Is one of them having me design and make them so I don't secretly hate what you pick and harbor a secret grudge against you for the rest of our lives?"

Sookie grimaces at the thought of that happening. "It is now."

"I'll do it." Lorelai smiles.

"We're a good team."

Michel walks up to them. "That fellow's on the phone from the restaurant."

Lorelai looks confused. "Who?"

"The flannel man with protruding ankles."

"Oh, Luke?"

"I forgot his name from the desk to here. That's how memorable he is."

"Okay, thank you." Lorelai begins to follow Michel, but Emily stops her.

"Where are you going?" Emily asks.

"To talk to Luke."

"Can't you call him back?"

"Have your third taste." Lorelai tells her. She was not starting this argument again.

"Lorelai!" Emily yells while watching Lorelai run into the other room. "Is she always this scattered?" Emily asks Sookie.

"She's the stablest person I know."

"That's very sad." Emily takes another taste. "Well, I think you're right. Mushroom."

"Great."

"So tell me more about your wedding."

"Oh, I just started planning, not much to tell." Sookie tells her.

"Well have you decided on anything yet? Location or the music for the ceremony?"

"Oh, we'll probably just wind up playing something off a CD."

Emily gives Sookie a disapproving look. "Oh."

"What?"

"Well CD's can be very unreliable. They break sometimes or they skip or the person assigned to turn them on and off gets distracted and the whole ceremony is ruined." Emily explains.

Sookie sits down. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Have you thought about live music? A nice string ensemble."

Sookie smiles. "That sounds nice."

"There are couple of wonderful groups I could recommend."

"Sure. It doesn't hurt to check them out."

"No, it doesn't." Emily takes another taste of the soup and smiles. "Mushroom soup."

Sookie stares out, thinking about her wedding. "String quartet."

At the front desk, Lorelai picks up the phone.

"Luke?"

"Yeah. Hi." Luke says on the other end.

"Hello."

"How's it going?"

"Pretty good. How's things with you?"

"Not bad. Dropped some eggs. Hazard of the business. Am I catching you at a bad time?" Luke asks, nervously.

"No, it's kind of slow here. So slow that Michel and I were about to get the tetherball out." Lorelai jokes.

"That's the thing with the ball tethered to a rope?"

"Hey, I never knew that's where the tether comes from." Lorelai says, amused.

"Yeah, it's tied like an anchor is tethered to a rope on a boat." Luke explains.

"Neat. Neat."

"Most people don't put that together."

"Probably not. So anything else?" Lorelai chuckles at the awkwardness they were having.

"Yeah, actually. If I need a room or two for a couple of days, would it be possible?"

"You need rooms?" Lorelai asks, surprised. She walks to her computer to check the schedule.

"Like, nine."

"You need nine rooms?"

"Just for a couple of days. Wednesday and Thursday."

"I can take care of that. What's it for?"

"Uh, I just got some family coming in."

"Reunion? We can get the tetherball out."

"No, funeral."

"What?" Lorelai says, sadly.

"Yeah, my uncle Louie died last night, and I'm arranging the funeral for him."

"Oh, Luke, I'm so sorry. Here I was babbling about tetherball."

"You weren't babbling." Luke assures her.

"You've got nine rooms. Wednesday and Thursday."

"You sure?"

"It's a done deal."

"Thanks."

"Luke, I'm so so sorry."

"It's okay. It sounds like he went peacefully. He was 85."

"But it's always hard. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Luke says, a little surprised himself.

"Can i help you with anything else?"

"No, the rooms are help enough."

"Are you sure? Cause, I'm dealing with my mom now and I'd be happy to rush over and help with whatever. You'd be doing me a favor."

"The rooms are all I need. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Well, I got to go."

"Call if you need anything."

"I will. Oh, by the way, that French guy is a Putz."

"Oh, yeah. He knows."

"Alright. See ya."

"Bye." Lorelai hangs up and stares sadly at the phone feeling bad for Luke.

The next day, Rory, Lorelai, and Lauren are walking towards Luke's to have breakfast. Lauren hadn't said a word to anyone since she got home from Elizabeth's yesterday. Rory tried getting her out of her room and so did Lorelai when she got home. They were both so confused on what was going on. Rory explained to Lorelai what happened when Jess had to remove Lauren from out of the road because she was about to get hit by cars and the bus. Lorelai was frightened. She had never seen Lauren act this way. Usually, she was the very first one Lauren would come running to. But Lauren wasn't in a very running to someone kind of mood. She was confused herself. She wanted to know why Elizabeth was moving. Who's idea was it for her to move. She had all these questions, and wasn't able to ask them.

Lorelai and Rory were relieved when Lauren exited out her room that morning for school. Lorelai thought she would have to break down the door to get her out. Lauren still hadn't said much. A simple good morning to her mom but that was it. But Lorelai was happy when Lauren didn't disagree about going eat breakfast with them.

"That is so sad." Rory tells her mother as they were walking down the sidewalk.

"I know." Lorelai had just told Rory what happened with Luke's uncle.

"Was Luke shaken over his uncle dying?"

"I don't know." Lorelai shrugs. "He's so unflappable. It's hard to tell."

"The man definitely can't be flopped."

The girls walk into Luke's diner, and see that the place was packed with people standing and waiting for Luke's service. "Can I get another cup of coffee?" A lady yells from the back.

"In a minute." Luke mumbles from behind the counter while he's on the phone.

"Is that my food?" A man asks when a plate is brought out.

"More coffee here, too." Another yells.

"In a minute." Luke says again trying to scramble all the plates in his hands while still staying on the phone.

"Is that my food?" The man repeats again.

"More coffee for me, too." Kirk says.

"Shut up, Kirk." Luke snaps back. "Look, I'm doing all I can here folks." Luke walks over to the girls, phone still on his ear, carrying plates across his arm.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Lorelai asks.

They each grab a plate from Luke. "Thanks. I'm on the phone."

"We noticed." Lorelai laughs.

"I can't serve and be on the phone."

"We noticed that, too." Rory tells him as they follow him to the counter.

"But your reenactment of Jerry Lewis in The Diner Guy will wow the critics." Lorelai says.

"Where do the poached eggs go?" Lauren asks Luke.

"Crank in the hat." Luke points to the guy who kept begging for his food earlier.

"Hey, I'm not a crank. You are a crank."

"He is a crank." Lauren says, walking over and putting the plate in front of him.

"And the French toast?" Lorelai asks.

"The lady with the giant purse." Luke tells her.

Lorelai drops the plate at the right table and then watches Luke try to stay on the phone and manage the plates he was carrying. "Hey, fall back here." Lorelai says, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back towards her.

"What are you doing?"

"Come here." Luke walks back behind the counter and Lorelai takes the plates from him. "Just stay on the phone and give me these. Where do they go?"

"Table by the window."

"Don't you number your tables?"

"No."

"You should number your tables."

"What good would that do? If I said a number, you wouldn't know what table's what number."

"But all restaurants number their tables."

"They go to table five."

"Cool." Lorelai smiles. "Which one is that?"

"The table by the window."

Rory walks up. "By the window, Wilma."

Rory takes the plates. "Got it, Gertie."

"Luke, what about the coffee?" Kirk asks.

"I got it." Lorelai tells him. She grabs the coffee and starts pouring it into Kirk's cup.

"Sorry about this." Luke apologizes to Lorelai.

"It's okay."

"The world's full of people who micromanage their lives to the point where they can't wait an extra second."

"We're running out of coffee."

"I'll make some more."

Lorelai starts looking around. "No, I got it."

"Do you know how?"

"Do I?" Lorelai says, astounded that Luke even asked her that question. "I'm Cathy Coffee, mister the bastard offspring of Mrs. Folger and Juan Valdez."

"Hey, Luke, where's Jess?" Rory asks, as she comes behind her mom.

"I don't know." Luke tells her.

"School?"

"Please. Probably upstairs."

"Really? Excuse me." Rory turns around and heads up to Luke's apartment.

"It's too strong." Luke says to Lorelai who is pouring the bag of coffee into the filter.

"It's not."

"That's too strong." He repeats.

"You're on the phone." She reminds him.

"Not everyone likes it strong."

"Then I shall convert them. I'm the Jehovah's coffee girl." Lorelai smiles while Luke just shakes his head and walks away.

Up in the apartment, Rory walks up to the door and starts knocking.

"Jess, open up. I know you're in there." She yells.

Jess opens the door. "My, aren't we bright-eyed and bushy-tailed." He says sarcastically.

"Luke needs you downstairs."

"Why?"

"Because he's on the phone, Caesar's off today, the place is packed. He needs help." Rory says, sternly.

Jess walks back to the tv. "I'll be down in a minute."

"No. Now." She orders him as she walks into the apartment.

"I'm in the middle of something."

Rory grabs Jess by his shoulder and ushers him out. "Just assumer that Jeanie's gonna get Major Healey out of whatever he's in."

"Geez. Thanks for spoiling it for me."

Back downstairs, Lorelai is carrying the coffee pot when she goes to Kirk.

"I need some more Equal."

Lorelai looks down at the packs of sugar. "There's one right there."

"I need seven."

"Seven?" Lorelai reaches down and grabs more. "You're not squirreling these away in your pocket for home use, are you?"

"No." Lorelai watches Kirk squirm a little. "I use seven in my coffee."

"Okay. Good. Then allow me." Lorelai opens seven packs and pours them right into Kirk's drink. "There you go. Go ahead and give that a taste. See if it's to your liking." She says smiling at a nervous Kirk.

"Okay." Kirk takes a sip. "Perfection." He lies.

"Good." Jess falls through the door from the downstairs and quickly gets back up. "You're very graceful."

Jess looks back at Rory. "She pushed me."

"Sue me." Rory says.

"I could've broken my neck."

"As long as it's not your arm. We need your arm." Rory gives him the coffee pot and leads him to the floor.

Luke walks up to Lorelai. "It took me twenty minutes to get past this place's busy signal and then they put me on hold forever."

"Who's keeping you on hold?" Lorelai asks.

"That mortuary in Floriday where my uncle's at."

"Florida?" Lorelai asks, confused. "I thought he was in the area."

"No, no. He spent most of his life here but retired to Orlando. So I got to ship the body back here."

"Oh, he wanted to be buried in Stars Hollow?"

"No. My dad wanted my uncle buried here right next to him."

Lorelai smiles. "That's nice."

"Well, they were really close, and Louie didn't have a family to look out for things. Before my dad died, he asked me if I'd look out for him."

"Good Louie."

"Yeah, he just wanted me to make sure he got a proper funeral. You know, respectful, dignified."

"No horseshow carnation wreaths." Lorelai says, understanding. "Got it. Good man, that dad of yours."

"And since Louie's a war verteran the town Revolutionary War re-enactors will attend the service do the salute thing. I mean, it makes me nauseous, but my dad wanted it. Yeah. Hi. I'm still here." Luke says, quickly, into the phone. "Yes, the deceased is Louie Danes. Right. No, Hartford's not too far. I can do that. Thanks." Luke hangs up. "Great. That's done. Okay. I should probably go pick out a coffin before he gets here."

"Great. Go."

"I have to close up."

"No. You're covered." Lorelai tells him.

"You don't have to do this."

"We don't mind. Go. It'll give me a chance to number the tables."

"Be my guest." Luke smirks.

"Also, are they arranged like this for any particular reason?"

"Don't change anything."

"It's totally not Feng Shui."

"Gertie."

"Go."

Lauren walks over and leans against the counter. She rips a piece of paper out of the notepad and slaps it down in front of her mom. "Okay, I got a few orders. So, unless you want me to quit school and work at a diner then..."

Lorelai grabs the paper. "Go." She smiles.

"Okay." Lauren goes to walk away, but Lorelai grabs her daughter's hand.

"Are you okay?" She asks, sincerely.

"I don't know." Lauren says, honestly. Lorelai reaches over and kisses Lauren, lovingly, on her cheek. Lauren gives her mom a small smile before heading out.

At the Inn, Lorelai finally managed to get out of the diner to head over to her own work. When she walks into the lobby, Michel is there impatiently waiting for her.

"Lorelai, good. Tell me about the nine rooms set aside here there's no name anywhere that I can see, and no credit card to hold them. Mistake?"

"No, it's for Luke."

"For whom?"

"Luke from Luke's diner." Lorelai tells him.

"Nine rooms for Luke from Luke's diner?" Michel asks.

"That's right."

"French Fry convention?"

"No, just personal."

"Milkshake symposium?"

"No, it's personal. I'm vouching for him."

"Soda pop seminar?" Michel continues on.

"Stop."

"Pickle party?"

"He's got nine rooms. Now stifle." Lorelai turns around, but stops when she sees her mom walk through the door. "Mom, hi there." She says, nervously.

"Lorelai, hello." Emily says, politely.

Lorelai looks confused. "I'm sorry. Did we get our signals crossed? I don't remember making an appointment with you."

"We have to make appointments to see eachother?" Emily asks while they walk towards the dining area.

"No. But..good one."

"I'm not here to see you."

"Oh, this isn't about the DAR meeting?"

"No, that's ready to go. I'm here to meet with Sookie."

"Sookie?" Lorelai questions, confusedly.

"I'm a little late. Traffic was awful. Excuse me, would you?" Emily walks passed Lorelai and right into the dining area. Lorelai follows and is hit with different beautiful table settings at each table.

"Oh, my God." Lorelai says.

Sookie walks up to her. "Aren't they beautiful?"

"Gorgeous. What are they for?"

"My wedding."

"Your wedding?"

Emily walks up to them. "Emily, hi!" Sookie says happily.

"Well, is this everything I said it was?" Emily asks her with a smile.

"And more."

Lorelai turns back to Sookie. "What do you mean they're for your wedding?"

"Oh, it's this company's sample place setting. Emily set me up with them." Sookie explains. "They did Celine Dion's wedding and Steven Spielberg's daughter's, Jack Russell Terrier's 'bark' mitzvah."

"You're putting me on."

Emily and Sookie begin to laugh. "I couldn't make that up."

"Excuse me." Emily says to the help. "This one's slightly asymmetrical. Fix, please."

"What is with the fancy place settings? I thought you were gonna keep it simple?" Lorelai asks when Emily is out of earshot.

"It is simple."

Lorelai points to the plant. "It lights up."

"Just flip a switch. Simple."

"How did my mother get so involved?" Lorelai asks while they walk around the place.

"She's not that involved. She just mentioned the other day that she knew some people that could make samples of stuff for us, like table settings, flower arrangements."

"We were gonna do the flowers ourselves."

"But what a hassle that would be."

"It's to save money. Flowers cost a lot." Lorelai reminds Sookie.

"But the sampling of what they're doing today is free. I'm not committed to any of this."

"I hope not." Lorelai smiles very unsure.

"It's true. I say no, it all goes away. Not a penny is spent."

"Okay."

"And it's fun."

"I don't want to take away your fun." Lorelai says, honestly. "I just want you to be careful. You've entered 'Emily-land.' It's an upside down world where the Horchow house is low-rent and diamonds less than 24 carats are Cracker Jack trinkets and Bentleys are for losers who can't afford a Rolls."

"But I'm okay. Really."

"Alright. I have to help Luke with the lunch rush, so I gotta go."

"Go. We're fine!"

Sookie ushers Lorelai away. "Okay." Lorelai walks passed Emily. "Bye, Mom."

"Is that a fingerprint? My god!" Emily picks up the glass to get a closer look. "That's a fingerprint! Who touched this?" Lorelai turns around and rolls her eyes. This was all going to blow right up in Sookie's face. She just knew it.

At Luke's, Rory is walking around filling people's cups up with coffee, Lorelai is behind the counter grabbing the plates from the kitchen while Lauren helps out in the back. A man walks in and sits in front of them.

"Hello, there." Lorelai greets him. "How's it going?"

"Very good, young lady. You still serving breakfast?" He asks.

"We serve it all day. What'll you have?"

"Two eggs up on toast."

"Up, huh?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah."

"Wouldn't you rather have scrambled?"

"Nope, up's how I like them."

"Scrambled's better. Give it shot. Say you want two scrambled eggs on toast, please." Lorelai begs the man.

"Okay, young lady. Two scrambled eggs on toast." He repeats.

Lorelai smiles and walks by the kitchen. "Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck 'em." She calls out to them. "That's real live diner talk." She says with excitement.

"Got it!" Lauren yells.

Lorelai grabs the plate and continues talking to the man. "See, the 'wreck 'em' is the scrambled party."

"I deduced that." He tells her.

Lorelai takes the food and brings it to Taylor just as Kirk walks in. "Hey, Kirk."

"Hello." Kirk says back. "Where's Luke?"

"He's busy with some stuff so Rory, Lauren, and I are helping out." Lorelai explains as Kirk sits down and she makes her way back behind the counter. "What can I get you?"

"I don't know. I want lunch, but I'm not sure what to get."

"I have a suggestion: a hamburger with some strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert?"

"Sounds good."

"Yo, burn one, then pass me a pink stick and throw some mud on it!" Lorelai yells. "God, I love this business." Lorelai grabs a plate of burger and fries and heads up to Luke's apartment. Luke opens the door. "Hey, I brought you a wimpy with a rose pinned on it."

Luke looks down at the burger, confused. "A what?"

"A turkey burger with onions."

"Oh, thanks. Come in." Luke says, letting Lorelai into his apartment.

"How's the money pit coming?" Lorelai asks about the construction.

"Just..." He points to the big open space in the corner. "That's it."

"What's the matter?" Lorelai asks, noticing Luke's weird attitude.

Luke lets out a big sigh. "None of them are coming, not one."

"Who?"

"My relatives, the ones I booked the rooms for. Not one is coming to Louie's funeral."

"You're kidding. Why?"

"I don't know. Which lame-o excuse do you want to hear first? A bunch of them claim they can't get out of work."

"That's not so lame-o."

"Randy and Barbara don't want to miss their kid's rugby semifinal."

"Rugby has semifinals?"

"My sister never even called back. My cousins that my dad helped put through college said they were too exhausted from a fishing trip. And slightly disturbed cousin Frannie said she can't leave because her Petey's sick."

"Son?"

"Parrot."

"Petey, the parrot?"

"I saw the stupid thing once flapping its wings like crazy, banging around squawking the only two words it knows over and over: 'Petey' and 'gorgeous.'

"That's disturbing."

"My family's disturbing."

"I'm so sorry."

"This is wrong. This is not how it's done. A family member dies, you pay your respects, period."

"Look at it this way, if they don't want to be there, you don't want them there."

"My dad wanted them to be there."

"I know. But, hey, Louie lived in Stars Hollow most of his life. So people from here will be there, right?" Lorelai asks trying to lighten up the mood.

"Right."

"I know it's upsetting, but maybe it's better this way."

"Yeah, I guess. I really hate that bird."

Rory walks in. "Hey, Mom?"

Lorelai turns around. "What's up, buddy? You got a herd of bulls shopping for china?"

"What?" Luke asks.

"Customers." Lorelai tells him. "How long have you owned a diner?"

"Sorry. Jackson's outside. He wants to talk to you. Says it important." Rory tells her mom.

"About what?"

"I don't know. He seems upset."

"Alright." Lorelai turns back to Luke. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks." He says, sincerely.

"You might want to study that diner talk."

"I'll do that tonight." He promises.

Lorelai gets up and walks out while Rory looks around the apartment. "Hey, Luke, where's Jess?"

"I don't know. Probably out playing basketball."

"That little punk."

Lorelai walks downstairs and sees a woman looking at a menu. "Uh, hi. Can I take your order?"

"Yes. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, no mayo." The woman tells her.

Lorelai walks to the kitchen. "Yo! I need a piggy-piggy with a green bed...green blanket."

Lauren peeks her head out looking very confused. "A what?" She asks her mom.

"BLT, no mayo. Rats." Lorelai walks away and goes outside to find a very sad Jackson. "Jackson?"

"I'm a miserable man." Jackson tells her.

"What's up?"

"Remember that sweet, simple, affordable little wedding Sookie and I agreed on with minimal disagreement, none in fact, perhaps the first time in the history of wedding planning that a couple agreed 100% on everything?" Jackson asks.

"Yes."

"Gone. Ancient history. It's the library of Alexandria, the colossus of Rhodes. It's Pop Rocks. It's over. And do you know why?"

"My mother?" Lorelai guesses.

"Look." Jackson and Lorelai look across the square at Sookie and Emily measuring something.

"What are they doing?"

"They're measuring the town."

"They're what?"

"They're measuring the entire town with tape measures. Your mother got hers at Neiman Marcus. It's platinum with gold leaf. It costs more than my car."

"I'm so sorry." Lorelai says very embarrassed.

"Look, I love Sookie, and I want her to have what she wants. But, you see what they're doing now?" They look at Sookie and Emily again.

"Yeah."

"According to their diagrams, that's where the 16-piece orchestra goes."

"How are they gonna fit a 16-piece orchestra in the gazebo?"

"Oh, they want to move the gazebo."

"What?"

"A gazebo that's been there for 100 years, and they want to move it. Who moves a gazebo?" Jackson asks in frustration. "What kind of twisted mind even thinks about moving a gazebo?"

"Okay. I'll take care of this." Lorelai promises.

"She's so excited."

"She's brainwashed. She's Patricia Hearst and my mother is the SLA."

"I just hope it's not too late."

"I hope so, too."

Rory comes back dragging Jess towards the diner, pulling his shirt. "Watch the shirt." Jess tells her.

"Cork it!"

Lorelai walks back into the diner where Lauren is handing a few plates out to the right tables. "Hey, how's it going?"

"It's going good. I think I should quit school and just work in a diner for the rest of my life." Lauren jokes.

Lorelai grabs Lauren's face and stares at her. "I think too much grease got into your brain."

"Ha. ha." Lauren says, rolling her eyes and going back to the counter, but before she does, the door opens and Elizabeth steps in. Lauren and Elizabeth freeze, looking at eachother, before Elizabeth turns around quickly and walks out. Lorelai and Rory look at Lauren with a confused look on their faces. Lauren ignores them and walks back behind the counter.

"Okay. So, I know I said you can't hang out with Elizabeth, but I never said when you see her you can't say hello." Lorelai tells her daughter.

Lauren looks up at her mom and sister who walk up to her. She shrugs. "It's not big deal."

"No. I think that's a really big deal. Usually, you two are jumping up and down and hugging one another. That was just weird."

"It's nothing." Lauren says again before returning herself back into the kitchen.

"That was really weird." Rory says to Lorelai.

"Yeah, I know." Lorelai says as she watches Lauren in the kitchen.

At the Inn, Sookie is sitting at a computer in her kitchen with Michel watching from behind. Lorelai walks in.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"I'm downloading wedding stuff from Prague." Sookie tells her.

Lorelai grimaces. "Oh, you're kidding."

"It's streaming in right now. That's interent talk. Streaming. Did you know that?" Lorelai walks to get some coffee. "And did you know it's not called Czechoslovakia anymore. Just Czech Republic. Slovakia is its own separate thing. It's weird, isn't it? Like saying there's no more Connecticut. It's just 'Connec' and 'Ticut.'"

Lorelai walks back over. "What are you downloading from Prague?"

"This will much amuse you." Michel tells her.

"Color samples for the big ceramic stands." Sookie says.

"Stands for what?"

"For the giant papier-mache mushrooms."

"What are they mushrooms for?" Lorelai asks.

"For the midgets dressed like angels to dance under, silly."

Michel starts laughing. "Oh, my God." Lorelai says.

"Emily found the best papier-mache mushroom maker in Paris. He's much better than the guy in Belgium. What a hack."

Lorelai reaches over and closes the computer. "Sookie, honey, I need you to stop staring at the screen. We need to talk."

"Please. Please don't talk her out of these things." Michel begs. "I do not want to die without seeing midgets dancing with mushrooms."

"Stay out of this."

"You're not fun." Michel pouts and walks back out to the lobby.

"What is it, honey?" Sookie asks.

Lorelai bends down to get eye-level with Sookie so that she can see how concern she is. "The danger of Emily-world is that you don't always know you're in it when actually you are."

"Not the Emily-world stuff again." Sookie groans as she gets up and gets back to work.

"Sookie, have you run the numbres on any of this? What is this costing you?"

"I don't know the full cost, but your mother is getting me 50% off of everything. She is so connected." Sookie says, very impressed.

"But 50% off a load of money is still half a load of money. You don't have that to spend." Lorelai reminds her.

"Well, if I scrimp, I can afford a quarter load."

"That's still too much."

"Well, your mother said she'd chip in a little."

"That is way inappropriate." Lorelai chuckles.

"I didn't take her up on it, but it was nice."

"Sookie, this isn't you: the midgets, mushroms, and God knows what else. And it isn't Jackson either."

Sookie looks up, concerned. "What do you mean?"

"We talked."

"You and Jackson talked?"

"I'm sorry, but he came to me all upset. And I love both of you and it just seemed like it was time for me to meddle."

"He was upset?" Sookie asks, getting upset herself.

"He was pretty upset."

"Why didn't he just talk to me?"

"Because he's Jackson. He wants you to be happy and to give you everything you want." Lorelai explains. "So what it comes down to is, is this what you want?"

"Well, maybe the midgets are a little over the top and the mushrooms..." Sookie stops when she realizes how crazy she was sounding. "Ooh.. Oh, my God. It's all sounding so silly now."

Lorelai rubs Sookie's arms in reassurance. "You're coming out of it. Keep going."

"No, it's not what I want." Sookie admits. "We're supposed to keep this nice and simple. God, we had it all worked out."

"So go back."

"I will go back. That is if Jackson still wants to marry me." Sookie panics.

"Of course he still wants to."

"I'm gonna call him and I'm going to tell him that it's all changing back." Sookie smiles while walking over to the phone.

"Good."

"Oh, I should call and cancel some stuff first. I've got to call Belgium, Oslo, Copenhagen, Bora Bora."

Lorelai's phone begins to ring, so she looks in her purse for it while still listening to Sookie. "What did you order from there?"

"I'm gonna shield you from that one."

"Thanks." Lorelai anwers her phone. "Luke? Okay, slow down. I'll be right there."

At Elizabeth's, Lauren looked really angry as she climbed the steps to the front door. She banged on the door until it opened. Elizabeth looks confused.

"Why are you moving?" Lauren finally asks. She had been holding that in for a couple days now, but seeing Elizabeth yesterday finally set her off.

"Now you're asking?" Elizabeth asks, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, I'm asking. You haven't been in school in weeks. It's the only time we are able to talk to eachother and you aren't there. Why are you moving!?" Lauren yells.

Elizabeth sighs and walks out onto the porch, closing the door behind her. "You know you are going to get in trouble if anyone sees you here."

"I don't care!" Elizabeth sits down on one of the steps. "Are you going to sit or what?" Lauren walks over and sits down. They are quiet for a few minutes. Both wanted to say so much, but they didn't know how to say it. "My mom, as you already know, is barely home in the first place." Elizabeth looks at Lauren, who is just looking back at her so she decides to go on. "When I came back from where we were suppose to meet, my mom was home early for the first time. I went through the front door and the first thing she did was yell at me. I was grounded, like you. I wasn't suppose to go anywhere but to school and back."

"So is that why she is making you move?" Lauren asks, quietly.

Elizabeth shrugs. "Not exactly. I started yelling at her, too. There was a lot of yelling that night, and some where in between all that yelling I told her that I hated her and I didn't want to live with her anymore." Lauren turns away, holding back tears. Elizabeth wanted to move. "She said I didn't have to anymore. That I could go live with my dad in California. I said fine and she went call my dad who agreed to everything. It didn't hit me, what had happened, until the next day. I really didn't think my mom would let me go, or that my dad would even say yeah, but two days later my mom comes home with boxes. And that's what I've been doing for the last couple weeks. Packing. We were getting my transcripts and everything together for the new school and I already shipped some of my stuff to California. I leave tomorrow night."

"So you're really moving?" Lauren asks as she lets a tear slip from her eye.

Elizabeth nods her head slowly. "Yeah. I wanted to tell you, but I just didn't know how."

"So you were just going to leave without saying goodbye?" Lauren asks in disbelief.

"No. I was going to tell you before I left. I wasn't expecting you to come to my door. I'm sorry, Lauren."

They sit for a few minutes not looking or talking to eachother. Elizabeth never wanted things to end up this way. She didn't want to leave her best friend. Lauren, on the other hand, knew they weren't going to be best friends anymore. There was a whole lot more people in California than there is in little old Stars Hollow. Elizabeth was more outgoing than she was so Lauren knew that it would be easy for Elizabeth to make friends. But, now, Lauren was without her friend. Her only friend that understood her and she got along with. The only one who would make fun of things with her when they were at school or just walking through town. There was no more Elizabeth and Lauren. "I am really going to miss you." Lauren finally says.

"I'm going to miss you, too." Elizabeth chokes on her tears and pulls her best friend to her. They sit there holding eachother. "We will email, write, call, whatever. But we will keep in touch."

Lauren felt this to be too good to be true, but she wasn't going to argue. "Okay." They pull apart and just look at eachother. "You realize we've never been that far apart since we were five?"

Elizabeth chuckles. "Well, it's a test. We will see how long it'll last. I mean, I have to come back some times. My mom is still here."

Lauren holds up her pinky. "Promise?"

Elizabeth latches her pinky around Lauren's and they twist them. "Promise."

At the funeral home, Luke is standing in front of a coffin when Lorelai walks in.

"There you are." She says when she sees him.

"It won't close." Luke tells her.

"What?"

"The lid." Luke turns towards Louie which makes Lorelai look, too.

"Oh. Hello, Louie." She says as little creeped out.

"That's Louie."

"Nice tan." She says as they walk closer. "So, now, you say the lid won't close?"

"Yes."

"Did you buy the right size?"

"Of course."

"It's the model we recommend for those of medium height and weight." The man in the corner tells her.

"And he's medium height and weight." Luke says.

"Why won't it close?" Lorelai asks.

"Because of the stuff. He left a list of stuff he wanted buried with him."

"It's not uncommon." The man says.

"It's very long list. His fishing reel, bowling tophy, a flask, his antique dueling pistols, his copy of Sherman's memoirs."

Lorelai tries to get a better look. "So, is all the stuff in there now?"

"Yes, it is. I shoved it in the best I could, but it won't close which defeats the purpose of having a damn casket in the first place."

"May I?" Lorelai asks.

"Give it a shot."

Lorelai walks over and tries to push the lid down and it bounces right back up, scaring her. "Whoa!"

"The football signed by Johnny Unitas gives it that bounce." Luke tells her.

"What if we move the gas mask and pith helmet down towards the feet?"

"That end already had every baseball card he ever bought, thousands of them."

"Oh! Bungee cord!" Lorelai looks around, but the man in the corner gives her a disapproving shake of his head. "No. Uh, what if we got some people from the office here to sit on the lid and we could latch it? Do you have anybody you could spring?" The man shakes his head. "I'm out of ideas." She sighs.

"So am I. You know what? To hell with this. I can't deal with anymore." Luke says getting very angry.

"It has to be dealt with."

"No, it doesn't." Luke argues. "It's not as if he deserves my help or my respect."

"The man was your uncle." Lorelai reminds him.

"He was a jerk!"

"Don't say that."

"No, no. No, everyone is right. I was cutting Louie slack out of respect for my dad but the man was rotten and mean and selfish all his life. He's even selfish in death! Other people would have loved to have those baseball cards. I would have loved to had those cards. He's got Lou Gehrig's rookie card, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, tons of others. But, no. My uncle, King Tut, has to take all of them to the afterlife with him." Luke yells out bitterly. "I'm done. I've had it!" Luke walks to the door and grabs his coat. "From now on, it's just the bare minimum and that's it. Dig a big hole and just dump the casket in unlatched. If stuff falls out, find. Pile on enough dirt and make sure nothing's showing." Luke tells the man before he storms out of the room leaving Lorelai alone with the man and Uncle Louie.

"I'm assuming that wouldn't be appropriate, either."

"No." The man tells her.

"I didn't think so."

Later that day, Lorelai and Rory are back in the diner. Luke walks in.

"Luke, there you are. I was so worried." Lorelai says as Luke walks up to her.

"Yeah, thanks for covering again. This'll be the last time. I promise."

"It's okay. Where were you?"

"Well, first, I walked around a bunch trying to clear my head. Saw a lot of Hartford. What a cesspool."

"You're not a city man." Lorelai reminds him.

"Then I calmed down and figured dumping Louie's body in an open grave with all his tuff probably would be a little cold."

"Just a tad." Lorelai smiles.

"So I got a yellow pages and found a big-and-tall casket shop in Hartford."

Lorelai laughs. "You're kidding."

"Nope. I found a casket for my 160-pound uncle and his 140 pounds of stuff. Got the lid to shut the first time we tired. So the funeral's on as scheduled." Luke says, proudly. He was glad to have everything over and done.

"Good."

"I still don't know why I'm doing this."

"You're doing this for your dad." Lorelai tells him.

"I guess, although he's dead so he'd never know if I was doing it any different."

"He knows. He's the big Luke picture screen on 24 hours a day, he watches and smiles. And you're doing it cause you're you."

"I'm gonna change, then you can retire from your diner career forever." Luke walks away and goes upstairs just in time to see Emily walking through the door.

Lorelai groans before Emily approaches. "Hi, Mom."

Emily looks at her daughter in confusion. "Since when do you work here?"

"I'm just lending a hand. What's going on?"

"I went by the inn to work with Sookie on her wedding."

"Yeah?"

"And she fired me."

"She didn't fire you."

"She's changed her mind on all the things we planned."

"Maybe she did."

"No, she didn't. I know what's behind this. That is, who's behind this."

"Mom, it was getting to be too much for her and her fiance."

"I knew it." Emily smirks.

"These are not wealthy people. Do you understand that? They're saving for a home and your midgets were dancing between them and their dreams."

"You say 'midgets' like it's so absurd."

"Do you hear yourself?" Lorelai asks.

"I don't see what was so wrong with my helping Sookie plan her wedding."

Lorelai shakes her head smiling. "Mom, come on."

"What?"

"You weren't planning Sookie's wedding."

"Whose wedding was I planning?"

"Mine." Lorelai says giving her mom a ridiculous look.

"Don't be silly." Emily says trying not to smile.

"Mom, your version for this wedding and all the over-the-top stuff, like flowers, bunting, champagne fountain, and the haute-couture dress. Who's wearing that wedding dress in your mind's eye, Mom? Sookie? Or me?"

"I wasn't planning your wedding, Lorelai."

"Right." Lorelai says, still not believing her.

"The wedding I was planning was for Sookie. The mushrooms and colors, they all seemed like fun, a little crazy just like she is. It definitely was not for you."

"Okay, Mom." Lorelai says.

"I know that you'd never let me plan your wedding. I gave up on that dream a long time ago. Yours was going to be a Russian winter theme, the Romanovs."

"Before the firing squad, I assume?" Lorelai jokes.

"Snow-white roses, trees with white lights and candles. Snow everywhere. You arriving in a silver sleigh with white horses."

Lorelai smiles. "Wow."

"You hate the idea."

"No, I just..it just doesn't seem like me."

"It would have been beautiful." Emily says rolling her eyes.

"I'm sure it would have been. But it probably wouldn't be appropriate anymore being as I'm probably standing in your reception hall."

Lorelai looks around a little afraid to ask. "Excuse me?"

"Burgers and fries for the dinner.." Lorelai gasps at what her mom was assuming. "..the bride walks down the aisle with a ketchup dispenser in her hand."

"Please tell me what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about Luke." Emily grins.

Lorelai groans. "Luke? Mom!"

"Well, it's obvious, Lorelai."

"No, it's not, Mom."

"You're with him constantly."

"He feeds me."

"You bring up his name constantly."

"Once again, he feeds me."

"The moment he calls, you run to his side."

"He's my friend. He needed me. I had to be there."

"I know you did." Emily smiles just as Luke comes down and stands next to Lorelai.

"Hi." Luke smiles at Emily.

"Hello. I have to go. I'll see you for dinner tonight, Lorelai. And Luke, I'm sure I'll see you again soon." Lorelai glares at her mother as Emily walks towards the front door before turning back around. "What do you think of the Romanovs?" She asks Luke.

"They probably had it coming." Luke tells her.

Emily rolls her eyes. "A match made in Heaven." She says before walking out.

Just as Emily walks out, though, Lauren is storming in. She knew she seen her grandmother but she didn't even have time to question that right now. Lorelai looks up and smiles at her daughter. "Hey, hon." Lorelai finally noticed Lauren's tear stained face and the angry face she was carrying. "Wha-"

"Elizabeth is moving!" Lauren yells at her.

"What?" Lorelai asks confused.

"Elizabeth is moving and it's your fault! If I wouldn't have stopped hanging out with her then she wouldn't be moving. Are you happy now!?" Lauren runs out of the diner.

Lorelai stands there, confused. She looks at Luke. "Go. Go. I got this." He tells her.

Lorelai doesn't think twice. She is out of the diner and chasing after her daughter.

At the house, Lorelai runs in, out of breath, and looks around the empty house.

"Lauren, where are you! Geez, you can run fast." She says, walking around looking for her daughter. "I know you are here. I followed you without stopping. Maybe you get that athletic thing from me. Ha. Nevermind." Lorelai climbs the stairs. "Lauren!" She calls out before going into Lauren's room where Lauren is pacing up and down the room. "Lauren." Lorelai grabs Lauren by her shoulders to make her stop moving. "Hey, talk to me."

Lauren pushes Lorelai's hands away. "I don't want to talk to you." She cries. "Elizabeth is moving and it's your fault."

"Hey, how's it my fault?" Lorelai asks.

"You told me I couldn't hang out with her anymore. We were never separated, Mom. Ever! And when you went with Grandma to the spa I tried sneaking out to see her, but Rory caught me."

"Hold on. You snuck out?" Lorelai asks.

"That doesn't matter anymore!" Lauren yells.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry."

"She was waiting. We were going to talk about everything that has been happening and we were going to laugh and make fun of stuff, but when I didn't show up, she went back home. Her mom was so mad at her that Elizabeth said that she wanted to leave. She is moving to California to live with her dad!" Lauren cries and falls to the floor.

"So her mom didn't kick her out?" Lorelai asks.

"No!"

"Elizabeth wanted to leave?"

"Yes!"

Lorelai sighs and sits down in front of Lauren. "Honey, I am so sorry."

"No, you're not. You're happy she is leaving. It's not fair!" Lorelai tries to hold her daughter, but Lauren pushes away. "No." But Lorelai doesn't give up. She grabs Lauren and holds her as tight as she could to her chest as her daughter cries. "It's not fair."

"Lauren, I am so so sorry." Lorelai tells her. "I never wanted Elizabeth to leave. I just wanted you guys to have a little time apart."

"We are never going to talk again." Lauren cries.

"Yes, you will." Lorelai assures her.

Lauren shakes her head against her mom's chest. "No. She is going to make new friends there. I won't be her best friend anymore. Why did I have to take that pill? Why!?"

Lorelai closes her eyes letting her own tears escape for her daughter. "It's not your fault either, okay? Lauren, you can't blame yourself."

"I'm not. I'm blaming you."

Lorelai chuckles and holds Lauren tighter. "Fine. You can blame me then, but just know I never wanted any of this to happen, okay? I love Elizabeth like she is my own daughter. But you two were getting into so much trouble that I just wanted you two to take some space apart from one another. It wasn't going to be forever."

"Well now it will be forever. Now I don't have anyone."

Lorelai never wanted her daughter to think she didn't have anyone. She pulls Lauren up so that she could see her face. "Hey, you have a lot of people. You have me and Rory. This town. Your grandparents."

"You can't come to school with me."

Lorelai laughs. "No, but I'll be there when you get out. Hey, we'll get through this, okay? Elizabeth is not gone forever. Believe me." Lorelai says, knowing that it's true.

Lauren didn't have anything else to say. She was going to miss her best friend and that was that. She reaches her arm up and hold her mom tight around her neck as Lorelai wraps her arms around her daughter's small frame. Lorelai knew it was going to be a long time before Lauren was okay, but she was going to be there for her.

At the graveyard, Lorelai and Luke are standing by the casket in front of the pastor.

"We're here to honor Louie, to pay our respects, and to bid him of sorrowful goodbye." The reverend says.

"You okay?" Lorelai whispers to Luke.

"Yeah. I'm not big on funerals in general."

"Nobody is."

"He passed away in his sleep, so the end came peacefully for Louie which I'm sure is a great comfort to all who knew him." The reverend says.

"The passing away part was a great comfort for all who knew him." Luke whispers.

Lorelai nudges him. "I didn't know him." The reverend says.

"Good thing."

"Shh!"

"But I understand he was find man, destined to be missed by many."

"Especially the ones that were suing him."

"Stop." Lorelai says. "Sorry, Father."

"Reverend." He corrects her.

"Right."

"Now let us witness Louie Danes as he is interred and brought to the Lord."

A man comes and lowers the casket down in the ground. "It was nice and intimate service." Lorelai says to Luke.

"I guess everybody deserves something at the end. Thanks for coming."

"I wouldn't have missed it."

Luke looks up when he hears drumming in the background. "What is that?" Luke and Lorelai look forward and see Andrew drumming in his re-enactment uniform. "Is that Andrew?"

"I believe it is." Lorelai smiles.

The rest of the group walks up behind him as they march towards the grave. Luke turns and smiles at Lorelai. "Thanks."

Lorelai wipes a few of her tears. "It's what your dad wanted." After the ceremony, Lorelai and Luke are walking back to the diner. "Do you think he's in Heaven?"

"I hope so, just so my dad can kick his butt around the place."

"Can you kick in heaven?"

"It's probably frowned upon."

"Yeah, plus you're all see-through and gauzy. Dad's foot could go right through him."

"This is a silly conversation." Luke looks at the diner at everyone walking in. "What's all this?" He asks.

"I have no idea." They walk in and the place is packed with people. Rory walks up to them. "Hi."

"What's going on?" Luke asks her.

"It's kind of like a wake for Louie." Rory tells him.

"Really?" Lorelai says, surprised.

"I thought you set it up."

"I didn't set it up."

"Well, it's going well. People brought a ton of food, if you guys are hungry." Rory walks away.

"Huh."

"This is unexpected." Luke says.

"Very."

"Don't you have wakes for people you like?"

"Think it might be for you."

"Am I dead?"

"Face it. People like you."

"Shut up."

"How can they resist charm like that?"

Down the road, though, Lauren is standing on the sidewalk across from Elizabeth watching Elizabeth and her mom pack the car up with the rest of Elizabeth's stuff for the airport. Elizabeth looks over at her friend and gives her small wave. Lauren returns it before wiping away her tears that she was happy Elizabeth couldn't see because she was so far away. Lauren watches them get in the car and drive off. She wasn't sure how she was going to get through this, but she knew she had to. She knew Elizabeth would be just fine.

Lauren walks into the diner where everyone is gathering around talking about Louie. She walks over to her mom, who wraps her arm around her daughter while the listen to everyone tell their different stories about Luke's uncle. She knew she was going to have to get use to this, but Lauren also knew she wouldn't have it any other way.


	37. Everything Changes

It's dinner at the grandparents once again. Emily and the girls are sitting quietly at the table. Emily is looking at her watch as Lorelai and her daughters are staring very hard at the roast that is in front of them.

"Mom?" Lorelai calls out desperately.

"No." Emily says sternly.

Lorelai sighs. "We're starving."

"We're waiting for your father."

"It's gonna get cold."

"We're waiting for your father." Emily repeats.

"We've been waiting forever."

"We have not."

"Forever. Godot was just here, he said: 'I ain't waiting for Richard,' grabbed a roll and left. It's been forever." Lorelai says again, dramatically.

"When we gather as family, we eat as one. We don't eat in shifts, you know that, and so does Richard."

"When did he get that antique car?" Rory asks her grandmother, curiously.

Emily rolls her eyes. "A couple of horrible weeks ago."

"What happened to that oil-painting hobby?" Lorelai asks while digging in her purse.

"Well, you know your father. We he couldn't foresee revaling Cezanne he lost interest so he bought that car." Emily explains while she watches Lorelai pass a piece of candy bar over to Lauren. "Lorelai!" She exclaims.

Lorelai and Lauren quickly move from eachother and sit up straighter. "Mom, it's not dinner. It's just my private stash."

"It's eating, and we're not eating." Emily looks over at Lauren. Lauren sighs and spits the chocolate back out of her mouth and dumps it onto a napkin.

"You know, you're bound by the rules of the Geneva Convention just like everyone else." Richard walks in wearing his mechanic suit. "Hey, no one told me it was casual Friday." Lorelai jokes.

"Hello, everyone." Richard says smiling at them. "You haven't started?" He asks, surprised when he sees their empty plates.

Emily looks her husband up and down with a disgusted look on her face. "Of course we haven't started. We were waiting for you. I thought you were almost done."

"Well, I was, but this car has a mind of its own. As I turned to leave, it began spraying a green solution at me."

"Yuck." Lauren grimaces.

"Yuck, indeed." Richard agrees. "Well, go on, start, no sense in wating for me."

Lorelai jumpes excited as she takes the fork and starts cutting the roast. "Coolness!"

"Stop!" Emily orders them.

"Gomer said."

"We are waiting for you, Richard. In thirty five years, I have never started a dinner without you unless you were out of town or ill. Elsa, take everything away and keep it warm." Emily calls out to the maid. She looks back up at Richard. "Now please go upstairs and get ready so we can enjoy a nice family dinner together."

Richard sighs. "I'll be right back."

"Right back, Dad." Lorelai tells him as he is walking away. "In fact, change on the way upstairs, make it a navy shower, quick soap, quick rinse, and no excessive posing!" The maid comes and begins clearing the table as they all watch with sadness. "Hungry."

At the diner, Rory and Lauren walk in with their mom. They all wanted breakfast before heading off to school and work. Luke is standing near the door, pouring coffee, when the girls walk in.

"Hey, there. Anywhere?" Lorelai asks him.

"Anywhere you want." Luke tells her.

Lorelai looks around then walking over to a guy who is sitting at a table next to the door. "Could you move, please?" She asks him.

"What?" He asks, confused.

Luke walks up behind her. "Anywhere where there's no people."

"Like I'm a mind reader. I was just joking." She tells the guy while leading her girls to an empty table. "Hm, that's funny."

"What?" Lauren asks.

"Something different here, something changed." Lorelai begins looking around the diner while they sit down.

"Impossible." Rory tells her.

"No, I swear, there's something."

"I'd be very disappointed if something changed in here."

"Why are you so anti-change?" Lorelai asks.

"Because most change sucks."

"I agree." Lauren says.

Lorelai gasps when she looks up. "The chalkboard."

"What about it?" Rory asks, looking up as well.

"Luke's special omelette." Lorelai reads. "That is brand new."

"A new special?" Lauren asks surprised and a bit bummed about it. "His four-slice French toast has been up there since I was born."

"You just got to let that go, baby." Lorelai jokes dramatically.

Luke walks up to them. "What can I get you?"

"You have a new special."

"I sure do."

"Nice." Lorelai smiles. "What is the special omelette?"

"You won't like it."

"How do you know?"

"Because you've been eating here for years and I know what you like, you won't like it."

"Can I at least hear what it is?"

"Fine. It's three eggs with bits of bacon.."

"I like bacon."

"..cubed tomatoes.."

"Sounds good."

"..Swiss cheese, and a dash of oregano."

"A dash, he says."

"I've got other customers."

"I'm gonna go with the special omelette, with a side of bacon." Lorelai tells him.

"There's bacon in the omelette."

"Skip the bacon."

"The side of bacon?"

"The bacon in the omelette."

"Hold the bacon."

"Can I get Jack cheese instead of Swiss? Swiss is so stringy."

"Fine, Jack cheese."

"Also, I think I'm allergic to oregano, so hold that, too. And some coffee."

"So just eggs, tomatoes and Jack cheese." Luke reads from his notepad.

"Not too many tomatoes."

"Light on the tomatoes."

"Very light, just a teeny, tiny amount, practically none."

"I'm skipping the tomatoes. It's an omelette with Jack cheese."

"Perfect."

"You did this on purpose."

"Did what?"

"French toast for me." Rory tells him.

"And a side of bacon." Lauren adds.

Luke rolls his eyes and walks away leaving Lorelai laughing.

"That was cruel." Rory smiles at her mother.

"I know." Lorelai looks back up at the sign. "Look how hard he worked on that sign and everything. Look at the handwriting. It's so precise, so determined. It's Focused Luke."

"That's Jess's handwriting." Rory tells her.

"Really? How do you know Jess's writing?"

"Oh, well, I lent him a book, and he wrote some stuff in it."

"He vandalized one of your books?"

"No, he didn't vandalize it, he wrtoe in the margins, thoughts and stuff."

"What, like, 'play basketball, eat a sandwich,' stuff like that?"

"No, like margin stuff. People like Mark Twain wrote in margins." Rory explains.

"'Pilot of steamboat, write Huckleberry Finn.'"

Rory folds her arms up on the table. "Forget it."

"No, I'm sure margin writing is common." The front door opens and Dean walks in. "Oh, hey, you didn't tell me Dean was joining us." Lorelai whispers.

"Hi." Dean smiles as he walks up to them and gently kisses a surprised Rory on her lips.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just dropped by to say hello." Dean tells her.

"How'd you know we were here?" Rory asks.

"You're always here."

"We're not always here."

Lorelai gives her daughter a strange look. "Do you want to eat with us, Dean?"

"Rory, is that okay?"

"Yes, you don't have to ask."

Dean sits and Luke walks back up to them. "Hey, we're four." Lorelai tells him.

"I did the math. You gonna eat something?" Luke asks Dean.

"Sure, yeah." Dean turns around and looks up at the board. "I'll take the special omelette."

Lorelai and Lauren start laughing. "You put him up to this?" Luke asks Lorelai.

"No, I did not."

"Sure. You don't even know what's in it." Luke says to him.

"I'm not picky."

"So you'll send it back after I make it?"

"No."

"Right, I'll come back when I've got time for this." Luke says and walks away.

Dean looks confused. "What was that all about?"

"I think it was a little something in your attitude, mister." Lorelai jokes.

Dean looks at Rory who just smiles back at him.

At the Inn, Lorelai walks into the kitchen where Sookie is counting her stirs.

"30, 31, 32."

"Sookie, look." Lorelai comes in, excited while holding a box in her hands.

"33, 34, 35. Can't look. Making meringue." Sookie tells her as she continues to stir. "37. Fine science."

"You got a package."

"39, got to count to 40. Can't over whip."

"I think it's your wedding invitations."

Sookie jumps up, flinging the spoon she was stiring with, and the bowl up in the air, making meringue fly everything. "WhooO!" She yells as she and Lorelai jump up and down. "Gimme, I got to see them." Lorelai sets down the box and opens the top, eachother grabbing an invitation. "Oh, you're gonna love these. They're pearly white with this beautiful lavender strip." Sookie looks at the invitation. "I'm gonna choke somebody by the neck until brains ooze out of their ears." She says, quickly getting angry.

"What? They're beautiful."

"The name, look at the name."

"...the marriage of his daughter Susie St. James.'" Lorelai reads.

"Who's Susie St. James?"

"I think it's you." Lorelai says, sadly.

"What am I gonna do?"

"It can be changed." Lorelai assures her.

"These have to go out in a week."

Lorelai grabs her phone out of her pocket. "We're calling it right now."

"I am so not a Susie."

Michel walks in with an unexpected smile on his face. "Good morning. Beautiful morning."

"It sucks from were I'm sitting." Sookie tells him while still looking at the invitation.

"Heartbreak. Lorelai, you remember I have tomorrow afternoon off."

"I remember. Big plans?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes, my mother is coming to visit."

"Hello, yes." Lorelai says over the phone. "Customer service, please. Thanks. Sorry." She says, grimacing at Michel.

"About what?" He asks.

"You said your mother's coming."

"But I'm excited, I never get to see her."

"Oh. I must be projecting. Your mother's coming for a visit!" She says, changing her attitude to an uplifting one.

"She's coming for three days."

"Is she staying here?"

"No, she stays with me, of course."

"In your tiny place?"

"Oh, she's fine with it, we stay up all night gabbing and watching movies. We have a ball." Michel gleams.

"Wow, I can't wait to meet her. Oh, hello." Lorelai says through the phone again. "We have a problem with some wedding invitations we ordered. Okay. They're transferring me." Lorelai tells Sookie.

"I heard that."

"He is really happy about his mother coming to visit." Lorelai says, pointing to Michel who just walked out.

"I heard that, too." Sookie says, impatiently.

"Totally foreign to me." Lorelai laughs. "Hi, great. I'm going to pass you over to my friend who has a problem with some merchandise she ordered. Hold on one sec." Lorelai grabs the phone and holds it to her chest as Sookie waves her hand up with anger wanting to talk to the people who messed up her invitations. "Listen to me. I have experience dealing with people who screwed something up. You have a better chance if you don't get all hysterical."

"Okay."

"Okay." Lorelai hands Sookie the phone.

"How dare you do this me?" Sookie yells. "You're ruining my wedding. It's the most important day of my life. It's my life, not 'Susie St. James.' Are you listening to me?!"

"Good girl." Lorelai turns around and walks out of the kitchen.

"You'd better be listening. No, you be quiet and listen."

Outside in the lobby, Lorelai walks in and sees Rory standing there waiting for her.

"Hey, I thought you couldn't get here till later."

Rory smiles at her. "Our meeting didn't go as long as I thought it would." Rory says, following her mother behind the front desk.

"Well, lucky for me, more work for you. Here, chronological order, please." Lorelai hands her a stack of folders. "So how was your day?"

"I got an 'A' on my Physics test and I finished Candide, and convinced a boy that Paris wouldn't attack his rabbi."

"So, uneventful."

"Pretty much." Lauren walks in from the front door and Lorelai looks up and smiles at her youngest.

"Oh, yay. Both my daughters are here." Lorelai says, as Lauren walks behind the desk and Lorelai kisses her on her head. "I can put you to work, too."

"So that's why you wanted me here." Lauren grins.

Rory hands Lauren half of her stack. "Here, join in."

Lauren grabs a stool, that Lorelai always keeps behind the front desk for her because she isn't tall enough, and puts it next to her sister. "Great."

"How was school?" Lorelai asks.

Lauren shrugs. "Uh, it was school." Lauren says, simply. "I went to class, went to lunch, went to class, and now I'm here."

"I'm so glad my kids have exciting days." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"Hey, Mom." Rory starts as she looks up at her mom. "I know you'll probably not want to do this."

"Yes, I will, unless it's something I don't want to do."

"Do you want to be the parent advisor on my Econimics project?"

Lorelai grimaces at that thought. "Oh, Rory, gosh."

"I'm kind of in a spot."

"No one else can do it?"

"Nope."

"You checked?"

"Yes."

"Double-checked?"

"Yes."

"And no one else can do it, so you came slumming after me, and I'm your last choice?"

"Of course."

"I appreciate that." Lorelai grins.

"I'm totally stuck."

"If you're stuck, I'll do it."

"Thanks."

"But, oh, what about your grandfather, retired business titan?"

"What about him?"

"He'd be perfect."

"But this is a business project and the word 'business' has been taboo in that house since he left the firm. Asking him might remind him of that and upset him."

"Or he'll be thrilled that you thought of him."

"You're not saying that because you don't want to do it?" Rory asks.

"No, I really think he would enjoy helping you." Rory sighs, thinking about it. "Then I wouldn't have to feel guilty about being so reluctant to help you out myself."

"Alright." Rory says, rolling her eyes. "I'll give it a shot."

"Good girl."

"Would you really have felt guilty?"

"No, but I would have felt guilty about not feeling guilty and that could go on forever."

"Miss. Gilmore in the vicious circle."

The next day, Rory walks into her grandparents driveway where Richard is still working on his old antique car.

"Hey, Grandpa." She says as she walks up to him.

"Rory, this is a surprise." Richard says, looking up at his grand-daughter.

"I was just in the area, and I thought I'd pay a call."

"Well, how very Contenental of you. I would hug you, but I have various forms of viscious fluid on my clothing."

"I'll take a rain check."

"Very good."

Rory looks up into the engine of the car. "How's she running?"

"She's a bit obstinate today."

"Oh, girls can get that way."

"Indeed. So, you were in the neighborhood."

"Yeah, and I actually have a little favor to ask you." Rory tells him getting right to the point.

"Ask away."

"Okay. There's this project at school, and it's for my Economics class."

"Good subject. Pragmatic."

"Yeah. And we have to come up with a consumer product, all make believe and there's sort of a contest at the end and we sort of need an advisor."

"An advisor."

"Someone who's experienced in business who can come to a few meetings, make suggestions. I mean, I totally understand if you can't do it, but I just thought I would ask."

"Well, I'm not sure how much help I could be." Richard tells her. "I've never actually created a consumer product."

"That's okay." Rory smiles. "We kids haven't either."

Richard chuckles. "Yes, I suppose you haven't."

"If you can't do it or if you don't want to do it, I totally understand."

"Well, things are a little bit hectic right now."

"Oh, yeah, I know." Rory says, understanding.

"And it is short notice, after all."

"Very short." Rory agrees. "You know what? Forget I even asked."

"Rory, I didn't know you were here." Emily says, happily, as she walks out and over to Richard and her grand-daughter.

"Hi, Grandma." Rory hugs Emily.

"You didn't hug your grandfather, did you?"

"I took a rain check. Well, I better go."

"You just got here, we have cookies. Would you like cookies?" Emily asks.

"No, thank you. Mom's expecting me at the inn. And Grandpa, really, don't worry about it. I just thought I would ask."

"I'm fine, Rory. Thank you for asking." Richard says, sincerely.

"Bye." Rory waves as she walks away.

"Ask what? What did she ask?" Emily asks, deciding to be nosey.

"Oh, something for Economics class. It's nothing really." Richard tells her.

"That doesn't sound like nothing. What about her Economics class? Is she having trouble?"

"No, Emily, she merely asked me to participate in some project at school and I respectfully declined."

"You declined?" Emily asks, surprised.

"Leave it, Emily."

"Why would you decline?"

"Let's talk about it later, Emily. I'm busy."

"Busy?" Emily groans. "You've been poking around that stupid engine for three weeks and all it does is spray at you. You're not too busy." Emily argues.

"Emily, I am in the middle of something and I don't expect you to understand it." Richard says, agitated.

"You're not going to help her?"

"Can we talk about this later?" Richard asks.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day.."

"What day?"

"..the day Richard Gilmore would disappoint his grand-daughter like this."

"Emily, please."

"Is this how it's going to be from now on?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I just want to know what to expect from you because the bouncing from one thing to another, the moping in silence in your den, all of that I accepted, but your turning your back on Rory.."

"I did not turn my back on her!" Richard exclaims.

"You adore that little girl. Your grand-daughters mean everything to you."

"Emily."

"Are you that lost?" Richard turns around and turns the radio on. "I'm incredibly disappointed in you, Richard." Emily says, loudly, through the loud music before turning and walking away.

At the Inn, Michel and Lorelai are standing behind the front desk as Lorelai signs some papers.

"Here, and here." Michel says, pointing to the paper. "Cleaning supplier, there." Lorelai signs. "Here, staff insurance forms. Initial here. Date it here."

"And I just-"

"You just okayed the vaccination of all those filthy ducks in the south pond."

"Oh!" Lorelai smiles. "Aren't I nice?"

"Yes, a regular Dr. Dolittle."

"Michel!" A woman yells, assuming it's Michel's mother, from the front entrance.

Michel looks up with a huge smile on his face. "Zeely!"

"You are gorgeous. Come!" His mother tells him. Michel walks over to her and gives her a hug.

"What are you doing here? I was going to pick you up at the airport." Michel tells her. "You wicked creature."

"I had to come early. I wanted to buy presents before I see you. I know you are a materialistic vulture. Alright, back up." She orders him. Michel backs up and turns around for his mother. "Oh, thank God I have the perfect son. If you had been ugly, I don't know what I would have done."

"Boarding school?"

"In Switzerland."

"Come." Michel laughs, taking his mom's hand and leading her towards the front desk. "Lorelai, this is my mother, Giselle."

Lorelai shakes Giselle's hand. "Well, it's very nice to meet you."

"Oh, my God, those eyes, are they real?" She asks Lorelai.

"Yes, they are."

"Oh, God is terribly cruel to bestow those eyes and that to one person."

"I'm sorry, can you be my mom, too?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm going to show her around, okay?" Michel says.

"Make sure you see Sookie." Lorelai tells him.

"Why?"

"She wants to meet your mom."

"Yes, Michel, I must meet your friends. I did not raise you to be rude." Giselle says.

"You did too." Michel tells her.

"No, I didn't. Come, show me off."

Lorelai is smiling as she watches Michel and his mother's interaction with eachother. She was suddenly jealous of Michel, but that wore off as soon as the phone rings. "Hello?" She answers. "Uh, hi." Lorelai says, nervously. "Yes, this is Lorelai Gilmore. Uh-huh." Lorelai looks up when she sees Lauren walk through the door. "And for how long now?" Lauren gives her mom a small smile before dropping her things and sitting down on the stool and finishing her work from yesterday. "Well, thank you for calling me. I will straighten everything out." Lorelai hangs up and just stares at her daughter. "Hey, how was school?" Lorelai asks.

"It was fine." Lauren tells her while still looking down at the papers in her hands.

"Uh-huh." Lorelai says, not believing it. "Didn't you have a test in algebra? How'd you do?"

Lauren shrugs. "I don't know yet. I'm not very good with math. You know that."

Lorelai nods. "Yeah, I do." She says. Lorelai really could not believe that Lauren was lying to her, to her face. Lorelai grabs the paper from out of Lauren's hands and sets it aside.

"What are you doing?" Lauren asks, as she looks up at Lorelai in confusion.

"Lauren, I know you weren't at school today."

Lauren frowns. "Yes, I was."

"Okay, you were there, but you didn't go to your algebra class. You have been skipping that class for three weeks now. Your teacher just called me and told me." Lauren sighs, knowing she has been caught. "Why aren't you going to class?"

"I don't know." She lies.

Lorelai sighs. "Is it because Elizabeth isn't here anymore?"

Lauren looks up in anger. "Why would this have anything to do with Elizabeth?"

"Lauren, Elizabeth has been gone for three weeks, and suddenly you're not going to class. Elizabeth is in that class with you."

"So, what? Why does everything I do have to be about Elizabeth. You can't blame everything on her anymore, Mom, she lives in California, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember." Lorelai says, knowing because of that reason Lauren has been acting out more.

"Maybe I just really hate mate. I don't understand it."

Lorelai knew that was just an excuse. "You're not stupid, Lauren. Sure, you're not great at math, but you know it enough to pass it. What is going on with you?"

Before Lauren could say anything back, though, Michel and Giselle are walking back into the lobby so that Michel can get his things. "I am just coming get my stuff, then I am taking mother out into the town." Michel tells Lorelai.

"Oh, great. Go to Luke's." Lorelai smiles.

"I will not." Michel says, unamused.

"Oh, who's this." Giselle asks, looking down at looks at her daughter who is looking up at Giselle with a small smile. "You are much too beautiful to be walking around with a sad face. Those bright green eyes and that face need to shine."

Lorelai smirks. "Giselle, this is my daughter Lauren. Lauren, this is Michel's mom, Giselle."

"NIce to meet you." Lauren says, kindly.

"A daughter?" Giselle asks, Lorelai. "You are far too young to have a child."

"Oh, I'm not the only one." Lauren chimes in before Lorelai can speak. "I have a perfect older sister. You'd be far more impressed with her." Lauren glares at Lorelai before getting up and walking towards the door and leaving. Lorelai sighs as she watches the door close.

At Chilton, Rory and Richard are walking down the hallway to go the first meeting that the group was having about their project.

"I really appreciate you doing this, Grandpa." Rory says, sincerely.

"Well, of course."

"I mean, I know you were't really thrilled with the idea."

"No, no, that's not true."

"But I told everybody to have their idea pitches prepared so that we can get you in and out quickly."

"Rory, this is an assignment. We will give it the time it requires." Richard tells her.

"Okay."

"However, efficient is always best."

"I totally understand." Rory leads Richard into the classroom where Paris and the rest of the group are waiting. "Hey. Everyone this is my gradfather, Richard Gilmore. This Louise, Madeline, Paris, Brad, and Chip."

"Nice to meet you all."

"So, do you want to say a few words before we start?" Rory asks him while everyone sits down.

"Oh, no, I'm just here to advise. I'll sit back here and observe and advice if necessary." Richard takes a chair and sits down as the meeting begins.

"Okay. I guess we can start with the idea pitches." Rory tells the group. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will." Louise says.

"Okay, Louise has the floor."

"I couldn't find my lip gloss this morning and I'd just bought it. It's the perfect shade of pink plus it has this major shine with minor stickiness meaning no fear of your hair sticking to your face when it's windy."

"A coup." Madaline adds.

"I know. So, of course, fifteen minutes later, tardy and glossless. I left the house, and I had to rely on Madeline for my source of lip color. Not an ideal solution."

"Major skin-tone mismatch."

Paris was growing annoyed real quickly with this whole thing. "I'm sorry, group leader.." She calls out to Rory. "..could you ask the Pigeon Sisters if there is a point to this opus?"

"Louise, what's your idea?" Rory asks.

"A lipstick LoJack."

"Excuse me?"

"A lipstick tracking device. You attach it to a tube, hook it up to a remote, and the next time you're searching, just point and shoot."

"I'd buy one." Madeline tells them.

"Okay, Louise, that's a very interesting idea but I think we should think of something that appeals to both boys and girls." Rory explains. "Anyone else?"

"Okay, I've got one." Madeline says. "A locker robot." Richard rolls his eyes. "It would talk and tell you facts, help you with your homework carry your stuff, and you could fit it in your locker until you're ready to go home."

Rory smiles. "Okay, but that means that we would actually have to build a robot."

"Yes, we would."

"Who knows how to do that?"

"I don't know. He looks like he should know." Madeline points to Brad.

"I've never built a robot." Brad tells her.

"But you've tried, haven't you?" Louise asks him.

Brad stares at her. "Yes, I have."

"Okay, let's just try to keep the ideas down to things that we can actually accomplish." Rory says. Paris gets up and grabs a few binders. "And I guess Paris is next."

Paris starts handing out the binders. "The average teenager spends seven hours a day at school. Seven hours where he or she is walking from class to class, indoors, outdoors, in all types of weather. At the same time, that same teenager is going through major physical changes within his or her own body. The combo of the action with the environment in addition to the hormonal imbalance can only lead to one thing: accidents."

"What are you talking about?" Madeline asks.

"Monday morning, Muffin wakes up and looks in the mirror. 'Oh, no, I have a zit on my face. I'll just look down when I walk so Hunky Football Player won't notice.' And bam, Muffin smacks right into the cafeteria wall. That's got to hurt."

"Who's Muffin?"

"This is why I'm proposing manufacturing something that no teenager should be without. A first aid kit."

"A first aid kit?" Louise ask.

"Specially designed to fit in a locker with minimum space disruption. Band-aids, antiseptic, cotton balls, Q-tips, ace bandages, aspirin."

"I don't know. It's possible." Rory says. "Does anyone have any questions about it?"

"They sell these things in every drug store, right?" Richard asks while he looks into the binder.

"Yes, they do." Paris answers.

"There's also a registered nurse on campus. Her office would contain the products that you're talking about, correct?"

"Possibly."

"Well, what makes you think you could get a young person to spend good money on something that they could get for free, or at least, at a lower cost?"

"Because I know one thing about the modern teenager."

"And what is that?"

"You can get them to buy anything if it comes in a leopard print." Paris states.

"True." Louise agrees.

"We get them with style. We dress up the kits with sparkles, colors, pictures of bands, sport themes for the boys, animal pictures for the puppy-and-unicorn bunch, chessboards for the Bobby Fischer freaks. A style for every taste. Plus, we use neon band-aids, pink or blue gauze for the bandages. Anything that seems young or flashy or bright." Paris explains.

"And this is house you intend to set the business world on its ear?" Richard asks.

"That's right."

"Tricky out first aid kits."

"For the locker."

"And you really think that's going to work?" Richard asks again with a smirk on his face.

"Yes, I do."

"So do I."

"Really?"

"It's perfect. It's simple, it's easy to produce. The possibilites are endless. I love it."

"Well, I think we've got our product." Rory tells them.

"Now we need to go through this point by point." Richard starts.

"Okay, let's do it." Paris agrees.

"Now, the secret to a great campaign is a great idea. We've got that. Let's move to finances. Uh, do any of you have dinner plans? We're going to be here for a while. Let's all turn to Page four. Here we go!"

Back at the house later that day, the phone is ringins when Rory walks in. Lorelai is sitting on the couch reading a book.

"Hey!" Rory says.

"Ahh!" Lorelai grimaces as she keeps her eyes on the book while the phone still rings.

"Mom?" Rory says, confused as she stumbles into the living room. "Hello?" Rory picks up the phone but someone already hung up. "That ringing is not in your head, you know?"

"Oh! You got to read this Motley Crue book." Lorelai tells her as Rory walks over and sits on the couch next to her. "I swear, you get to the point where Ozzy Osbourne snorts a row of ants and you think, 'it cannot get any grosser.' And then you turn the page, and hello, yes, it can. It's excellent."

"Why didn't you answer the phone?"

"Because one you've experienced something 5,000 times you need to move on."

"What are you talking about?"

"I knew who it was."

"Who?"

"The same person who's called the machine so many times that I heard it sigh."

"Dean?" Rory asks.

"Dean the Determined."

Rory sighs just as the phone rings again. "Man."

"$5 says I know who that is."

Rory answers the phone. "Hello?"

"Rory. It's your grandfather." Richard says on the other end.

Rory smiles. "Oh, hey, Grandpa." Rory puts her hand out.

Lorelai grabs her wallet from off the table. "He did that on purpose." She says, handing Rory a 5.

"I'd like to discuss tomorrow's meeting." Richard tells her.

"Okay."

"I was thinking that we should relocate."

"Midtown?"

"Here."

"Your house?"

"It'll be more comfortable, with infinitely better snacks."

"Yeah, that sounds great."

"Wonderful, I'll call the group."

"Okay, then I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Bye." Rory hangs up.

"What did he want?" Lorelai asks.

"He wanted to move the location of our meeting to his house and to cost you $5."

Lorelai smiles. "So, that's going wel, huh? Grandpa doing that thing with you at schhool?"

"Yeah, I think he's having fun with it."

"See? Did your brilliant mother call it or what?"

Rory rolls her eyes. "Yes, she did."

"You're damn lucky to have that woman in your life. You know that, don't you?"

"It's whispered in my ear every night."

"Good. Now tell your sister how lucky she is to have me."

"Why, what happened?" Rory asks.

Lorelai sighs. "Well, your sister has not been going to algebra class for the past three weeks now. Her teacher called me earlier today."

"After three weeks she's just calling you now?" Rory asks, confused.

"Hey, she's not at Chilton."

"True." Rory shrugs. "So, I'm assuming it's because Elizabeth isn't there anymore and that's the class she usually has it with?"

"You are correct."

"So what are you going to do?"

Lorelai shrugs. "I'm not sure. We haven't really talked since she stormed out of the inn just before calling her big sister perfect."

Rory grins. "That's so sweet."

"Yeah, I figured you'd think so." Lorelai jokes. "Hey, check the machine so I can erase the messages."

"Alright." Rory gets up and walks over to the machine and hits play. _'Hi, it's me. It's 4:00. Call me when you get home.' _Dean's voice says though the machine. _'Hey, uh, it's 4:30. I'm home. Call me.' '4:45. Where are you? I'll try paging you.' '5:30. Did you get my page? Call with the answer.' _Lorelai looks over at Rory. "They're not all from him." She says, not wanting to believe it. _'I totally forogt you were getting home six.'_

"And yet, oddly, after remembering that information..." _'Hey, it's 5:45, and I just thought I'd see if you got home early.' _"I swear, that boy would make a good drinking game."

"This is crazy. Ten messages?" Rory asks.

"Plus the four I took before I stopped answering the phone." Lorelai says, handing Rory her messages.

"Right."

"Honey, you've got to ease up on that love potion you've been giving him or he's gonna start showing up at David Letterman's house soon."

"I know." Rory says sadly.

"What's the matter?"

"14 messages." Rory tells her.

"Yeah, so, it's a little-"

"It's a little too much." Rory finishes.

"So what's up? You guys fighting or something?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, did something happen to set off the phone craze?"

"No, everything's been fine. Everything been calm. No more incidents. I don't get it."

"Well, if I had to guess, I would say he's feeling insecure about something."

"Why?"

"Rory."

"But I spend every free moment with him. I call him, I page him..."

"I know. You've been good."

"Nothing seems to be enough. Nothing seems to make things normal again."

"Give it some time." Lorelai assures her.

"I just want thing to be the way they were."

"Oh, honey, relationships are hard. Sometimes you go through a weird patch and things get funky for a little while. But just give it a chance. Ride it out. Things will calm down again."

"I hope so. I'm gonna erase the messages."

"Can I come down now?" Lauren asks, poking her head out from the banister upstairs.

Lorelai looks up. "Uh, I never sent you up there."

Lauren looks confused. "It felt like you did."

"Come on down." Lorelai tells her. "I'm just talking to your perfect sister." Lorelai jokes.

Lauren rolls her eyes as she makes her way downstairs. "Very funny." Lauren walks down and sits on the chair in front of Lorelai.

"You said it." Lorelai reminds her.

Rory turns around and smile at her little sister as she takes a seat back next to Lorelai. "I am so glad you think I'm perfect, Lauren."

Lauren rolls her eyes again. "Really?" She asks Lorelai.

"Again, you said it."

"Whatever." Lauren stands up and goes to walk into the kitchen, but Lorelai sits up and takes her daughter's hand, stopping her.

"Where are you going?"

"Away from you two." Lauren tells her.

"No, come here." Lorelai pulls Lauren down on the couch, sitting her inbetween them. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" Lauren asks, playing dumb.

"Why are you skipping algebra?" Rory asks.

"I just don't want to go. Is that a big deal?"

"Yeah, kinda is, considering you need to pass that class to get to the next grade." Lorelai tells her.

"Look, nothing's wrong. I'll start going to class."

"Lauren, if you need extra help in there, I can tutor you." Rory suggests.

Lauren shakes her head. "No. You will not tutor me. I'm good with my B. I don't want your help."

"Lauren." Lorelai scolds.

"I don't need anyone's help. This isn't about Elizabeth, this isn't about anything. I just don't want to be there. But if I have to go to make you guys leave me alone then I'm going to go. Whatever." Lauren gets up and storms into the kitchen.

Lorelai and Rory look at eachother. "This is so about Elizabeth." Lorelai tells her as Rory nods her head agreeing.

At the inn the next day, Lorelai is busy at the front desk when Michel and his mother, Giselle walk in, laughing.

"Stop that. Stop making me laugh." Giselle tells her son. "You are trying to kill me. You're making me laugh myself to death so you can get away with a crime."

"Your mind is evil." Michel tells her.

"Your soul is empty."

"Do you want some coffee?" Michel asks.

"Yes, darling, thank you."

"I'll be right back." Michel walks away and Giselle walks over to Lorelai.

"Hello, Blue Eyes."

"Hi, Giselle. How was lunch?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, champagne, caviar. The usual." Giselle tells her.

"Sure."

"And then came the mounds of pasta with terrible things in it. It was perfect."

"You seem to be having a wonderful time."

"I am. I will miss him so much when I go home. But thank goodness, he will have an extra five pounds to remember me by after eating all my pasta today, that dirty, thieving boy." Giselle laughs.

"Michel ate pasta?" Lorelai asks, surprised.

"Yes, Michel loves pasta. He eats it all the time."

"Not around us. Here it's all no-carb, low-cal. 'Let me see if I can eat less than the lab rats do.'"

"Lab rats?"

"Better not explained. Anyway, I'm glad you got him eating pasta. He seems really happy."

"Coffee. Coffee." Michel says, walking in with two cups in his hands.

Giselle takes a sip. "This is horrible."

"You will drink it and like it." Michel tells her.

"You are a curse."

"Let's go shop."

"Yes, let's go buy something completely useless and pay way too much money for it."

"I love it."

Giselle and Michel wave to Lorelai and head out of the inn. "That is so wrong." Lorelai says just as the phone rings. "Hello?" She answers. "This is she. What? I'll be right there." Lorelai hangs up. "Dammit, Lauren."

At Rory's grandparents' house, Rory, Louise, Madeline, Brad, and Chip all get out of the car.

"We should have waited for Paris." Rory tells them as they all walk to the front door.

"Hey, she's the one who threw a fit about leaving no later than 3:10." Louise says.

"She could standing outside the school waiting for us."

"She has my cell phone number." Madeline tells her.

Louise looks confused. "I thought you lost your phone."

"I did. Oh."

Rory rings the doorbell. "We'll call her when we get inside." Paris opens the door surprising them all. "Paris."

"Hey, you're right on time. Come on in." Paris says, opening the door wider.

"Uh, okay."

"In the dining room, everyone!" Richard yells.

They walk in to find the dining room already set with folders and paperwork at eachother seat, along with a board for the presentation. "Wow."

"Welcome, everyone to the first official board meeting of the Style Aid Corporation." Richard announces. "Will everyone please take a seat?" Everyone walks over and takes a seat around the dining room table. "Rory, you are group leader, which translates into chairman of the board which means you sit at the head of the table."

"But that's where you sit."

"Not today. Come on." Richard pulls out the chair for his grand-daughter that Rory happily takes. "Now, at this point, I would like to turn the meeting over to Paris who will bring us up to date on our latest development. Paris."

"Thank you, Richard. First, let me say that I'm glad to see you all here today.." She says, as she begins walking around the table. "..at the beginning of what I think is going to be a very exciting experiment. Now, I'd like everyone to turn to Page 1 in your presentation booklets." Brad picks up a pencil. "Hey." She scolds. "We haven't got to the pencil part yet."

"Sorry." Brad says, slowly putting the pencil back down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you..." Paris picks up a red box. "..the Rx 2002."

"Nice." Everyone says, admiring it.

"Now listed in front of your are all the contents contained in the Rx 2002 plus the additional style options, 12 in all. Every one of them waterproof, fireproof, and comes with a five-year warranty."

"Which is longer than most of your high school careers." Richard jokes.

"He is funny." Paris chuckles towards Rory before taking a seat.

"Now, there's also a deluxe model with extra features designed to personalize your kit even more specifially for your needs." Richard explains. "There will be a snap in CD case which can hold up to ten CDs. There's a lighted vanity mirror and a divided compartment for makeup and knickknacks, a picture frame, and a hidden mini-vault for valuables which can be locked for safety."

"Terrific idea, Richard, really. Top-notch."

"Thank you, Paris."

"This is really amazing." Rory tells them. "I want one of these."

"Exactly the point. Let's check in with our marketing department. Uh, Madeline, Louise, what have you got for us?"

"Okay, first, we go for the obvious. Magazines." Madeline tells them.

"You know, Teen, Young Miss, Seventeen." Louise names.

"Spin and Rolling Stone, especially to hit the guys."

"I hear that Jane's magazine also has a young, hip following." Richard says.

Rory grins at her grandfather. "How do you know about Jane magazine?"

"I have my ways, young lady."

"We should also place them in certain mall stores." Chip adds in.

"I also think we should go straight to the source."

"The schools?" Paris asks.

"Why not? School bulletin boards. Websites. We can set up tables at football games and pep rallies."

Emily walks in. "Well, how is everyone doing here?" She asks, enthused.

Richard sighs, embarrassed. "Just fine, Emily."

"Good. Is there enough food?"

"Yes, there's plenty of food."

"What about ice cream? Would anyone like-"

"Emily, we're in the middle of a business meeting."

Emily gasps. "Oh. I'm very sorry. Go back to your business meeting." Richard begins talking about. Emily bends down next to Rory. "He's smiling."

"I know!" Rory says with just as much excitement.

"He's smiling, and there's no oil on the carpet."

"Life is good."

"Yes, it is."

"Emily, please." Richard scolds again.

"I'm going. I'm going." Emily hurries and walks away as they begin their discussion again.

At Stars Hollow Middle School, Lauren is sitting in the office when Lorelai walks in.

"Uh, hey, kid. What happened?" Lorelai asks, sitting next to Lauren.

"I told you I didn't want to go back, but I did, and now I'm in trouble." Lauren says, clearly upset about whatever just happened.

"Come on." Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand and they walk to the Principal's door. Lorelai knocks and hears a faint come in. Lorelai opens the door and peeks her head in. "Hello?"

The Principal looks up and sees Lauren and Lorelai. "Oh, Miss. Gilmore, thanks for coming."

Lorelai walks in further. "Yeah, well, when you hear that your kid has been kicked out of class, you kinda want to know what's going on."

"Sit. Sit." The principal says, pointing to the two empty chairs in front of her desk. "Well, Miss Gilmore, Lauren was kicked out of class because right when she walked in she flipped over a desk."

Lorelai gasps. "You what?" She asks Lauren.

Lauren slumps down further into her seat. "There was someone in the seat." The principal finishes.

"Lauren!"

"He was in Elizabeth's seat." Lauren argues.

"We are aware that Lauren and Elizabeth were best friends." The Principal says.

"Are." Lauren corrects her in a mean tone which gets her scolding look from Lorelai.

"They never left eachother's side, but Elizabeth has moved away. Lauren, that is no longer her seat."

"Whatever." Lauren folds her arms not wanting to hear anymore.

"Lauren, we won't suspend you, but you will have to go to another classroom for algebra."

"Great!" Lauren says, standing up. "I can go now?"

"Lauren, how about you step out while I talk to your mom?"

Lauren looks nervously at her mom and back at the Principal. "Why can't I stay while you talk to her?"

"Lauren." Lorelai says, pointing to the door. Lauren sighs and walks out of the office, slamming the door behind her. "I am sorry for that. Lauren has been going through a lot of stuff, and I've been trying to help her."

The principal shakes her head, understanding. "I know. I know. Lauren is a teenager. We all understand. But, I wanted to talk to you about something else, actually."

Lorelai looks worried. "What? Did she do something else?"

"Well.." The principal takes out Lauren's transcript and hands it to Lorelai. "..Lauren hasn't been keeping up with the class assignments so her grades are falling way behind." Lorelai looks down at the transcript where Lauren has C's and a D. Her daughters have never gotten anything below a B before. "And I know she's been skipping class, but this goes beyond Elizabeth's move."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know." Lorelai says, grabbing her purse. "I will figure it out. Thanks."

"Anytime." The principal stands up as Lorelai walks out of the office where Lauren is sitting.

"Come on." Lorelai takes Lauren's hand and they walk quietly down the hallway.

At the house, Lorelai pulls up and they find Dean outside washing the car he made for Rory.

"Dean. Hey, how's it going?" Lorelai asks, as she and Lauren get out and walk towards him.

"Uh, just washing Rory's car." Dean tells her.

"I can see that."

"I mean, I came by to see her and she wasn't here so I was gonna wait on the porch but then I noticed her car looked dirty, I thought I'd wash it."

"Creepy." Lauren whispers while looking at the car.

Lorelai pushes Lauren behind her to shut her up. "Because sometimes things can get on your car. Like dirt, certain kinds of sap." Dean continues explaining. "They get into your paint. It's really hard to get off."

"Sure." Lorelai says.

"Even water spots. After it rains, they can be a real problem."

"Okay. Would you like a soda?" Lorelai asks.

"No, I'm fine."

"Let's go get a soda. Put the squirting water thing down and come in the kitchen." Dean stops and looks at Lorelai, unsure. "Squirting thing down." Dean slowly puts it on the ground. "That's it. Come on."

They walk into the side door of the kitchen. "Look, I really didn't mean to bother you. I can wait outside until Rory gets home." Dean tells her.

"Honey, Rory's working on her school project today."

Lauren runs passed them goes across the house. "Oh, yeah." Dean sighs. "I guess I forgot. I mean, she must have told me that she...I'm sorry. I forgot."

"That's okay."

"So, I'll just go."

"No, come here. Sit down for a sec." Lorelai says, offering him a seat at the table. They both sit down. "Are you alright?" Lorelai asks him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't remember Rory telling me about her studying today." Dean says. "I swear, I wouldn't have come over."

"Can I maybe give you a little advice?"

Dean shrugs. "Sure."

"Okay. First, I just want to tell you I think you are a great guy. You're so good to Rory. Even though I hoped she'd be the one girl in the world who wouldn't look at a boy until she was 38, I'm really glad she found you."

Dean smiles. "Thanks." He says, appreciative.

"And I know things have been a little off between you two lately."

"Did she say that?" He asks, worried.

"No. I'm saying that. I can see it. And, by the way, I get it. Sometimes when things are out of whack, it freaks us out a little and makes us feel like we're losing something that's really important and that scares us even more so we try really hard to hold on to whatever it is we think we're losing. And sometimes we hold on a little too hard."

"Too hard?"

"Like 'calling ten times in a three hour period' too hard."

"Fourteen times." Dean corrects her.

"Okay, see, I was gonna let you slide, but an honest man, I like that."

"You think I'm holding on too hard to Rory?" Dean asks.

"I don't think you mean to." Lorelai says, honestly.

"You think I'm losing her?"

"I think you think you are."

"I just feel like nothing I do is...I just want things back the way they used to be." Dean says, repeating exactly what Rory said last night.

"I know you do. And they can be."

"How?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes giving people a little bit of space is actually the best thing to do." Lorelai explains.

"Space?"

"Just a little."

"Like what? Don't call her? Don't see her?"

"No. Just let her breathe. Let her relax. Let her come to you for a change."

"You're not telling me this to get rid of me, are you?" Dean asks, insecurely.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Please! If I was trying to get rid of you I would've started with 'Let me tell you about my family.' I'm not telling you this to get rid of you." She laughs. "I'm telling you because I think it might help things between you guys." Dean sits there thinking about what Lorelai has said. "Just try it. If it doesn't work, I promise, you can wash my car, too."

"Okay." Dean smiles. "I think I'm gonna go now." Dean stands up and Lorelai follows. "Uh, don't tell Rory I was here, okay?"

"Hey, I'm just standing in my kitchen talking to myself. Again."

Dean chuckles. "Thanks."

"Bye, Dean." Lorelai smiles as Dean turn away and walks out.

Lorelai decides that it was time to talk to Lauren so she walks out of the kitchen but stops when she sees Lauren sitting in a chair listening near the foyer. Lorelai and Lauren lock eyes before Lauren turns away and runs upstairs. She knew her mom was telling Dean that because it was true. Rory and Dean were acting weird with one another and Dean was being a little obsessive so she was trying to help them, but for some reason she was also feeling like her mom was telling her that, too, except about Elizabeth. Lorelai wanted to run upstairs and talk to her daughter, but figured she'd give her a little extra time to herself. Lauren was actually listening to what Lorelai said. It wasn't exactly to her, but if Lorelai had to give someone else advice just for her daughter to listen to her then so be it. She wanted Lauren to take awhile and think about what she said.

At the inn, Sookie is on the phone, still with the invitation people.

"You know what? Forget it! It that's how you run your business then I deserve this for picking you in the first place!" She yells over the phone just as Lorelai walks in to grab some coffee. "I hate you!" Sookie slams the phone down.

"Hey." Lorelai says gently.

"Okay, new plan for the invites." Sookie tells her. "We're getting married May 15, 4:00, front lawn. Pass it on."

"Sookie."

"That's it. Word of mouth. They used it for the Revolutionary War. Who the hell am I to poo-poo history, I ask you?"

Michel walks in looking very upset. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He asks Lorelai.

"With me?" She asks, confused.

"Yes, you. Are you out of your mind?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Why in God's name would you tell my mother that I do not eat carbs?"

"Because you don't."

"That is private information about me."

"Michel, everybody in Stars Hollow knows you don't eat carbs."

"So what?"

"Calm down. Have some toast."

"Do not talk to my mother ever again. Do you understand me?"

"No, I don't understand." Lorelai chuckles with confusion. "You and your mother seem crazy about eachother. "I just assumed, since you gave up carbs a year ago, she knew."

"Yes, well, you know what happens when you assume."

"What?"

"I don't know! Something about a donkey. It's a stupid American phrase!"

"I don't understand. You and your mother seem to have the perfect relationship."

"Yes. Because I tell her nothing. We keep all subjects light and fluffy." He explains. "We talk about clothes, food, Posh Spice, and David Beckham, and that is all. Nothing of value. Nothing of substance."

"I'm sorry."

"Now she knows I've been hiding something from her. Suddenly she's asking questions. Why did I leave France at eighteen? Where do I go at night? Who are my friends? What do they do? Where do they live? Why have I chosen this career? On and on. It never ends. I can't stand it. She's a complete pain. She won't stop. I took a six hour bath last night just to escape the incessant nagging. You did this to me! You turned my Giselle into a mother, and I hate you for it! I hate you very much!" Michel storms out of the kitchen.

"So, feel better now?" Sookie asks, hesitantly.

Lorelai nods. "Yeah, I do. Thanks." She smiles looking back at the door Michel left out of.

At Chilton, during the contest, Paris walks up to Rory who is standing around the crowded floor.

"Okay. I've swept the room, and I have to tell you, all sad." Paris says, excitingly. "I think we're locked."

"Really?" Rory says, unsure. "I actually thought the locker alarm was pretty good."

"Please. No one even looks when a car alarm goes off. How effective is a locker alarm going to be?" Paris asks. "Nope. I feel it. We are it." Richard walks up to them. "What's the word?"

"Every single idea in this room is completely worthless." He tells the girls, proudly. "There's a lot of wasted cardboard in here."

"We are going to win."

"Yes, we are."

"Okay, the two of you need to take a timeout." Rory says, getting in the middle of them.

Master Charleston walks up to them and is surprised to see Richard. "Richard, hello." He says, grabbing Richard's hand.

"Hanlin, good to see you."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm actually advising Rory on her business project. The Rx 2002." Richard tells him.

Charleston looks behind Richard at the project. "Oh, that's wonderful. You look great."

"I feel great."

"We don't see you at the club that much."

"I've been very busy lately." Richard tells him.

"And did I hear correctly? Did you retire?"

"Right before Christmas." Richard confirms.

"So it's true." Charleston laughs. "Biddy and I couldn't believe it when we heard that."

"Well, a man can't work forever."

"No, that's true. I just can't picture you retired."

"It's been wonderful lately. Best move I've ever made. It's given me time to do wonderful things."

"That does sound nice. What kind of thing are you doing?"

"Well, this." Richard says, looking around.

"Well, there you go!" Charleston chuckles. "Unfortunately, some of us aren't living the good life quite yet. I've got to get back. It's been wonderful seeing you. Let's have dinner soon."

"I would like that very much."

"I'll have Biddy give Em a call."

"You do that." Richard says, smugly as Charleston walks away.

"Did you see the hose-hook idea over at Table 5?" Paris asks Rory. "A hook on your belt for your garden hose. There's a Buster Keaton routin waiting to happen." Paris and Rory smirk.

"So, how are we doing?" Richard asks them, turning back towards them.

"Paris practicing spiking the football and doing a back flip." Rory jokes.

Charleston walks up to the potium to announce the winner. "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. All the projects have now been reviewed."

"Here we go." Paris says, happily.

"And before we announce the winner, I must commend everyone for their fine work. There are many good ideas here today. It makes me proud."

"Move it along, Padre." Paris whispers.

"Now I'd like to announce the winner. Table 10. Miss Chester's class with the locker alarm."

Paris and Richard both look on stunned. "I don't understand." Richard says. "How's that possible?"

"This is so lame. That alarm doesn't even work. I was just over there." Paris tells them, bitterly.

"This is ludicrous."

"Grandpa, it doesn't matter." Rory tells him.

"It certainly does matter. You've all put in an extraordinary amount of time and effort and thought into this. It deserved to win."

"Yeah." Paris agrees.

"Well, I wanted to win, too, but we didn't." Rory says.

"I'm going to talk to the headmaster." Richard tells them.

"I wish you wouldn't."

"You were robbed, Rory, and I'm not gonna sit back and simply watch it happen." Richard walks away to find Charleston.

It is Friday night dinner and Lorelai and her girls are just pulling up. Rory had just finished telling her mom about what happened at the contest and how angry Richard was when he was yelling at Charleston.

"Awful." Rory says as they get out of the Jeep. "His face was turning red and he was practically shaking."

"Hey, did you notice when he gets mad he gets taller?" Lauren asks her sister.

"Lauren."

"No, I've seen it, too!" Lorelai exclaims. "He actually grows." Rory groans. "The day I told him I was pregnant, 24 feet tall. Freaked the birds."

"Hey, I'm upset here." Rory tells them as they approach the front door.

"Honey, you did nothing. You went to your grandfather who you greatly admire and actually like hanging out with, to ask for his help and advice. That's lovely and thoughtful." Lorelai explains while nodding her head to Lauren to ring the bell.

"Please help me out tonight." Rory begs. "No mention of work, or Chilton, or school, or retirement."

"Nothing but politics and religion. Got it."

Emily opens the door with a somber look on her face. "Hello, girls."

"Hi, Mom."

"Hey, Grandma." Rory and Lauren both say.

"Come in." The girls walk in and take off their coats as Emily shuts the door. "Dinner's almost ready. Richard, the girls are here. Richard!" Emily yells, sighing. "He came home today, didn't say a word, stomped off to his study, slammed the door." Emily and the girls walk into the living room. "He's been holed up in there ever since."

"Really?" Rory asks.

"I can't even get him to answer me."

"Are you sure he's still there?" Lorelai asks.

"Of course. The door's right there. I would have seen if he came out. Not everyone leaves this house climbing out the window and jumping into a waiting hot rod."

Lorelai just sits there smiling. "Maybe someone should talk to him." Lauren suggests.

"I don't know what to do." Emily says, sadly. "What on earth happened today?" Emily asks Rory.

"Things didn't go well at the business fair." Rory tells her.

"What happened?"

"It was terrible." Lorelai begins dramatically. "The 10th graders staged a hostile takeover of the 11th graders."

Rory shakes her head. "Our project didn't win. Grandpa took it badly."

"Well, I am at my wit's end. If that man is going to fall apart over a school project." Emily says annoyed.

"It's just a weird time for him, Mom." Lorelai reminds her.

Rory looks down, upset. "I feel awful."

"Maybe he should go talk to somebody."

"Like whom?" Emily asks.

"Like a psychiatrist."

Emily looks over at her daughter, surprised. "What?"

"Maybe it would help." Lorelai shrugs.

"We do not go to psychiatrists."

"Mom, there's nothing wrong with getting help."

"Lorelai Gilmore, are you seriously suggesting that your father go to a complete stranger and talk about his personal life?"

"Lots of people swear by it."

"Yes." Emily agrees. "Disturbed people. Deviants. People with multiple personalities who see things and hear dogs talking to them and roam the streets talking to themselves and licking parking meters."

"Mom."

"Next thing you know, you'll be suggesting I go to a psychiatrist."

Lorelai looks at her daughters. "Hm. Too many comebacks. I cannot pick."

Suddenly they hear a door slam in the back. "Richard?" Emily calls out, looking behind her. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me." Richard tells her as he walks in. "Oh, Rory, you're here. Wonderful! Hello, Lorelai. Lauren."

"Hey." Lorelai says, while Lauren gives him a short wave before they all four walk towards him.

"I am starving. What's for dinner?" Richard asks Emily.

Emily looks stunned. "What's for dinner?" She asks. "What do you mean, what's for dinner?"

They walk into the dining room. "Well, I thought the question was relatively clear, but I'd be glad to rephrase it for you. Uh, what sort of food products will appear on various plates this evening?" He asks, as everyone takes their seats except for Emily, who is just staring at her husband like he's lost his mind.

"Richard Gilmore, you come home in a huff, then you lock yourself in that study all afternoon-"

"Well, I had a lot of thinking to do. A lot of thinking." Richard tells them. "I owe that to you, young lady." He says looking towards Rory.

"I'm sorry." Rory says.

"You should certainly not be sorry." Richard starts grabbing some food.

"Richard, what...put that roll down and explain yourself." Emily orders him.

"This whole week, this whole experience with Rory and the locker first aid kit..that is a damn good idea, by the way no matter what those yarn heads at that school of yours say. Anyway, this whole week made me realize something: I don't want to be retired."

"You what?"

"I don't like it. I hate it, as a matter of fact."

"But Dad-" Lorelai starts but Richard interrupts.

"It's boring. I have absolutely no idea what to do with myself. And, frankly, I am tired of trying to find something to fill up my time."

"So what are you going to do?" Lauren asks.

"I'm going to work."

"Are you thinking about asking for your job back?" Emily wonders.

"God, no." Richard laughs. "No, I have decided to go into business for myself."

"Wow." Lorelai says, surprised.

"What?" Emily asks.

"Cool." Rory says.

"It is cool, isn't it?" Richard smiles.

Emily is still looking very confused. "But what are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure yet. Perhaps I'll consult, maybe take on a partner. Maybe I'll even teach."

"What?" Lorelai chuckles, finding it hard to picture her dad teaching.

"Well, you don't have to say it like that." He mumbles.

"Sorry. What?" She says, faking surprise.

"I think 35 years of experience will qualify me to teach a course or two at that local business college of yours."

"My God." Lorelai mumbles. "It's Who's The Boss? The Later Years." She jokes.

"Richard, are you serious about this?" Emily asks, unsure.

"As a heartattack." He answers. "I haven't felt this good in a very long time, Emily. I have the buzz. And I owe it all to you." He says to Rory.

"Well, glad to be of service." Rory says.

"He's going to teach." Emily says, looking at Lorelai.

"Or consult." Lorelai adds.

"Consult?"

"So, licking a parking meter is just around the corner." Emily glares at Lorelai making Lorelai turn and chuckle.

On their way home, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are still thinking about everything Richard told them tonight.

"Okay, that dinner was good." Lorelai tells her girls.

"All of Grandma's dinner are good." Rory says.

"I know, but this one had the rolls."

"Those were excellent rolls."

"Weren't they? Hot and buttery with that split top thing. I miss the rolls."

"She make some more next week."

"That's okay." Lorelai shrugs. "I got six in my purse."

"You do not." Rory laughs.

"Go ahead and check."

Rory opens her mom's purse and takes out a roll. "Have you no shame?"

"Ha!" Rory's beepers starts going off. "Who's that?"

Rory looks at it. "It's Dean."

"Really? How many pages does that make for today?"

"Just one."

"You're kidding."

"In two days." Rory smiles.

"Wow!"

"I know. He hasn't called or mysteriously appeared by my side or anything."

"Oh, well, maybe he's calming down."

"I hope so. I actually got a chance to miss him today."

Lorelai smiles at her daughter. "That sounds good."

"It is good."

"Do you want to grab my cell phone and give him a call?"

"Oh, no. Tomorrow's fine."

"Are you sure? It's still early. You guys could hook up for a little while."

"I'm hanging out with Lane tonight."

"Lane?"

"Yeah. We have some serious CD listening to do. We're way behind on all the Elvis Costello reissues." Rory tells her.

"I didn't think Lane could hang out past nine."

"Her mom's at an antique fair in Woodbury until Sunday. And her grandmother's staying with her, but she's asleep by six. So we thought we'd be really bad and sneak out to Luke's."

"You're going to Luke's?" Lorelai asks, a little surprised.

"Maybe."

"Honey, why go to Luke's? I mean, you just had ten rolls." She jokes.

"No, you did, and I don't even know if we'll go. It's just a maybe."

"Okay, okay, well, you guys have fun." Lorelai drives up to Lane's and drops Rory off. Lauren hops into the front seat as Lorelai drives off again. "Are you ready to talk now?" Lorelai asks Lauren.

Lauren turns to her mom and gives her a small smile. "Mom, I really miss Elizabeth."

Lorelai rubs her daughter's arm, lovingly. "I know you do, sweets. But it'll get better. I promise. You will see Elizabeth again."

"How can you be so sure about that? I mean, she lives all the way in California. Her mom is never home, so I can't really see her coming home a lot. It just really sucks. And it sucks going to school without her. It sucks not hanging out with her everyday." Lauren explains.

Lorelai pulls over and decides that this was a face to face talk. Not a driving talk. "Lauren." She says, turning to face her daughter. "it will get better." She repeats, making Lauren roll her eyes. "No, believe me. But for it to be better you can't go into classrooms and knock people out of their desk. You can't miss classes because it's hard. I know Elizabeth is your best friend.." Lauren goes to correct her, but Lorelai holds her hand up. "She is still your best friend, whether you want to think so or not. But I will not allow you to act up. You have never got into any trouble before until now. I mean, granted you and Elizabeth did some pretty stupid things, but you have never got kicked out of class. Teachers love you."

"No, they love that Rory is my sister."

"But they love you. You make excellent grades, until now." Lauren looks confused. Lorelai digs into her purse and takes out the transcript Lauren's principal gave her. "Your grades her falling. I have never seen you lower than a B before."

Lauren takes the paper out of her mom's hand and looks at it. "Math is really hard." She tells her.

"Then let your big sister help you. Rory loves helping you."

"But I don't need help. I've just fell behind because I missed a few assignments."

Lorelai sighs. "Lauren, for me, please let Rory help you catch up at least. You need this. You need your big sister."

Lauren sits back in her seat and takes a deep breath. "I don't like this." Lauren says, not just about the whole Rory helping her thing, but about everything. Elizabeth. Everything.

Lorelai grins. "I know."

Lauren looks at her mom. "I don't know if I can do this." She says, honestly.

Lorelai grabs her daughter's hand. "You can."

"Mom, if I say something completely crazy, do you promise not to send me to a pshyciatrist?"

Lorelai chuckles. "I promise."

"I think I want to go to Chilton after my last year at Stars Hollow."

Lorelai looks surprised. She never thought she would ever hear those words come out of Lauren's mouth, ever. She was the wild kid. The sarcastic, witty, get out of my way, girl, like her. "What?"

Lauren shrugs. "I just think maybe I'd like it more. Maybe I won't be so bored. I can start new, ya know? I mean, I know it's a long way away. I have a whole other year at Stars Hollow, but it's something to think about, right?"

Lorelai smiles. "Definitely." Lauren smiles back and looks out the window as Lorelai stares at her daughter a little more before turning back around in her own seat and starting the car up again. Lauren Gilmore going to Chilton. Who would have ever thought? When they drive up to their house, Lauren gets out but stops when she and Lorelai notice Dean sitting on the porch steps. Lorelai leads her towards the house, looking sadly at her older daughter's sad boyfriend. Lauren walks passed him and turns slighty at the door as she watches her mom. "Dean." Lorelai whispers.

Dean doesn't look up. He stays sitting, staring down at his hands. "She likes Jess, doesn't she?" He asks. Lorelai looks up slighty at Lauren, who quickly turns her head. She knew the truth, but she wasn't going to ruin anything when Rory hadn't even figured it out herself. Dean looks up at Lorelai, waiting for an answer, but she couldn't give it to him. He nods his head and stands up, not saying another word, and walks away.


	38. Some Streets Lead Nowhere

Lorelai and Lauren are standing in the check out line at Doose's Market. It's a long line so Lorelai is looking through magazines and crossword puzzles while Lauren stands there looking really bored and holding the basket.

"I hate crossword puzzles. They make me feel stupid." Lorelai says.

"Then don't do them."

"If you don't, you're not only stupid you're also a coward."

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Or you have better things to do."

"You think people will buy that?" Lorelai asks.

"The people who line up on a daily basis and ask if you do crossword puzzles and then when you say no, challenge you as to why?" Lauren laughs. "Yes, I think they will buy it."

Lorelai smiles. "Look, new bagboy." Lorelai notices another guy that isn't Dean.

"Yeah, that's Marty. Rory said he's subbing for Dean while he's out of town." Lauren tells her as she begins unloading the basket of food on to the turn table.

Marty is tossing the jars up in the air and doing fancy tricks before he bags them. "Wow. Marty does the jar twirl before putting the salsa in the bag. Impressive. Very Cocktail."

"He looks like he's a nice guy."

Lorelai continues looking at him. "Marty's an ambitious snake in the grass."

Lauren looks confused. "What?"

"The jar twirl. The double bagging. The 'Have a nice day, ma'am,' after every customer. That guy has got an agenda."

Lauren was still confused by her mother's rant. "Which is?"

"He's out to take Dean's job."

Lauren laughs. "I doubt it."

"Yes, he is." Lorelai says, surely. "I'm telling you. He wants that position. Dean better hurry from his grandmother's or he can kiss his job goodbye."

"As funny as that would be, I doubt they will fire Dean."

"Why not?"

"Because last week someone stole Taylor's ladder, Dean's the only one who can reach the top shelves." Lauren explains.

Lorelai smirks. "Huh. Interesting."

"What is?"

"Just as Marty, a.k.a. Eve Harrington, shows up trying to take Dean's job Taylor's ladder mysteriously disappears suddenly making Dean invaluable no matter what fancy tricks Lon Chaney Jr. over there pulls. Good thinking, Dean. Smart thinking, my friend." Lauren glares up at her mom. "What?"

"I think you need to start napping in the afternoons." Lauren tells her.

They walk closer to the register where Taylor is actually working. "Hey, Taylor. Pulling a double duty today?" Lorelai asks.

"I like to fill in behind the register every now and then." Taylor tells her. "It keeps me in contact with the clientele. Also, it allows me to keep an eye on the 'Take a Penny' pot here make sure people aren't pocketing the pennies for their personal gain.." Lorelai and Lauren glance at eachother. "..but are legitimately using them to make exact change."

Lauren sees a flyer and picks it up. "Oh, cool. Mom, look." Lauren hands the flyer to her.

"Oh, yeah." Lorelai says, looking at it. "'Movie in the Square' night again. Great."

"We'll be there." Lauren assures Taylor.

"Oh, excellent." Taylor hands Lorelai her receipt. "There you are."

"What's the movie this year?" Lorelai asks him.

"Something really great." Taylor says, nervously.

"Really? What?"

"A real winner." Taylor smiles.

"What's it called?"

"Well, show up and be surprised."

"Why don't you tell me what it is?" Lorelai grins as she hands Taylor money.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why? What is the..." Lorelai stops when she realizes that Taylor is acting weird because of his movie choice. "Oh, no." She says, glaring at the man.

"There is a line behind you." Taylor tells her.

"You chose The Yearling again?"

"It is a fine, wholesome motion picture. Moving story. Lovely scenes of nature."

"You've shown The Yearling the last three years in a row." Lorelai complains.

"You know something? I'm getting a little tired of hearing you complain about this every single year."

"I'm tired, too. Pick another movie."

"A lot of hard work and careful planning go into those nights. You never help plan." Taylor reminds her. "You never volunteer. You have never once been a ticket ripper. as long as I have been involved in that function." Lauren looks at her mom, knowing it's true. Lorelai just stands there with a embarrassed look on her face. "Personally, missy, if you can't participate with a smile and a hug then you shouldn't participate at all."

"I shouldn't, but I am. Pick another movie."

"No."

"Taylor, there's millions of great movies out there. Any one would be better than The Yearling for the fourth time."

"Fine! You do it!" Taylor yells, giving up.

"What?"

"You pick the movie!"

"Seriously?"

"I've had it. You have such strong opinions about everything you go out and try to find a movie that everybody will enjoy. It's all yours. I relinquish my movie picking crown to you!" Taylor storms away leaving Lorelai and Lauren standing there stunned by what just happened.

"He relinquished his crown!" Lorelai says.

"I heard." Lauren says, with the same surprised look as her mom's.

"I got his crown!"

"And it looks great on you."

Lorelai takes her bag. "Cool! This is gonna be fun. Let's go home and make popcorn and pick which movie we want."

"I get to help?" Lauren asks.

"Of course."

"And can I borrow the crown?"

"I don't know, honey. We'll have to see." Lorelai tells her as they walk out the door.

In Rory's room, Lorelai is sitting on Rory's bed going through a list of movie choices to show for movie night in the town as Rory gets ready for school.

"Wizard of Oz." Lorelai says.

"The Sting."

"Rocky."

"Crimes and Misdemeanors."

"The Singing Detective."

"That's a miniseries."

"So?"

"It's like six hours long." Rory reminds her.

"Good point. I got it. Arthur!"

"Yes." Rory agrees.

"Or Sophie's Choice."

"Ver similar."

"Man, I can't choose. There's too many great movies. The burden is overwhelming. I'm sinking under the pressure. My grasp on reality is slipping. I can't do it, I just can't...How about Cabin Boy?" The phone starts ringing.

"Will you get thaat?" Rory asks as she does her hair.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Time."

Rory looks at her clock. "6:45."

"On?"

"Wednesday."

"Oh." Rory goes to get the phone but Lauren had already beat her to it.

"Hello?" She answers, out of breath from running down the stairs.

"Hey, kiddo!" Chris says on the other end.

Lauren freezes, realizing what she just did. She looks at Rory. "Hi." Lauren says, again.

Lorelai watches from Rory's doorway at her daughters. Rory is forcing the phone on Lauren's ear to make her talk to their dad. "What's going on?" Chris asks.

"Just getting ready for school and trying to think of movies. What's going on with you?" She asks, nervously. She still wasn't very happy with her dad and his new girlfriend and she knew Chris could sense that so talking to him was very weird, especially considering his visit before that.

"Well, I am just getting ready for work. Movies for what?"

Lauren tries to get out of Rory's death grip but it was not working. "Our town does this big movie festival outdoors and this year Mom gets to pick the movie."

"Oh, yeah? How'd she get that gig?"

"She ticked off the guy who usually does it and he quit."

"Sounds about right." Chris laughs.

"Hey, uh, Rory's right here and she keeps begging me to let her talk to you so here you go." Lauren says, quickly, removing Rory's hands from her face and forcing Rory to take the phone. Rory sighs and rolls her eyes at her sister while Lauren shoots her a big smile and walking over to their mom.

"Hey, Dad." Rory says.

"Hey, kiddo. Lauren pretty much told me what's happening there, but how are things with you?" Chris asks.

"Things are good. How are things there? How's Sherry?" Rory asks.

"Oh, nothing much is going on here. Same old, same old." Rory walks back into her room where Lorelai and Lauren are looking at Lorelai's lists of movies. Rory mouths to her mom if she wants to talk to Chris. Lorelai shakes her head. "Listen, I've got to cut this talk short, but I sent you an e-mail, so read it. And add an extra forthy minutes onto my tab for next week's call. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Okay. Tell Lauren I love her. I'll talk to you guys on Wednesday. Bye, sweetie."

"Bye, Dad." Rory hangs up. "Dad says he loves you."

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Who doesn't?"

Rory picks the phone up and walks back into her room. "So, are you going to tell me what you two are fighting about?" Rory asks her mom.

"We're not fighting." Lorelai shrugs.

"What you're not fighting about that keeps you from talking to eachother ever again?"

Lorelai looks back at her lists. "How about Desperately Seeking Susan?"

"How about My Mother is Two?" Rory says, sarcastically.

"Hey, I never saw that one. Angie Dickinson?" Lauren asks, completely serious.

Lorelai chuckles and wraps one arm around her oblivious daughter. "You're impossble." Rory groans.

"You're right. You're Impossible was the one with Angie Dickinson." Lorelai tells her.

"Fine." Rory gives up. "Forget it. I give. Stay in a fight. I don't care. I'm late for school. We'll finish this later." Rory grabs her booksack and begins walking out.

"After school, Luke's?"

"I'll be there."

"Bye, hon."

"Bye."

Lauren looks at her mom who just smiles at her.

At Stars Hollow High, Lane's class is taking a test.

"Fifteen minutes left." The teacher announces.

She turns her back and Jess sneaks into the room very quietly. He sits behind Lane. "Lane." He whispers. "Lanee."

"Sh!" Lane hushes.

"I need a pencil."

"I don't have one." Lane tells him.

"Then I need a pen."

"You only have fifteen minutes left."

"Then I need the answers." Jess jokes.

"There's a pen in my bag."

"I can't go through your bag."

"Yes, you can."

"My mother told me never to go through a lady's bag at least not until your're a couple blocks away. Just kidding. She never said that. Though it sounds like good advice, doesn't it?"

Lane was growing really annoyed so she reaches in her bag and grabs a pen. "Take it and shut up."

"Boy, I tell you, it's true, small towns sure are friendly." Jess sits back in his desk, taking a book from his back pocket. The teacher turns around and notices Jess. She shakes her head when she realizes Jess snuck in, but continues class without distrupting everyone from their test.

In the Principal's office, Luke knocks on the door.

"Come in." The principal says. Luke walks in and closes the door behind him.

"I got a call you wanted to see me. I'm Luke Danes, Jess Mariano's uncle." Luke says, nervously.

"Jess Mariana? Yes. Come in." The principal walks over to his desk and ushers Luke to follow and sit in front of him.

"So is everything okay? I didn't see any cop cars or fire trucks out front so...what's he done?"

"Why do you think he's done something?"

"Oh, I don't know. You're staring at a folder that's looking a little thick there. I get a call to come over and talk to you. So why don't you just tell me what he's done?" Luke asks, impatiently.

"Nothing."

Luke looks confused. "Nothing?"

"No homework, no class participation. His attendance record is erratic at best." Luke sighs as he continues listening to the principal talk about his nephew. "His attitude to his teachers ranges from indifferent to hostile. He shows no interest in activities or other students and there is the issue of the disappearing baseballs."

"The what?"

"Every baseball on campus seems to have disappeared."

"You don't think Jess seriously..." The principal just stares at Luke showing all seriousness in his face. "I'll check when I get home."

"I appreciate that. Now, I don't suspect we'll solve every problem in one meeting so let's focus on the most important one: his grades."

"Not good?" Luke asks.

"Not good."

"Well, I'll have a talk with him about that."

"You have to do more than talk. You're gonna have to help him."

"Me? Oh, no, I'm not the one you want helping him. I went to this school. I'm sure there's a note stuffed in there about me with the words 'Trade School' stamped in big letters."

"If you can't help him, you have to find someone who can."

"Like who?"

"A relative." The principal suggests.

"I don't think so. Believe me, I'm the Einstein of the clan."

"Then maybe you need to hire a tutor."

"A tutor?" Luke groans. "Oh, geez."

"Mr. Danes, Jess is flunking out. He's not going to make it." The principal says sternly. "Now, if something is not done about that right now, he's going to repeat this year. I'm sorry, but that's where we are."

"Okay, if that's where we are then I'll just have to figure something out."

"Good." Luke stands up to leave. "And let's not forget about those baseballs."

Luke turns back around, remembering that he had to find out about where Jess put the baseballs. "Right."

"Been using tennis balls for a couple of weeks."

"Wow."

"Very different results."

"I'm sure it is." Luke walks out still trying to picture the team playing baseball with tennis balls instead.

Later at Luke's, Lorelai and her girls are eating pie and still trying to figure out a movie for movie night.

"If we take off Fletch and Urban Cowboy we still have 75 possibilities." Lorelai tells them as she scratches them off the list.

"How are we gonna pick just one?" Rory asks.

"I don't know. Maybe we should do a movie marathon weekend. You know, just show one movie after the other for three days and charge a fortune, gouge them on bottled water, have really disgusting bathroom. It'll be like our own Woodstock." Rory and Lauren chuckle.

Taylor walks into the door and sees Lorelai at the counter. "Oh! Good! There you are." He says happily making his way over to them. "I have something for you."

"What?"

"This." Taylor drops a big binder right in front of Lauren.

"Geez." Lauren says, jumping a little.

"Now when you get through this and make your decision the number of the man you need to contact is on the first page." Taylor explains to Lorelai.

"What man?" Lorelai asks. "What is this?"

"That is the list of titles that are avaiable for you to pick from for the movie night."

Lorelai looks confused. "The list of titles? I'm sorry, can't we pick our own movie?"

"You're not serious?" Taylor grimaces.

"Not often, but just there, I had some serious going."

"My dear girl, movies are expensive and we get fabulous deals with this particular place. They have a wide selection and they're very friendly and since it all goes to charity they agree to give us anything on that list for free."

"So we have to pick a movie off this list?"

"It's fun." Taylor smiles as he opens the binder to show it off. "They put the movie title over here and a brief description of the storyline over here. And believe me, there are some excellent movies on that list. Really."

Lorelai pushes the binder so that it is in front of her. "Arctic Flight." She reads. "Man with plane flies charter to Alaska hired by bear hunter who turns out to be Russian spy. Love story develops with pilot and schoolteachers. Eskimos do tribal dance.' You made this up." Lorelai says smiling at Taylor.

"Don't I wish! Okay, I can't wait to see what you come up with. Bye, girls." Taylor turns around and leaves the diner.

"'Killer Shark." Lauren begins to read. "'Shark fisherman on ocean. Mexican cantina with tequila and mariachi music. Has good scene of catching and cleaning shark.'"

'Where Are Your Children?" Rory reads. "'Hip music and singing about kids getting in trouble, sneaking booze into clubs, stealing cars, fight between girls. Romance starts, then guy goes in the Navy."

"Taylor cannot be serious." Lauren says as they look at one another.

At the house, Rory is just getting home from school and walks into the kitchen where Lorelai is still reading through the binder of movies.

"Marshmallow?" Lorelai asks, holding up a marshmallow.

Rory gladly takes it. "Thank you." She walks over to the stove and turns the fire on to roast it.

"Okay! I have now finished going through every single one of these movies. I've read them, reviewed their merits and I'm proud to announce that I have chosen our movie." Lorelai slams the binder shut. "How does The Yearling sound to you?"

"Perfect."

"And bye-bye." Lorelai throws the binder on the floor. There's a knock on the front door. "That must be Pauline Kael rising from the dead." Lorelai says as she gets up to go answer it.

"Tell her, 'hey.'' Rory walks into her room.

Lorelai opens the door where Luke is standing holding a box. "Pauline!"

Luke looks confused. "What?"

"Nevermind. What are you doing here?"

Luke walks in. "I made some brownies. I thought you might like some."

"Oh, thanks. Since I just ate a half bag of marshmallows, six pop tarts, four bagel dogs, and really stale Cheese Nip, yeap, it's browniw time. Thanks." Lorelai happily takes the box from Luke and they walk to the kitchen. "Hey, here's a question for you."

"Yeah?"

"Well, you probably have a diner full of people who'd love these brownies. Plus, I bet they'd pay you for them."

"Well, I accidently dropped triple the amount of cocoa powder in the batter so I either had to dump the batch or find someone with some sort of superhuman chocolate tolerance. Only one name came to mind."

Lorelai smiles. "God, I love being special." She puts the box down and looks back up finding Luke looking around. "What?"

"Nothing, I just..hey, is Rory here, by any chance?"

"Yeah, she's in her room."

"Can I talk to her for a sec?"

"Sure. Go right ahead."

"Thanks." Luke walks over to Rory's closed door and knocks gently on it. "Rory, it's Luke. Can I come in for a minute?" Luke turns and smiles at Lorelai, who gives him an awkward smile back before Rory opens her door.

"What's up?" Rory asks.

"Not much. Can I.." Luke says gesturing to her room.

"Uh, yeah. Come on in." Luke walks in and Rory turns to her mom who shrugs, not knowing what was going on. Rory walks back to her desk and sits down.

"So, I see you're studying. That's good. Studying is very, very good. What you're doing right there with the books, very good."

"Thank you."

"Okay." Luke takes a deep breath. "I wanted to ask you a favor." Luke sits down in front of Rory on her bed. "I was just wondering if you could tutor Jess."

"What?"

"He's not doing well in school. The principal says he's not gonna move on unless something changes. I was wondering if you could help."

"That doesn't make any sense. He's smart enough to pass any subject."

"I don't think it's his lack of smarts. More like his lack of proximity to the actual classes. That's the problem."

Rory nods her head understanding now. "Okay." She agrees. "What subject does his need help in?"

"I'd say all of them, probably."

"Huh."

"Look, I don't expect you to work miracles and it doesn't have to be a full-time, everyday thing. If you could get him through a couple of his next tests maybe make the school see that he can do it that would probably help out a lot."

"Sure."

"Great. Tonight?" Luke asks.

"Tonight." Rory agrees.

"I really appreciate this. Okay, you should get back to your studying. Otherwise, you're completely useless to me." Luke gets up and walks out of Rory's room, closing the door behind him. Lorelai turns around. "Okay, I'll see you guys at dinner, probably."

"Wait. Hold on. What was that all about?"

"Oh, Rory's gonna tutor Jess."

"She is?" Lorelai asks, surprised.

"Yeah. Just for a little while. Help me him on the right track."

"Wow."

"Okay. I should be getting back. Enjoy the brownies. I'll see if I can screw up a cake for you later on." Luke jokes before walking to the door.

Lorelai laughs, but she was still confused over this whole thing and still needed to talk to Luke. So, she follows him out of the door. "Hey, Luke, hang on just a sec." Luke turns back around. "Listen, about Rory doing this tutoring thing-"

"I really appreciate it, by the way."

"I know you do, I just...Rory's so sweet and she would never say no cause she loves to help but I'm not sure if it's the best idea."

"Why?"

"Well, she's got her own studies to worry about. And she will actually be helping Lauren catch up on her math so I'm not sure if she'll have the time."

"I know. I promise this won't take up all her time. It's for a little while. She could do a double tutoring thing. Have Lauren and Jess together."

"Okay, but-"

"Rory's pretty serious about school." Luke continues. "I don't think she wouldn't say she had the time if she didn't."

"I know. Rory is a great student, but she's just a kid." Lorelai reminds him. "Don't you need a professional tutor to help Jess? You know, somebody with a degree, a pipe and one of those coats with elbow patches on it?"

"I need someone Jess is gonna listen to. Someone he's gonna, I don't know, look up to. You want Lauren to look up to Rory, don't you?"

Lorelai shrugs. "Of course I do."

"Well, Jess sure won't look up to me, and it sure isn't some tutor. He likes Rory and Rory's on the path that I'd like to see Jess on: school and college. He needs to see somebody he respects doing what he should be doing." Luke explains. "And Rory's the only one I can think of who fits that description."

"Yeah, but you don't know that he'll listen to Rory."

"But I gotta do something, don't I?"

"Okay, just make sure it's not too much time, okay?"

"I will." Luke promises.

"Okay." Lauren runs up to them.

"Hey." She says, smiling at her mom and Luke.

"Hey, kid." Lorelai smiles, kissing her daughter gently on her head.

"Hey, Lauren. You two enjoy those brownies." Luke smiles before walking away.

Lauren looks up and notices a brownie in her mom's hand. "Oh, brownie!" Lauren picks a part of the brownie and puts it in her mouth. She closes her eyes because of the sugar she can taste in it. "Oh, my god." She says. "That's good!" She grabs the brownie from her mom and runs into the house.

Later that day at the diner, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are all enjoying their dinner when Kirk walks up them, holding a tape in his hands.

"Oh, Lorelai, good. I need one minute of your time." Kirk tells her.

"I'll give you two because you scare me."

"I hear through the grapevine that you are in charge of selecting the movie for the movie night."

Lorelai grins proudly at her girls. "Yes, yes, I am."

"Okay. Well, I don't know if you know this about me, but I have great creative ambitions."

"I did not know that about you, Kirk."

"It's true. Don't get me wrong, I love the blue-collar work. I enjoy the plight of the everyman." Lorelai nods her head pretending to completely agree with him. "But as much as the mailed letter delivered and the DSL line installed, and the latest flick rented fills me with deep sense of pride in my sould, I am Akira Kurosawa."

"Seven Samurai. Great movie."

"Excuse me?"

"Seven Samurai." Lorelai says, again.

"I'm sorry, I don't-

"Akira Kurosawa directed Seven Samurai. It's a great Japanese movie."

"Japanese movie? No. I'm sorry, I have the wrong person. Who's the guy who directed The Facts of Life?"

"I don't-"

"Asaad Kelada. Sorry. In my soul, I know I am Asaad Kelada." Lorelai and her girls glace at eachother with confusion as they continue to listen to Kirk.

"What do you need?" Lorelai asks.

"I've made a short film that I've been working on for five years. If I rush, I can have it done by Thursday. I'm very proud of it. And I was wondering if you would screen it before the movie tomorrow. It would mean a great deal to my career."

"Well, uh, what kind of movie is it?"

"You mean, is it 'blue?' No. Perfectly PG. It's not exactly Babe. But Lauren here could definitely watch it. It's more like Babe 2."

"Yeah, I don't think I want to." Lauren whispers.

"Got it." Lorelai tells him. "I want to help you, but let me think about it, and I'll get back to you."

Kirk hands her his tape. "Here's a copy of the film. Take a look and call me. And remember, I can edit out two of the 'hells,' but I need to keep all the 'damns.' It's a street-cred thing."

"Bye, Kirk." Kirk gets up and walks out of the diner. "At least now I have something to do tonight." Lorelai smiles looking at the tape.

"You're not watching that without us." Rory tells her.

"Okay, I'll wait. So, Lauren, you have your books?"

Lauren nods her head. "I have everything."

"Do you both want some pie before the big studying?"

"No, I'm full." Rory tells her.

"How about some more coffee?"

"I'm good."

"Hot chocolate?" Lorelai asks Lauren.

"No, thanks." Lauren says looking at her mom with a weird look.

"Egg cream? Now, I never had an egg cream, but it sounds just disgusting enough to be fabulous."

"Lauren and I are just going to study and I'll help Jess. That's it." Rory promises her.

Lorelai sighs. "I know."

"And we'll be right here doing it."

"I know."

"So all this stalling is completely unnecessary."

"I know."

"So go." Lauren tells her.

"I will." Lorelai slowly picks up her coffee. "Just finishing up the coffee that I paid for." Rory looks annoyed. "Alright, that's enough. I'm going." Lorelai kisses Lauren on her head. "Bye."

Lorelai stands up and grabs her coat. "Oh, Mom?" Rory asks.

"Yeah?"

"Listen, just in case, and I don't think he will, but if Dean calls, will you tell him I'm with Lane?"

"I thought you said this was nothing."

"It is."

"That you guys were just studying."

"We are."

"Then how come I have to lie to Dean?"

"Well, you know that it's not gonna be okay with Dean if I'm studying with Jess."

"Then maybe you shouldn't, if you feel weird enough that I have to lie. You and Lauren just come back home with me and you can help her there." Lorelai offers.

"I'm not asking you to lie."

"You told me to say that you're with Lane." Lorelai reminds her. "I don't see Lane here. Sounds like a lie."

"Fine. Forget it. Just don't answer the phone."

"Hello? I get calls, too. I'm not What Ever happened to Baby Jane? yes, thank you."

Lauren groans in frustration. "Mom, just tell him that Rory is studying with me, which is what we are doing. I want to get this over with."

Jess walks out and smiles over at Rory. "Hey, teach."

"Hey." Rory says.

"You guys done yet?"

"Just not yet." Lorelai says with an attitude.

"Okay, well, I'll be right over there when you are." Jess says, pointing behind him. "Just can't wait for that learning to begin. Hey, are we gonna do some of those Schoolhouse Rock songs?"

"I'll be right there." Rory tells him.

"They say if you make learning fun..."

"Give us a minute, okay?" Lorelai says, annoyed.

"Hurry, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Right, Lauren?" Jess says, smiling, as he walks away. Lauren rolls her eyes and turns back to her mom and sister.

"We'll be home early." Rory promises Lorelai.

"Fine." Lorelai bends down and kisses Rory on her head. "Bye, Jess."

"Ma'am." He says, sarcastically.

Lorelai glares at him and walks out. "Get your assignments out. I'll be right back." Rory tells Lauren before she walks over to Jess. "So, are you ready to start?"

"Yes, I am."

"Where are your books?"

"I don't know."

"How are we going to study?"

"I guess we can't. Too bad. So, what now? Movie?"

"Get your books." Rory tells him sternly.

"The cat at them."

"Get your books or we're going home." Rory walks back to the table as Jess runs upstairs.

An hour later, Jess was already bored with studying while Rory helps Lauren.

"Rory, can we just forget about this? I'm never going to understand it. The teacher hates me anyway." Lauren complains.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Yeah, with that attitude, of course you're never going to understand it. Just try to do this last problem while I help Jess." Lauren does as she's told as Rory turns back to Jess's books. "Explain to me the political remifications of the Marshall Plan."

Jess picks up the cards he's playing with and spreads them out in his hand. "Pick a card." Rory grabs the cards and tosses them on the floor. "Huh. That just made the trick a little bit harder."

"Jess, focus." Rory begs.

"Where's Dean tonight?"

"We just went over this. There's no way you forgot."

"Work?"

"I will make you write it out fifty times on the Specials board."

"If he's not at work, he must be free. He doesn't care that you're here?"

"He's visiting his grandmother." Lauren interrupts. She was getting annoyed that she had to do work while they talked. It wasn't fair. "I'm tired of doing this, Rory. I don't understand it."

Jess ignores Lauren's whining. "Where?"

"Chicago." Rory answers before turning back to Lauren.

"He doesn't know?"

"It wouldn't matter."

"You'll tell him?"

"We're studying."

"You're studying, I'm prying."

"Jess, why won't you at least try to remember the Marshall Plan?"

"Have you ever read Please Kill Me? Oral history of the punk movement. You'd like it. You can borrow it if you want."

"I'm here to help you study. If you want me to go, I'll go."

Lauren slams her book closed. "Please." She begs.

"But.." Rory says, glaring at her little sister. "if you want me to stay then you have to stop distracting me and start paying attention, understand? I'm not just here to help you. I have to help Lauren, too, and you're not make that easy on either of us."

"I understand." Jess says.

"Good. And, yes, I would like to borrow it. Thank you very much." Jess grins. "Now open your book."

Jess watches Rory look back into the book as he pretends to be reading. Lauren watches them both with a smirk. How long were they really going to act like nothing was going on between them?

Another hour passed and they were all still studying. Jess is writing something in a notebook.

"Done." He says, showing Rory.

Rory grabs it, happily, and starts reading it. "This isn't Shakespeare." She says, confused.

"It's not?"

"It's the words to a Clash song."

"Yeah, but which Clash song?"

Lauren gets up and stands behind Rory, excited to find out, too. "I'm not the one being tested." Rory reminds him.

Jess looks at his watch. "Ten seconds."

"Jess."

"Hurry, Rory!" Lauren says, quickly.

"Nine, Eight, Seven..."

"Stop it."

"six, five, four.."

"You're really starting to-

"...three.."

"Oh! Guns of Brixton!" Rory answers with excitement.

"A-plus." Jess jokes.

"That was intense." Lauren says, sitting back in her chair.

Rory laughs. "Why would you even agree to this studying thing in the first place?"

"Cause Luke said I had to."

"You've never done anything because someone said so."

"I moved here because someone said I had to."

"Very different." Rory turns to Lauren. "Did you get that answer yet?"

Lauren shakes her head and sighs. "No. It's too hard."

"It's eight." Jess tells her.

Rory gasps. "Jess, don't tell her the answer. That's not helping her."

"What? She's having a hard time. Let's get the kid out of here."

"What?" Lauren and Rory both say.

"I'm sick of studying. I know Lauren is sick of studying."

"Very." Lauren agrees.

"How can you be sick of studying?" Rory asks Jess. "You haven't done any studying. You've done card tricks, you've made coffee, you've tried to explain to me how on earth Coldplay could be considered an alternative band but as of yet, no studying." During Rory's rant, Jess had walked to the door and looked out the window.

"That's your car?" He asks.

"Yes, it is."

Jess comes back to the table. "Okay, I'll tell you what, let's go eat some ice cream, when we get back I'll study."

"This is a diner. There's ice cream here."

"Yes, but we don't have cones."

"Cones."

"I need cones."

"Okay, so if we go get ice cream-"

"In cones."

"Then you'll be a perfect student for the rest of the night?"

"That's right."

Rory turns to Lauren who had already packed up her books and was ready to leave. "Please, Rory." Lauren begs.

"I could not believe you less." Rory says smiling at Jess. "Here." Rory hands Jess her keys. "You drive. I'll read you Othello. Won't that be fun?"

"You have no idea how much." Jess says sarcastically as he grabs Lauren they run out the door, laughing while Rory follows.

After ice cream, Rory, Jess, and Lauren were back in the car heading back to the diner while they were licking their ice creams.

"Admit it. It's always better in cones." Jess tells them.

"It is always better in cones." Lauren agrees from the backseat.

"Putting ice cream in a dish? Eating it with a spoon?"

"What is wrong with people?" Rory asks.

"Hold the wheel." Jess tells her as he bites the bottom of his cone.

"What?"

"I'm dripping. Hold the wheel."

"I can't. You're driving." Rory reminds him. "The person who drives holds the wheel. That's what they teach you in driver's ed."

"Huh! I got to take that class one of these days. Take the wheel."

"Jess."

"I'm letting go." Jess takes his hand off and Rory quickly reaches over and grabs the wheel.

"Stop. Take it back." Rory demands. "Okay, you are taking this wheel back, and when you do, I'm going to kill you. I'm just letting you know that."

"I appreciate the warning."

"This is so much fun." Lauren says, happily.

"I know. Right, Lauren? Who needs studying?" Jess asks.

"Not me."

Rory glares at Jess. "What?" He laughs.

"Don't tell her that."

Jess grabs the wheel back. "Serious question?" Rory asks.

"Okay."

"You know you're smarter than almost everybody at your school. It takes you like five minutes to finish a book. You read and remember everything. You could ace those classes easily." Rory explains. "Why don't you? You don't need a tutor. It's crazy that they're talking about leaving you back."

"Whatever." Jess says, not caring.

"You could do anything." Rory tells him. "You could be anything you wanted."

"Rory."

"Is it, like, a 'cool' thing?"

"I could care less about being cool."

"Inform me, please."

"I'm never going to college. Why waste time in high school?"

"Why aren't you going to college?" Lauren asks.

"Please." He says rolling his eyes.

"What? Why is that so crazy?" Rory asks.

"Ask my mother. She could give you a couple reasons. Oh, and I'm sure Principal Merton can cime in with a few good ones. In fact, ask your mother. She doesn't know me all that well but I'm sure she could improvise a few things."

"Do not give that whole 'I'm so misunderstood,' Kurt Cobain-y thing. You are way stronger that that, and I don't want to hear it. You have to go to college."

"No, you have to go to college. And you." Jess says pointing to Lauren. "Math will get easier. Trust me."

Lauren shrugs. "My teachers don't like me."

Jess puts his hand out for Lauren to high-five it. "Join the club."

Lauren laughs and high fives him. "Don't you have any plans?" Rory asks.

"Yes. I plan to get out of Stars Hollow."

"And go where?"

"Wherever."

"And do what?"

"Whatever."

""Whenever.' 'Whatever.'" Rory mocks.

"I'll live where I live, I'll work when I need money and I'll see where I end up."

"You could do more."

Jess chuckles. "Oh! Here comes the pompoms."

"No pompoms. Just me saying, 'You could do more.'"

There's an awkward silence for a little before Jess turns to Rory. "So, Courtney, what about you?"

"What about me?" Rory and Lauren laugh.

"What are you big ambitions?"

"Harvard."

"And after Harvard?"

"I'm gonna be a journalist."

"Paula Zahn?"

"Christinane Amanpour." Rory corrects him.

"An overseas correspondent?"

"Yes."

"You're gonna crawl around in trenches and stand on top of buildings and have bombs going off in the background and civil wars raging all around you?"

"What? You don't think I can do it?"

"No, I do. It just sounds a little too..."

"A little what?"

"Just sounds too rough for you."

"Well it's not a little too rough for me. I hope it's not a little too rough for me." Rory says, finally thinking about it. "I've been talking about this forever. I mean, I don't even know what I would do it-"

"Hey, I didn't mean to freak you out. I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll do it." Jess could see that Rory was still nervous. "You will." He assures her. "I promise. I'll help you practice. Tomorrow, you'll stand in the middle of the street, and I'll drive at you.." Rory starts laughing. "..screaming in a foreign language."

"Well, you're gonna have to learn a foreign language first."

"Well, it's lucky I've got me a tutor, isn't it?"

Rory smiles before looking in the backseat at her sleeping sister. "We better get back. Lauren is sleeping." Jess turns around to look at Lauren. Rory turns back around just in time to see and animal jump in the middle of the road. "Jess, watch out!" She yells. Jess slams on his brakes and they begin sliding across the road.

At the house, Lorelai is rummaging through her kitchen drawers, trying to clean, and organize everything when the phone rings.

"Hello." She answers.

"Mom." Rory's voice says on the other end.

"Oh, great! Was it the China Ball, the China Doll, or the China Wall that had the really good shrimp balls?" Lorelai asks, as she looks the menus.

"I think it was the China Doll."

"Okay, these can go." Lorelai throws the menus in the trash. "So, you'll be so proud of me. I'm organizing the takeout drawer. I'm weeding out the dogs, and I'm putting happy face stickers on the dishes that have been seccesses to make our ordering more efficient. Where are you?"

Rory is sitting on a hospital bed. "I need you to be calm."

"Calm about what?"

"Calm about what I have to tell you."

Lorelai stops what she's doing. "Where are you?"

"I'm all right." Rory tells her.

"Well, of course you're all right. Why wouldn't you be all right?" Lorelai says, starting to panic.

"Because I got in an accident."

"What? What accident? What do you mean?"

"Jess, and Lauren and I went for ice cream and we were just driving and it was dark, and this dog or cat or possum, I don't know, it was very small and furry, it ran out into the middle of the road and Jess swerved-"

"Jess swerved?" Lorelai interrupts. "Jess was driving?"

"Yes."

"Jess was driving, and you got in an accident?"

"But I'm fine, and he's fine. They just won't tell me anything about Lauren, yet, she was sleeping, and-"

That's all it took for Lorelai. To just hear that her girls were in an accident and no one knew anything about Lauren. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the hospital."

Lorelai runs into the hospital moments later and goes to the nurses station. "Hi, excuse me. My daughters are here. They were in a car accident." Lorelai says on the verge of tears. "Their name are Rory and Lauren Gilmore."

"Okay, just take a seat." The nurse tells her.

"I don't want to take a seat."

"It'll be one minute."

"Hey, do you remember in Terms of Endearment where Shirley MacLaine's in the hospital and freaks out when her daughter doesn't get a shot? She got that from me and she toned it down. So once again, I'm looking for my daughters, Rory and Lauren Gilmore."

The nurse looks at the chart. "First door on your left."

"Thank you." Lorelai runs into the next hallway and goes right in to find the doctor looking at her daughter's arm. "Rory." She says, happy to see her. "Good. Are you okay?"

Rory looks at her mom. "I'm fine. Please tell her that I'm fine." Rory tells the doctor.

Lorelai reaches over and gives Rory a ton of kisses on her forehead. "She's fine." The doctor says, smiling at her.

"What's with the wrapping?" Lorelai says, noticing the doctor examining Rory's arm. "There's no wrapping if she's fine."

"Her arm hit the dashboard. She sustained a minor hairline fracture to her wrist."

"So she broke her wrist?"

"No, it's just a fracture." Rory tells her.

"Honey, let George Clooney talk here."

"It's a tiny fracture. Nothing serious. I'll put a cast on it. She'll wear it for a couple weeks."

"A cast?" Lorelai asks.

"It barely hurts, I swear." Rory promises.

"And that's it? Just the wrist? Everything else is fine?"

"She seems perfectly healthy." The doctor says.

"She 'seems healthy?' Did you check everything?"

"Almost all that could have been affected."

"Almost everything?"

"I assure you, we were very thorough."

"I'm sure you were, but I would like some extra thorough. Uh, anything that could have, in any scenario, affected this body I want it checked out."

"I'll run more x-rays if it makes you feel better."

"It will. Thanks. Now, one daughter down. Where's my other one?" Lorelai asks. worried.

"She's actually in the next room." Rory tells her. "I pulled and Emily Gilmore before the doctor came in and they immediately brought her to the next room. I knew you'd want us close."

Lorelai sighs, happily. "Thank you." Lorelai kisses Rory again.

"The nurse will just take you down to x-rays." The doctors tells Rory.

"I'll just be with Lauren. Okay?"

"Okay." Rory says, as she follows the nurse.

Lorelai hestitantly walks to the other door. She was afraid to see something bad. Her little girl was much smaller than her oldest so damages could be far worse when it came to Lauren. Lorelai slowly opens the door and sees that Lauren is awake, laying on the bed. Lauren turns to the door when she hears it. Lorelai could tell she had been crying. "Hey, sweets." Lorelai rushes to Lauren's side and Lauren sits up, grabbing her mom tightly around her neck, not wanting to ever let go. "Hey, you're okay. I got you now. Let me see you." Lauren sits back just enough for Lorelai to look at her, but just close enough to still have a firm grip on her mom. "Does anything hurt?" Lorelai asks. Lauren shakes her head. Lorelai could tell Lauren wasn't acting herself, but before she ask anything, the doctor walks in.

"Miss. Gilmore?" He asks.

Lorelai shakes his hand. "Yeap. That's me. How's my daughter?" She asks with worry.

The doctor looks at Lauren's chart. "Well, she was lucky. No broken bones. But she will have a few bruises that will show up during the next few days, especially from the seatbelt. Lauren was unconcious when the paramedics got to the scene." Lorelai gasps and looks at her daughter, who was just sitting there holding onto Lorelai's arm. "We found out she was sleeping before the accident which just made her a little out of it when she finally came through."

"Did you take any x-rays? Is her head okay?" Lorelai asks.

The doctor nods his head. "Her head is perfectly fine. We will just need you to watch her very carefully over the night."

Lorelai rubs her fingers through her daughter's long hair. "That will not be a problem. But for me can you please take a full body x-ray. I want to make everything is fine and that you are not missing anything."

The doctor smiles, knowing Lorelai was just a worried mother. "Of course. It may take about an hour."

"That's fine. I'll wait." Lorelai tells him as she looks back at Lauren. "The nice doctor is going to a few more x-rays on you just to double check everything, okay?" Lauren looks panic and she holds Lorelai tighter. "Hey, I will be right outside waiting for you. I promise. As soon as you get back we'll go home. Okay?" Lorelai could feel Lauren loosen her grip and she gives her gentle kiss on her cheek before standing up. "I love you." She whispers before walking out. As Lorelai walks out of the room, relieved that her daughters were okay. She starts walking to the waiting room, but stop and decides to go somewhere else instead. Lorelai runs over to Luke's diner and is relieved when she sees that Luke is still downstairs. "Luke!" She yells, knocking on the door. Luke turns around and quickly opens the door for Lorelai.

"Hey."

"Where is he?" Lorelai asks, walking right in and looking around.

"Who?"

"Jess. Where's Jess, Luke?"

"I don't know. I just got back." Luke follows Lorelai upstairs to his apartment. "What's going on?"

"Jess!" Lorelai yells.

"Hey, talk to me." Luke tells her as she walks into his apartment.

"Jess, answer me right now!" Lorelai is looking in every space and doorway she could find in the small apartment.

"What's wrong?" Luke is still asking, very confused. "What happened?"

"There was an accident." Lorelai tells him.

"What accident?"

"Jess was driving Rory's car, and he crashed it."

"What?" Luke panics. "When?"

"He crashed it tonight!" Lorelai yells walking back out of the apartment. "Jess! Damn it!"

"What happened?" Luke asks, still confused, as she follows Lorelai. "Is anyone hurt? Hey, I'm talking to you."

Lorelai is looking around the diner. "Where would he go?"

"I asked you if anyone was hurt."

"Uh, was anyone hurt? Let's see, Rory and Lauren are in the emergency room. One with a fractured wrist and one that will have bruises covering her body and won't speak to me because she is still freaking out. Yes, someone was hurt."

"Rory fractured her wrist?" Luke asks.

"She has to wear a cast for two weeks. She and Lauren are getting x-rays and tests."

"What about Jess? Is he hurt?" Luke asks, paniking just as Lorelai was when she found out.

"No, Jess did the hurting. That little punk nephew of yours almost killed my kids tonight."

"Look, I'm sure it was an accident. Accidents happen."

"Not with my kids in the car." Lorelai says, glaring at Luke.

"Calm down."

"Why did you do this?" Lorelai yells.

"Why did I do what?"

"Why did you bring him here?"

"What?"

"If you hadn't brought him here, this wouldn't have happened."

"This is my fault?" Luke questions, now getting angry himself with Lorelai accusing him of hurting her kids when he was just as worried as she is.

"Yes, it is your fault. You told him to come and let him stay. Everybody hated him, everybody knew he was trouble but you wouldn't listen or send him home. And now my daughters are in the hospital." Luke walks passed Lorelai and walks out the diner door with Lorelai following him. "You kept pushing them together. You asked her to help him study. You knew she'd never say no. I told you it made me nervous." Lorelai was still ranting and raving as they walk down the street. "I told you I didn't like it, and I should have stopped it. But you thought Rory'd be good for Jess, nevermind what he'd be to her. That wasn't important at all."

"Of course it was."

"Why didn't you put a stop to it at the first sign of trouble? Why didn't you make him leave?"

"He's my nephew." Luke reminds her. "I had an obligation. I had an obligation to care for him."

"You had an obligation to this town and to me and to Rory and Lauren. Where are you going?"

"I have to find out where Jess is."

"Well, I'll tell you where he's not: he's not in the emergency room, having his arm plastered up and getting x-rays."

Luke finally had enough and turns around stopping Lorelai. "Hey! I am sorry about Rory and Lauren. You know I care more about those girls than I do myself. But at least you know where Rory and Lauren are, and that they're okay. Now, I have to find Jess, and make sure that he's okay! And if that cuts into your screaming time, then that's too damn bad!"

"Go to hell!"

"Right back at you!" Both of them storm away from eachother and as Lorelai is walking the tow truck passes by with Rory's car in tow. She couldn't hold her tears back any longer. She let them out thinking about her daughters and what the damaged could have been if it was worse than it was. Lorelai takes out her cell phone and begins dialing a very familiar number. "Chris?"

As Luke is walking around, looking for Jess, he walks to the bridge that he knew Jess always hung out at. Jess is sitting on the edge of the bridge, his feet dangling over the water. "I made sure they were okay." Jess says.

"I know you did." Luke sits downs next to Jess and that's they stayed for a couple more hours in silence.

At the house, Rory is laying in bed while Lorelai sets up everything that she may need on her bedside.

"Okay, you got your t.v., your books, magazines, refreshments, CD player, assorted CDs. Stan Freberg. You have your Sinead O' Conner because when life really gets you down Sinead's the one to teach you some perspective. There's a pad and paper if you decide to write the great American novel and over here, you have a tiny-but-annoying bell in case there's something that you need and you want to summon the common but lovely house wench who will leave her talking mice and come to fetch the Contessa whatever she needs."

Rory smiles, gratefully. "I think what Contessa requires right now is sleep."

"Is your arm hurting you?"

"No. BUt the stuff they gave me made me a little dopey."

"My little Marianne Faithfull. Scooch down now and go to sleep."

Lorelai walks over to the empty chair in the corner of the room and scoots it close to Rory's bed. "What are you doing?" Rory asks.

"Just a little feng shui. Go to sleep." Lorelai walks out of the room and grabs a blanket and a pillow before walking back in.

"Mom, you don't have to sleep in here tonight."

"I know. I think the chair looks nice here."

"What's the blanket for?"

"In case the chair gets cold."

"The pillow?"

"To keep the blanket company. Okay, everything's in its place. Chair seems warm, blanket seems happy. Just one thing missing. Oh, yeah." Lorelai sits in the chair. "Goodnight." Lorelai smiles.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Freak of sideshow proportions."

"I love you, too."

Rory reaches over and turns off the light as Lorelai gets comfortable. Rory looks up when she sees Lauren walking in with a blanket by her side. "What?" She asks, annoyed.

Lauren just glares at her sister as she keeps walking to their mom. "Hey, honey. Couldn't sleep?" Lauren shakes her head. Lorelai looks at Rory, who sighs, because Lauren still wasn't talking to them. "Come here." Lorelai pats her legs for Lauren to sit on. She was lucky Lauren was as small as she was because if she wasn't then the whole sleeping on her thing would not work out. Lauren climbs into her mom's lap, and Lorelai gets them comfortable enough to not hurt Lauren because she had a lot of bruising happening. Lorelai kisses Lauren gently on her head as Lauren puts her head down into the crook of Lorelai's neck. Rory scoots down in bed and closes her eyes as they all begin to fall asleep.

Later that night, Rory and Lauren were fast asleep, but Lorelai was trying to make herself as comfortable as she could with an 80 pound human laying on top of her. She only got a couple of hours of sleep. Lorelai opens her eye to reposition herself, but jumps slightly when she sees Chris sitting in a chair right beside her, sleeping. Lorelai reaches over and taps him lighty on his hand. Chris opens his eyes. "Lor?" He groans looking around to make sure everything is okay.

"Shhh." Lorelai points to the kitchen for them to go in there and talk. She slowly picks Lauren up and brings her to Rory's bed, setting her on the side of Rory. Luckily, Lauren didn't wake up. Lorelai kisses them each on their cheeks before following their father into the kitchen. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I have a really crappy mattress at home." Chris jokes considering he was just sitting up sleeping on a chair.

"Chris."

"I drove here as fast as I could, and I went to the hospital but you had left, so I tried your phone, but all I got was the voicemail. So I came here but the place looked dark, so I got the key out of the turtle and came in but you guys were already asleep, so I just grabbed a chair and..." Lorelai hugs Chris. "And apparently my evil plan worked exactly as I anticipated."

"I'm so glad you're here."

"Me, too." Lorelai pulls away and looks at Chris with tears lingering in her eyes. "How are they doing?"

"Rory's in a cast."

"I know."

"The doctor said she'll be fine."

"And the munchkin?" Chris asks about Lauren.

"She won't talk. She hasn't talked at all since I went to the hospital. I don't know if she's scared or if she's hurting and won't tell me. I don't know." Lorelai says, nervously as she thinks about Lauren. "But we'll be able to take Rory's cast off in a couple of weeks. The car is totally gone. I have to call the insurance guy tomorrow, and I don't know.." Lorelai and Chris both sit down, exhausted.

"Did you find that kid?"

"Jess?"

"'Jess.' 'Dead meat.' Whatever his name is."

"No. Little ferret's hiding out somewhere, I'm sure."

"Okay. I'm gonna deal with the car tomorrow, and I'll talk to the doctor if that's okay." Lorelai nods. "And I'll need a picture of Jess so I don't rip off the head of the wrong kid cause that would be bad."

"Look at you, all springing into action."

"About time, isn't it?"

"I like the superhero you."

"Just trying to keep up."

"So are you staying here tonight or do you have to rush back?"

"No. I want to spend time with Rory and Lauren tomorrow."

"Sherry's cool with you staying here?" Lorelai asks, unsure.

"The girls come first."

"Okay. Do you want some coffee?"

"I'll get it." Chris gets up and walks to the coffee pot.

"Do you know how to make coffee?"

"Yes, I do."

"My coffee?"

"One bag of coffee per cup of water, right?"

"Perfect." Lorelai sighs in her hands. "Oh, my God. You know, when Rory called me tonight and said the word 'hospital' I just legitmately thought I was having a heartattack. And let me tell you, it was not fun. I'm joining a gym tomorrow. That's how not fun it was."

"Can you get a two for one membership?"

"Anything could've happened. It could have been so much worse."

"It wasn't."

"No, it wasn't, but it could have been."

"It wasn't. It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay."

"Hey, about the fight we had the last time you were here."

"Yes, that was a doozy, wasn't it?"

"I just..I didn't meant to..."

"No, I shouldn't have-"

"No, but if I implied that-"

"You didn't. I just snapped."

"I understand."

"I'm sorry." Chris says, sincerely.

"Me, too." Chris smiles and turns back to the coffee. "Hey, did I mention I'm really glad you're here?"

"I believe you did." Chris smirks.

"Good for me then."

At the Stars Hollow movie night, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren, Chris, and Sookie are all walking to the square to watch.

"The Yearling?" Chris asks her.

"Great movie." Rory says, sarcastically.

"You'd think they'd have gotten the genius in charge of this to come up with something other than that." Chris jokes knowing it was Lorelai.

"You know, picking a movie that will appeal to a large group of people is hard." Lorelai complains.

"Rory!" Lane yells, running up to her to look at her arm.

"We'll get seats." Chris tells her while they walk away leaving Rory and her best friend alone.

"Hey, why isn't Jackson here?" Lorelai asks Sookie.

"He's singing to his persimmons tonight." They sit down in the middle row. Sookie first, then Lauren, Lorelai, and Chris.. "They've been a little sour lately."

"Oh, right."

Chris looks at them strangely. "Right? You just accept that explanation?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because she just told you the man is not here because he's singing to fruit."

Lorelai chuckles. "Uh, that's better than dancing with it. Remember last year's watermelon crop?" She asks Sookie.

"Oh, yeah. Threw his back out."

"OKay, I'm facing the screen now." Chris looks foward as Lorelai nudges him playfully.

The lights go dim. "The movie's starting? I thought it started at eight." Sookie says, confused.

"Nope, this is a little pre-movie treat." Lorelai smiles. She looks down at Lauren who gives her a small smile. Lorelai chuckles and wraps her arms around her quiet daughter while they watch the clip.

A film by Kirk appears on the screen. Kirk's film appears in black and white and has horrible acting. Kirk begins dancing on screen. "Wow." Chris says.

"He raps later." Lorelai tells him.

"Jackson needs to see this." Sookie says, mesmerized. "Hey, if I can get him here quick enough.."

"Oh, we're so playing this again after the movie."

"Great! I'll be back." Sookie gets up and walks away quickly.

"This town is like one big outpatient mental institution." Chris tells her. Lauren glares at her dad making Lorelai and Chris chuckle.

"Glad you could join us." Lorelai tells him.

"Yeah, me, too."

Lorelai smiles. "It's so nice you decided to stay for the movie. I mean, it's really fun being able to say: 'Hey, look, I know that person. I talk to him every day and so far, he's never bitten me.'"

"I'm definitely coming around more often. You need protection."

"Coming around more often sounds good. Right, Lauren?"

Lauren nods her head slowly as she continues to watch Kirk's movie. "I wish I could stay longer." Chris says, sadly.

"Oh, well, you gotta get back to Sherry. Don't worry. We understand."

"Yeah, I wish I could stay."

Rory walks up to them and sits next to Chris. "Hey, where did Sookie go?" Rory looks at the screen. "Oh, my Lord! He's taking his shirt off."

"Quick cover Lauren's eyes. She's just a child. She shouldn't have to see this." Chris jokes. "But I shouldn't have to see this either. I'm going for popcorn."

"Me, please." Lorelai says.

"Me, too." Rory also says. Chris looks at Lauren who nods her head.

"Got it. Be right back." Chris walks away and Rory scoots over taking his spot next to her mom.

Lorelai puts her arm tight around both her daughters. Lauren was still not talking and was Lorelai's mini me since the accident. Lorelai didn't mind. She liked having her kids in her eyesight and knowing exactly where they were at all times. But soon enough she was going to have to get Lauren to talk. She was kinda hoping Lauren would do it on her own, though, but since Chris came Lauren had been sticking to both their sides, and that wasn't something she wanted to ruin. "I like it when he's here." Rory says, smiling.

"Yeah. Me, too." Lorelai agrees. When the movies is over everyone starts clapping. Lorelai and her girls begin to laugh when Patty walks up behind them.

"I did the choreography." She says.

"Patty, doll, come here." Babette calls for her.

"I'll see you later." Patty walks over and sits down next to Babette.

"So, how are you feeling?" Lorelai asks her oldest.

"Haunted by the sight of Kirk's bare chest." Rory grimaces.

"No!" Patty says, loudly from behind them. Rory looks over.

"I swear to God!" Babette says.

"When?"

"Last night. Not long after the accident happened Luke walked him straight to the bus station stuck the kid on a bus, sent him home to his mom's." Babette explains.

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren all look down as they listen. "I can't believe Luke would send him off like that."

"Well, I heard the kid wanted to go. I don't know. All I know is that Jess is gone."

"Well, well, well, what will we do for entertainment around here?"

"Beats the hell out of me."

The lights dim, once again, Lauren settles her head down on Lorelai's shoulder, sadly. All three of them couldn't pay attention to the movie after that. They couldn't help but remember the accident, and one couldn't help but remember the fight with her friend.


	39. Glad You Came

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking through the square towards Luke's. Lorelai kept looking at Rory with a strange look.

"What?" Rory asks. She was getting weirded out by her mom's staring.

"Nothing." Lorelai quickly says. "Are you tilting?"

"No."

"I think you're tilting."

"I'm not."

"You want to hold on to my purse? It might even you out."

"Stop anytime you like." Rory sees Lorelai digging in her purse. "What are you doing?"

"I wanna put a pen on top of your head and see if it rolls off."

"Okay, see, this is not how you console the injured."

"You're right. I'm sorry." Lorelai takes out two books and hands them to Rory and Lauren. "What about this?"

Rory and Lauren both take the books with big smiles on their faces. "The Little Locksmith!" Rory says, excitingly.

"And I got it at the bookstore. Paid full price."

"Thanks, Mom." Lauren says as she starts looking through it.

"You're welcome." Lorelai wraps an arm around her youngest. "Now can I put a pen on top of your head?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"No." Rory says, sternly. "Mom when are you gonna tell us what happened between you and Luke?" Lorelai stops smiling as she remembers that night. "Was it bad? I'm sure it was bad, but how bad is bad?"

"It was nothing." Lorelai lies.

"Really?"

"Look, I was upset, he was upset, we had a thing. It's over, we're fine."

"A thing?"

"A tiny thing."

"A tiny thing?"

"A thinglet, if you will."

"You and Luke don't have thinglets often." Lauren tells her.

"Well, everybody has thinglets. Part of being a grown up."

"Well, what did he say?" Rory asks. "What did you say?"

"Rory, please."

"Okay, fine. Just answer me this. We are on our way to Luke's, right?"

"Right."

"And when we get there, will we get in?"

"Of course."

"We'll get served?" Lauren asks.

"Yes."

"We'll get coffee?" Rory asks.

"Maybe."

"Refills?"

"Eventually."

"Free refills?"

"In a month."

"Okay, the thinglet has grown into a thing." Rory tells her sister who simply nods.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Girls, Luke and I have fought before. God knows we'll fight again. But it's over. It's history. We'll go in, he'll be crabby, I'll be adorable, he'll forget everything, and that, as they say, will be that."

"Okay."

The girls walks up and notice a group of people standing around in front of Luke's. "Hey, is there a line?" Lorelai asks Kirk.

"Closed." Kirk says, still staring at the door.

Lorelai and Lauren both gasp, surprised. "What?"

"Closed."

"Luke's is closed?"

"Luke's is never closed." Lauren tells them.

"I know." Kirk says,

"You sure it's closed?" Lorelai asks.

"First I read the sign, then I tried the door in case it was some elaborate ruse."

"Designed to keep only you out?"

"There's precendent."

There's another sign on the door saying that he's gone fishing. "Well, Luke's gone fishing. That's great."

"It is?" Rory asks.

"Yes. He works hard, he needed a break, he took it. I think it's good. Healthy."

"Mom.."

"No."

"It's because-"

"It isn't." Lorelai interrupts her oldest.

"But he never-"

"Well, now he did. Rory, he took a trip. Don't read anything into it."

"It's because of the other night."

"No, it isn't. Even if it is, it'll go away. Everything will be fine."

So, since Luke's is closed. Lorelai and her daughters decided to go somewhere else for their breakfast. They very well couldn't carry on with their day if they didn't get something inside their stomachs. So, Lorelai brought them over to a fancier diner. A big diner. A very pink diner.

"Why are we standing?" Lorelai asks, annoyed.

"The sign says, 'Wait to be seated.'" Lauren reads.

"Yeah, but we are not automatons, we are rule breakers and there are fifty open tables."

"You're exaggerating." Rory says.

"One, two, three, four, fifty. I'm not."

"I'm sure someone will help us soon."

"We should be eating. I'm hungry. This is crazy. Don't they want us eating? Isn't that the point of The Hungry Diner? To feed the hungry diner? Or is the point to keep the hungry diner hungry?" Lorelai rambles. "In that case they should call it The Eternally Hungry Diner because you're not going to get any food here, loser."

"That'll be quite a sign."

Lorelai sighs. "I'm giving these paper top turkey heads three seconds to seat us or I'm gonna-" A woman walks right up to them.

"Three?" She asks.

"Yes, please." Lorelai smiles.

"You're gonna what?" Lauren asks, curiously.

"What?"

"You said you were gonna do something if they didn't help us in three seconds."

"I did?"

"Yes. And then the waitress came over and you never finished."

They follow the waitress to their table. "Oh, honey, we gotta get some food into you." Lorelai says, trying to play it off. "You're imagining things."

"What were you gonna do?"

"Sh! You're getting screwy."

"Mom!"

"I'm not your mom. Do you need help, little girl?"

"Oh, my God." Rory shakes her head at her mom's odd behavior as they sit down.

"How's this?" The waitress asks.

"It's perfect. Thanks." Lorelai says.

"Can I bring you coffee to start?"

"To start and finish."

The waitress laughs. "You need a little pick me up?"

"Do I?"

"Oh, back in a jiff!" The waitress walks away just before playfully taping Lauren on her shoulders causing her wince in pain.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lorelai asks, worried.

Lauren sits up straighter. "Yeah, I'm fine." Lauren lies.

"You should really let us look at that bruise." Rory tells her sister.

Lauren shakes her head. "It's barely there. I'm fine."

Lorelai didn't believe her but she wasn't going to cause a scene. She looks down at the menus. "Oh, how convenient! They have pictures of all the food in case you've been in a cave for the last fifty years and you have no idea what a stack of pancakes looks like." The waitress walks over and gives them each some coffee in really tiny mugs. "Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry."

"Yes, sweetie?"

"What are the tiny cups for?"

"They're coffee cups. They're for coffee."

"What, are you running out?" Lorelai jokes.

"I'm sorry?" The waitress asks, confused.

"Nevermind. Listen, we are very sleepy this morning so would you happen to have something in a larger size? Say, a mug, a tureen, a small bowl of some kind?"

"A coffee bowl?"

"Yes, a coffee bowl."

"Bring three, please." Rory adds.

"We don't have a coffee bowls. I'm sorry."

"Okay, then would you mind bringing..What do you girls thing, two, three?"

"Three's good." Rory says as Lauren nods her head, agreeing.

"Yeah, three of these cute little cuppy things for each of us, and could you leave the pot in the meantime?" The waitress sets the pot down and quickly walks off. Rory picks up her mug and begins smelling it. "Well, it looks like coffee, smells like coffee."

Rory takes a sip. "The comparison stops there." Rory says with a disgusted face.

"This sucks!"

"Just put a lot of stuff so you can't taste it." Lauren says, grimacing after her sip.

"How am I going to fit my three sugars into Barbie's Malibu Deam Cup here?" Lorelai asks, sadly. "It'll be all sugar and no coffee."

"You might prefer it that way." Rory tells her.

Lorelai sighs and looks and sees Michel sitting by the window. "Well, well, well." She smiles evily.

"What?" Both Lauren and Rory follow where Lorelai is looking and smile.

"I'll be right back." Lorelai gets up and walks over to Michel who is reading a magazine. "So, what's new for fall? I hear the sailor suit is hot hot hot." She jokes.

Michel looks up unamused. "What are you doing here?"

"Luke's is closed this morning."

"By the health inspector, no doubt."

Lorelai takes a seat. "So, this is where you have your breakfast?"

"Until this morning, yes."

"How's the grub?"

"They make an excellent egg-white omelet, no oil."

"Really?"

"They use the spray...Can you leave now?"

"How come you never told me about this place?"

"Because then you might eat here, and there would be no corner of my life which would be free of your incessant scrutiny." Lorelai turns around and grabs a clean fork from the table behind her. "What are you doing with the fork?"

"Can I have a bite?"

"Can you what!?"

"Just a taste."

"Get away from me." Michel stands up, grabbing his things.

"Michel, don't go! Come eat with us."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Not really." Lorelai smiles.

"Good. It's a date."

"You, me, here tomorrow?"

"Never." Michel walks away and leaves the diner.

Lorelai laughs and walks back over to her table." Hey, you know what? I'm beginning to like this place."

"I'm glad." Rory laughs. "Mom, I need to ask you a favor."

"Ask away."

"I need you tel get me out of dinner tonight."

Lorelai groans. "Oh, Rory."

"Dean's coming home and he doesn't know about the accident. And if I'm not there the second he gets home then someone else will tell him. and that would be-"

"Horrible." Lorelai finishes. "I agree."

"I really hate to ask you this."

"Forget about it."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. Make things right with Dean."

"I appreciate this."

"No problem. It gives me extra time to work on my why-Rory's-wearing-a-cast story for your grandparents."

"Yeah? What have you got so far?"

"Really big bees."

"Huh. It's good you've got the time."

"Yeah, it is."

Later, Lorelai and Lauren are getting ready for the dinner when Rory left to go to Dean's and wait for him to come home. Upstairs, Lauren is in her room looking in the mirror of herself. She pulls her shirt down just a little on her chest and sees the big bright blue and purple bruise going from her shoulder down to her right hip. It hurt like hell, but Lauren didn't want her mom and sister to see the pain. Lauren hadn't been herself since the accident and it was starting to worry Lorelai. Lauren was quieter, more hesitant on everything that she did. But while Lauren was looking at herself and her bruise, Lorelai walks into the doorway, clearly seeing the bruise that Lauren had been hiding from her.

"Hey, kid." Lorelai says, scaring Lauren a little. Lauren fixes her clothes and turns to her mom, giving her a small smile. "You ready?"

"Mom, do I really have to go? It's not fair that Rory gets to stay home and hang out with her boyfriend." Lauren complains as she grabs the rest of her stuff.

Lorelai knew Lauren was just trying to start a conversation so that Lorelai didn't ask about her bruise. "Rory hasn't seen Dean in a week." Lorelai tells her youngest as she follows her down the stairs. "And I need you tonight. I can't be there by myself."

"Fine." Lauren sighs as they walk out the door.

At the grandparents, Lorelai and Lauren are following Emily into the living room.

"I'm so sorry Rory isn't feeling well. Is it that flu that's been going around?" Emily asks.

"Oh, yes, it is." Lorelai says, making Lauren giggle a little.

"Horrible strain." Emily hands Lorelai her drink while Lauren takes a seat, leaning back a little to give her shoulder some rest. "Bunny Carlington Munchausen has been bedridden for two straight weeks."

"Huh, well, it must wipe her out just toting that name around."

"I wonder if I should take a drink for Richard? I hate to disturb him when he's working."

"He's working?" Lorelai asks, surprised. "Like, work-working?"

"That's right." Emily says, proudly. "His articles of incorporation arrived last week. He's rented an office. Your father is not the president and CEO of the Gilmore Group an internation insurance consulting firm."

Lorelai walks over and sits down next to Lauren. "Wow, that's great. Isn't that great, Lauren?"

Lauren smiles. "Very proud of him."

"Lauren, are you feeling ill?" Emily asks.

Lauren shakes her head, slowly sitting up with Lorelai's help. "No, Grandma, I'm fine. Just tired. So, what's Grandpa's job?" Lauren asks, quickly changing the subject off of her.

"He's a consultant."

"Meaning?" Lorelai asks.

"Your father is an international insurance consultant."

"Yeah, yeah, but what exactly does that mean?"

"He consults on matters related to international insurance." Emily explains.

"Wait. Wait. When Dad goes to his new office, he sits down, and he..."

"...consults with international clients on insurance matters." Emily finishes.

Lorelai smiles. "I don't know why we're not opening for Rickles." She jokes.

"Damn it!" Richard yells in the background.

"Richard?" Emily calls out. "Are you alright?"

Richard walks in ."No, I am not all right. That was Margie just now on the phone."

"Oh, how is she?"

"Who is she?" Lorelai asks.

"You know very well who Margie is. She's been your father's secretary since you were a child."

"Oh, Largie Margie." Lorelai remembers making Lauren laugh. Emily glares at them. "Very clever when you're six."

Richard finishes making his drink. "In answer to your question, Emily, Margie is well. So well, in fact, that she has decided to not join me in my new business."

"What?" Emily exclaims.

"She's staying with the old firm."

"But how could she? You were the only reason she even had a job at that firm."

"I went to great pains to remind her of just that."

"Well this is simply unacceptable! You and that rotund ingrate had an agreement."

"There was an agreement in writing?" Lorelai asks.

"Not in writing per se, but she helped me procure my new office. She arranged to have all my things sent over. All that was left was for her to accept my formal offer. A very generous one, if I may say so."

Lauren sits up and leans her body onto her mom's instead of the couch, which seemed much more comfortable. Lorelai didn't argue, though. As much as she knew Lauren was hurting and refused to talk to her, she happily accepted to use herself as Lauren's pillow. Lauren was growing bored with this conversation. "And she just turned you down?" Emily asks.

"She had the gall to counteroffer. She kept insisting that I match her current salary."

"Oh, Dad, you weren't even offering to match the poor woman's salary?"

"Lorelai, the Gilmore Group is a fledging enterprise. I can't afford to pay Margie her full salary right away."

"But after twenty years, where is the woman's sense of loyalty?" Emily asks.

"Oh, gee, I don't know." Lorelai says, sarcastically. "Maybe with the company that's keeping her from standing in line for government cheese."

"I'm afraid at this point, I don't know how to proceed." Richard says, defeated.

"Well, of course you don't."

"I had counted on this."

"Of course you had."

"Perhaps I should reconsider going forward."

"That may be best."

"Excuse me?" Lorelai asks, confused.

"I can't very well do it without Margie."

"Guys, you can't be serious."

"I wonder if it's too late to get out of my lease."

"What!?"

"You should look into that immediately." Emily tells him.

"Whoa! Whoa! There is a baby here desperately in need of some bathwater."

"What is she saying?" Richard asks.

"What are you saying?" Emily asks, Lorelai.

"I'm just saying there are other options to consider.

"Like what?" Richard asks.

"Hire another secretary."

Emily chuckles. "Oh, no. Your father's had other secretaries."

"Three, in fact. Each one worse than the previous one."

"Until Margie."

"Yes, but Dad there are plenty of other Margies out there dying to be in that co-dependent relationship with you. You will find one. Trust me." Lorelai says, surely. "Now, she may not be named Margie, but if you pay her enough you can probably call her what you want."

"I don't have time to find someone new." Richard says. "The office is a disaster. Everything is in boxes. I don't know where anything is or how anything works. The computers, the phones, even my office chair."

"Okay, Dad, I'll tell you what. Tomorrow afternoon after my business class I will come to your office." Lorelai says, surprising not just herself, but everyone in the room. "We'll get you unpacked and settled. And we'll find you someone as good as Margies, or at least cheaper."

"I hate to see you waste your time."

"Well, I'll blindfold you then."

"I don't know."

"Grandpa, you should take her up on it. She's really good at organizing. It might not show when you walk into our house, but at the Inn she does a really good job." Lauren tells him.

"She's right." Lorelai agrees. "There's another Margie out there. Honest. Just give it a chance."

"An office without Margie." Richard repeats trying to see it in his head.

"Seems inconceivable." Emily says.

"Dream with me here, folks."

At Dean's that night, Rory is sitting on the steps of Dean's house when Dean and his parents drive up. Dean's parents greet Rory before heading into the house. When Dean sees Rory's arm in a cast he immediately freaks, jumping out of the car and over to Rory.

"What happened? What did you do to your arm?"

Rory hands Dean a letter. "Here."

"What is this?"

"Just read it."

"Rory, what's going on? Tell me how you hurt your arm."

Rory sighs. "It's all in the letter. Read."

Dean opens the letter and begins to read it. He chuckles. "Well, I love you, too."

"Good. Now hold on to that feeling for a minute."

"Why?"

"Just-"

"Read. Alright, I'm reading." Rory stands there patiently as she continues to watch Dean read the letter. "What?"

"Keep going."

"What!?"

"Turn it over."

Dean was looking very angry now as he continued to read the letter. "What!?"

"Go on. You have three more 'whats' ahead of you."Dean kicks his bag before reading again. "It gets better at the end." Rory tells him hoping to make things a little better. Dean glares at Rory. "I'll just stand here until you get there." Dean drops the letter and is quiet for a few moments while he thinks and looks at Rory. "Is he really gone?" Dean asks about Jess.

"Yes."

Dean lets out a breath. "And Lauren is okay, too?"

Rory nods her head. "Yeah. Yeah, she's fine. Bruised and still a little shaken up but she's fine."

"Want to come in?"

"What?" Rory asks, surprised.

"You can stay for dinner. My mom's making a roast. You like roast, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I like roast."

"Okay. Come on." Dean walks towards the door leaving Rory standing there. She was surprised about how calm Dean was about everything. She was expecting yelling or a break up, but, no, he invites her to dinner.

Later, Rory is sitting at the table with Lorelai as Lorelai wraps her daughter's arm in surran wrap so that she can go and shower while Rory explains her night with Dean.

"Then we just watched T.V."

"Oh, you mean you 'watched tv?' Use the air quotes, sweetie."

"His littler sister was there."

"Oh, so you watched tv. Go on."

"And then he walked me home."

"That's it?" Lorelai questions.

"That's it." Rory confirms still surprised herself.

"Did he kiss you goodnight?"

"Yeap."

"And he didn't ask about the other night?"

"No."

"Didn't ask about the car?"

"Not once."

"And Jess?"

"He just asked me if he was really gone. And that was it."

"Wow."

"I thought he would yell, scream, and want to break up. Instead, he gave me his corn."

"He did? When?"

"At dinner."

"So you were already eating. It wasn't just an out of the blue 'I give you my corn.' Got it."

"Maybe is just hasn't sunk in. Maybe he'll be mad tomorrow."

"Maybe Dean is even more terrific than we thought."

"It's not covering the whole cast." Rory says, looking at her arm.

"Relax. I'm not finished." Lorelai gets up and goes over to the counter.

"Do you really think he's okay with it?"

"Sounds like it." Lorelai comes back with more surran wrap/

"If the situation were reversed, I would be okay with it."

"If the situation was reversed Dean wouldn't let Jess drive his car."

"I guess I should just be grateful, then?" Rory asks.

"Grateful, absolutely."

Rory looks down at the table and notices some papers layed across it. "What are these?"

"These are resumes for your grandpa's new secretary."

"There are, like, 100 of them."

"Yes, well, the world is full of eager, young people just waiting to have the life sucked out of them by Richard Gilmore." Lorelai pulls out some tape and wraps it around Rory's arm. "Okay, I'm finished. What do you think of that?"

"If we were gazelles, we'd be eaten first at the watering hole."

"Well, be thankful we're not gazelles. Go take your shower. You're starting to look like you're starring in an independent film." Rory laughs and starts to walk away before Lorelai calls out to her. "Dean knows you, hun. He knows you wouldn't do anything to hurt him." Lorelai assures her. "So you're lucky. Just focus on that. Jess is gone. Now you guys can start over."

Rory smiles. "Okay."

"And, hey, even though the box says it's safe I want you to keep your arm out of the microwave for at least a week." She jokes as Rory walks away. Lorelai turns back to the table and begins looking through the resumes. She reads through a couple and was already tired of looking through them so she gets up and goes upstairs to find her other daughter. When she gets to Lauren room, she is relieved to find the light still on. Lorelai knocks lightly on the door before peeking her head in. "Knock, knock."

Lauren looks up and quickly grabs the heating pad that is under her and tosses it on the other side of the bed. "Hey!" She says, putting a smile on her face.

Lorelai smirks and walks over to Lauren's bed, sitting right next to her. "So how long you think you can get away with this whole 'I feel fine' thing?"

Lauren sighs and sits up a little facing her mom. "As long as you let me."

Lorelai chuckles. "Can I please see it?" Lauren lifts her shirt up just showing enough of the bruise to get a gasp out of Lorelai. "Oh, Lauren."

"It really doesn't hurt a lot, unless I move really fast, which I barely do." Lauren says, trying to joke.

Lorelai lightly touches the bruise then pulls Lauren's shirt back down herself. "Why didn't you tell me how bad it was?"

Lauren shrugs. "I don't know. Rory has a broken arm."

"So?"

"So she has a broken arm. I just have a bruise."

Lorelai sits there staring at her daughter. Lauren actually thought that her injury wasn't as important as Rory's was. "Lauren, you can't just keep going around pretending that you are okay because of Rory's broken arm. You need to tell me these things so that I can help you."

"But I'm fine!" Lauren lies again.

Lorelai decides to ignore her this time and change the subject a little. "Do you mind explaining what exactly happened that night?"

Lauren sighs. "Well, Rory pretty much told you everything. We were at the diner studying. I was getting really aggravated and Rory was getting aggravated with Jess because he didn't want to study. So, Jess, had the idea of going get ice cream to kinda relax a little and then go back and study." Lauren explains to a confused Lorelai.

"So, wait, it was Jess' idea to go get ice cream?"

"Yeah." Lauren nods.

"And it was his idea to drive Rory's car?"

"No. Rory told him to drive so that she could read the textbook out to him so at least they could get some study in."

Lorelai was trying to make sense of it all. "Okay, so Jess just swerved off the road?"

"He was trying to eat his ice cream but that was before the accident happened because I remember him finishing it before I fell asleep. Jess was paying attention to the road, Mom." Lauren could see that Lorelai was just trying to make sense of the accident and she wanted to help her but Lauren couldn't remember what happened. She was asleep, but she didn't want Lorelai to blame it all on Jess.

"If he was paying attention to the road, Lauren, then there would have been no accident. Rory wouldn't have a broken arm, you wouldn't have a bruised side, and Rory's car would be okay."

"And Jess would still be here." Lauren finishes.

Lorelai squints her eyes at her daughter. "It's a good thing Jess is gone." Lauren glares with anger at her mom.

"Mom, Jess didn't do anything wrong!"

Lorelai could see that she hit a nerve with Lauren. Lauren was Jess's biggest fan. "Lauren, I know you like Jess, but he caused a lot of issues in this town and he hurt you and your sister. He didn't belong here."

Lauren stands up, weakly. Lorelai tries to help, but Lauren pushes her away. "Jess is a really good guy! And it isn't my fault if you never tried to see that."

"I did try, Lauren." Lorelai fights back.

"No, you didn't! You didn't try hard enough. No wonder you and Luke are fighting. He and me and Rory are obviously the only ones who have a little faith in Jess!"

"If Luke had faith in Jess then he would have never sent him away, Lauren. Think about it! Even Luke knows that Jess is trouble."

Lauren rolls her eyes and turns away, walking out of her room. "I can't even talk to you anymore."

Lorelai follows her daughter down the stairs. "What, Lauren, you don't want to hear the truth? If Jess was here then so many other things could happen. Or you and Rory may not be alive if the accident was worse than it was."

"Or I wouldn't be here if Jess never seen me in Hartford with Alex!" Lauren throws in Lorelai's face before walking out of the front door and slamming the door behind her.

Lorelai sighs and closes her eyes. "Damnit, Lauren." She whispers. Lauren was beginning to fight like Lorelai also, and it was not looking good for Lorelai.

In town, it's dark, and Lauren is walking down the sidewalk. She was so angry with her mom that she wasn't even sure where she was going, but she knew she couldn't go back home. Not yet. So as she is passing Luke's, she turns and sees Luke inside cleaning tables.

Lauren walks in scaring Luke a little. "Oh, Lauren, it's you." Luke notices how dark it is outside and becomes worried. "Hey, you shouldn't be out so late. Is your mom around?"

"I don't care about my mom right now, Luke!" Lauren yells.

Luke walks closer to Lauren. "Hey, what's going on?" He asks, noticing her tear stained face.

"Why did you send Jess away?!"

Luke sighs. "Lauren.." He did not want to get into this, especially not with a twelve year-old.

"Is it because of whatever you and my mom fought about? Because whatever she said she didn't really mean. She was just mad."

"No, I think your mom meant it, Lauren." Luke says, remembering his and Lorelai's argument.

"Jess didn't do anything wrong! He would never hurt anyone on purpose."

"I know that, Lauren, but Jess wanted to go."

"He wanted to go?" Lauren asks, confused.

Luke slowly nods his head. "Yeah. He wanted to go. He felt really bad, and figured it was good for him to go back home considering how mad the town would be."

"Oh." Lauren says, surprised. She looks around the diner and remembers that yesterday morning Luke had gone fishing and was still gone this morning. "You came back?"

"Uh, yeah. I figured I couldn't leave the place closed forever. I have bills to pay."

Lauren nods her head, agreeing. "Okay, well, I'll leave you alone."

"Do you need me to take you home?" Luke asks, worried.

Lauren quickly shakes her head. "No. I just want to walk, but thanks." Lauren gives Luke a small smile before turning back to the door. When she opens it, though, a sharp pain goes through her side and before she knew it she was bending over wincing in pain.

"Lauren!?" Luke panics running to her. "What's wrong?"

"My side." Lauren cries. "It hurts."

"Okay, come on. We need to get you to the hospital." Luke picks up Lauren, gently, and quickly walks out of his diner.

"My mom." Lauren says, crying.

"I will call her on the way, okay?" Luke promises walking straight to his truck.

At the hospital, Lorelai is running through the familiar hallway, once again, and over to the nurses station.

"Lauren Gilmore? She's my daughter." Lorelai says in panic.

"Right down the hall to your left." The nurse tells her.

"Thanks." Lorelai runs down the hallway and sighs in relief when she sees Lauren sitting down on the hospital bed with the doctor writing down some stuff in a chart. "Lauren!" Lorelai runs over and hugs her daughter gently, and giving her kisses all over her face. "What happened?"

The doctor walks up to her. "Miss. Gilmore?"

Lorelai stands back up, staring at the doctor. "Yes, yes. I'm her mom. Is she okay?"

"She's fine." The doctor says, smiling. "She just had a weak moment. It turns out the bruises on her side were taking a major toll on your daughter. She wasn't resting like she should be causing some pain spasms. Anything could have set it off. Running or walking too much, or just simply sitting down too long without any movement at all."

Lorelai looks at her daughter. "Or an argument." She says, quietly, but Lauren heard her and sighs. "So, what do we need to do?" Lorelai asks, looking back up at the doctor.

"Well, I am going to write a prescription for you to give her whenever she starts feeling any kind of pain at all, and you'll need to sign a few release papers and then you're all set to go. I'll go get them right now."

"Thank you, Doctor." Lorelai smiles as the doctor walks out of the room. She turns back to her daughter who was trying to ignore Lorelai's stare. "Hey, I thought Luke brought you in." Lorelai says, noticing she hadn't seen Luke.

"I told him to leave because you were coming. I knew he wouldn't feel comfortable just yet to see you." Lauren explains sadly.

Lorelai sits down in front of her daughter, staring at her pretty hard. "You know, sometimes I have no problem reading your mind, but right now, I'm completely clueless so do you want to fill me in?"

Lauren shrugs and looks up at her mom's bright blue eyes. "I'm sorry."

Lorelai smirks and reaches over planting another gentle kiss on her daughter's cheek. "I'm sorry, too. I should have never jumped to conclusions."

"No, you shouldn't have." Lauren agrees making Lorelai chuckle. "But I shouldn't have yelled at you. I know Jess has done a lot of crummy things to make the town mad, but he would never want to hurt me or Rory."

"I know that, sweets, I'm sorry. I just can't lose you or your sister, okay? So it scared me."

"It scared me, too." Lauren admits. "I was asleep when it happened. That was really scary to wake up in an ambulance."

Lorelai squeezes Lauren's hand. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

Lauren shrugs. "Rory was there. It's okay." They sit there quietly for a few minutes before Lauren remembers what Luke said at the diner. It was really bugging her and it made her really sad. "Jess really wanted to leave." Lauren lets a few of her tears fall down her cheeks.

Lorelai looks sadly at her daughter. There she was, getting hurt, again. Lorelai scoots in on the side of Lauren and wraps her arms around Lauren, gently not to hurt her, and kisses her on the top of her head as Lauren rests her head on her mom's chest, listening to her breathe. "I'm sorry, kid."

The next day, Lorelai walks into her dad's office where it was packed with stuff from his old office.

"Dad?" She calls out.

"Come in." Richard says from the back.

Lorelai closes the door and Richard walks in, smiling. "So, let me guess. The Wu-Tang Clan had the office before you?" Lorelai jokes, looking around at the mess.

"It's a bit disheveled." Richard tells her.

"It's freezing in here."

"Yes, it had been since I moved in."

Lorelai notices the thermostat behind them. "Did you try adjusting the thermostat?"

"Yes. That only seemed to make it angry." Lorelai reaches over and presses a button.

"So you've been Nanooking it the whole time? Sending for whale blubber and mukluks?"

"Oh, I wouldn't touch that if I were you, Lorelai. You don't know what you're..." He stops when he realizes she actually turned the air off.

"Ah, the wind done gone." Lorelai says, happily.

"So it would seem, for the moment."

"No, no, I turned it off. Let me show you." Richard looks at the thermostat as the office phone rings. "Do you want to get that?"

"No, they've already hung up." Richard says, simply.

Lorelai is surprised when there really wasn't another ring. "Okay, next time hold an envelope up to your head before you do that."

"Well, it's been doing it all day." Lorelai walks to the phone. "The phone rings once, then they're gone."

"Oh, that's because your messages are forwarded to your voicemail." Lorelai tells him. "See where it says voicemail?"

Richard looks at it. 'How could that happen?"

"I don't know. Where's your manual?" Lorelai asks as she looks around the desk.

"Manuel." Richard says, looking as well.

"Came with the phone. Probably has a picture of a phone on it. Ah-ha." She says, finding it. "Look what I found under your copper-ball-glues-to-the-wood thing." Lorelai says in confusion as she hands the ball to her dad.

"No, it's brass." He tells her. "One of the firm's parting gifts as they nudged me into retirement."

"So in addition to being heavy and ugly, it's also insulting."

"Quite."

"There you go." Lorelai says, pressing a few buttons on the phone. "That should work. Want to call me from your office?"

"This is my office."

"Well, whose office is that?" Lorelai asks, pointing and smiling to the room on the side of them.

"Yes, excellent idea." Richard walks towards his office just as they phone starts ringing again. "Uh, that isn't me calling." He says, turning back around.

"Didn't think so. Should I get that?"

"Yes, please."

Lorelai picks up the phone. "Hello, the Gilmore Group. Mr. Henson. Why, yes," Richard waves at Lorelai gesturing that he isn't here. "he just walked out. May I take a message? Uh- huh." Lorelai looks for a paper and pen. "How are you spelling 'Larry?'" Richard grabs a pen out of his coat and hands it to her. "Traditionally? Great." She says, as she writes his name down on her hand. "Okay. Thank you for calling. Bye-bye." Lorelai hangs up. "Where the hell are your pens?"

"Watch your language, young lady. What did Larry want?"

"He wants to know where the hell your pens are." She says, sarcastically as she continues to look around the room.

"Lorelai."

"He just wants you to call him. Where are all the office supplies?"

"Well, I haven't gotten around to that yet."

"Before anything else can happen, you need pens, paper. You need everything else, don't you? Especially since I may be tempted to wash my hand at some point." She says, showing the hand she wrote on to her dad.

"Well, where does one get these things?" Richard asks.

"Where did you used to get them?"

"From-"

"Margie." Lorelai finishes. "I saw that coming." She changes the phone back to voicemail. "Alright. Well, let's go."

At the store, Lorelai is pushing around the buggie as Richard follows her amazed by everything he is seeing.

"Good Lord, this place goes on forever!" He says as Lorelai grabs things off the shelves and puts it in the buggie.

"It goes on until chair mats and floor mats but if you're not careful you'll loop back into inks and toners and be here all day. Stay close." Lorelai jokes.

"Look at the scale of this place. No one needs all these options. It's oppressive. Hundreds of paper clips in every conceivable color and size. Now, who on earth would buy these things?"

Lorelai grabs it out of his hand. "We would. Alright, now, what's the first thing you do when you get to the office in the morning?"

"Uh, well, let's see. I return the calls from Asia first."

They walk by the coffee makers. "That's right, you make coffee, so you need a coffee maker. Let's see. Ugly, crappy, German, pretty." She says, happily grabbing it off the shelf.

"Oh, well, as long as it's pretty." Richard smiles. They continue on to the next aisle. "It's suddenly becoming clear to me that I'm an old man. I don't recognize half the whatsits and doodads in here."

"Well, here, Dad, we have an assortment of magic sticks and when you press down on paper, writing comes out."

"I know what pens are, Lorelai."

"Good. Pick out your favorites, and I'll try to figure out how to explain Liquid Paper." Richard grabs just two pens and shows Lorelai. "Oh, you're cute." Lorelai picks up two boxes full of pens instead.

"I can't possibly use all of those."

"You wonpt. You'll lose half of them. Then you'll be really happy to have the ones you have left. Now, paper."

"Alright." Richard grabs just one stack of copy paper. "This ought to do nicely for now."

"Are you going into business for two weeks? You're buidling an empire. Think big, Gilmore!" Lorelai grabs a big box of paper. "Plus, if you get the box, it's cheaper."

"Hey, how do you happen to know all of this?" Richard asks, curiously.

"It's how we do it at the inn. You have to spend money to make money. Tip from me to you."

"Good point. What else?"

"I strongly recommend a stapler."

"Stapler." Richard grabs a stapler and hands it to Lorelai.

"Some extra staples."

Richard had already grabbed some. "I'm way ahead of you."

Lorelai laughs. "Good man. Post-its."

"My goodness, look at all the Post-its. I had no idea they came in so many shapes and colors. I'm going to get a 12-pack for myself in various hues." Richard says, grabbing a pack.

"Wise move."

"And one for Emily. I've seen her posts notes on her vanity mirror to remind her of various activities."

"She'll think it's Christmas."

"Done." Richard gleams, throwing the post-its into the buggie. "Now, what else is on the hit parade?"

"Well, might be controversial, but I was thinking of a three-hold punch if we can find one."

"I think we're both up ot the challenge. Shall we?" Richard grabs the buggie and walks away smiling. Lorelai watches her dad. She had never actually enjoyed a day with him before until now.

In town, Rory, Lauren, and Lane are walking when they come up the vacant building that had been there for awhile.

"Hey, look!" Lane says, excited. "They finally took the boards off the windows."

"Oh, I wonder what it's going to be." Rory says as they walk up to the windows.

"I don't know." Rory and Lane peek into a window where half the newspaper that is hanging up on it is sliding down.

"What's that in the corner?"

"I think it's a bass." Lane says.

Lauren pouts. "Hey, this is so not fair. I'm not tall enough to look and I can't jump."

"It is a bass!" Lane says with more excitement. "And there are guitars on the wall."

Lauren's eyes widen. "What!?"

"Oh, my God, it's a music shop!"

"Wow. That is much better than the ceramic circus store we thought was going in." Rory tells them.

"I can't believe it! Stars Hollow has taken its first steps toward being cool." Lane looks back into the window. "I wonder when it'll open."

"If you keep pushing on the glass like that, much sooner than anticipated." Lauren laughs.

Rory laughs and turns her head seeing Taylor outside his market. "Hey, hold on a sec. Lauren, stay with Lane."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'll be right back." Rory walks away as Lauren watches her sister walk across the street. Lane turns back into the window.

"Taylor." Rory says, approaching Taylor at his produce stand.

"Rory, hello."

"Hi. Listen, I just wanted to-"

Taylor looks down, noticing Rory's cast. "Oh, no. Just look at that arm." Taylor says in disgust.

"It's fine, really."

"Does it hurt?"

"No, not much."

"Well, I hope you're not getting addicted to painkillers like those Hollywood people."

"Uh, I'm not. Don't worry."

"Good, because pain is your body's way of saying, 'I'm not okay now, but I will be soon.'" Taylor explains.

"I will remember that."

"You don't want to shut your body up too soon. That's called death."

"Right." Rory says, a bit confused. "Um, Taylor, listen, I just wanted to apologize to you."

"About what?"

"About the other night. You know, my car hit the bench that had your brand new Doose's Market sign on it. And I know how much that sign meant to you. I am so sorry it was ruined."

"Oh, well, it wasn't your fault."

"But my car hit the bench."

Lauren walks up slowly behind Rory, listening to their conversation. "Your car hit the bench because that Jess was driving."

"Oh, well, yeah, but-"

"That boy is a walking naturaly disaster. They should name a tornado after him!"

"But he didn't cause it." Rory tells him just as Lauren was telling her mom before.

"You don't have to explain a thing to me." Taylor assures her. "I know there's no way that you or your sister would be involved in something like that if it weren't for that Sal Mineo wannabe. Believe me, Chachi and Chachi alone will be held responsible for that incident. Okay? Good." Taylor walks away, waving at Lauren who slowly approaches her sister, who was standing there confused as ever.

"So, is he mad?" Lauren asks.

"No, not at us." Rory tells her. "Come on. Let's get you home."

Rory grabs her sister's hand and leads her back to Lane. "Rory, why do they keep blaming Jess?" Lauren asks.

Rory sighs and looks at her sister with somber look. "I wish I knew."

At Richard's office, Lorelai is busy organizing and stacking things on the shelves while Richard is on the phone at his desk.

"Granted, the European insurance market still needs some restructuring but it's growing at a remarkable rate. What am I basing it on? Clive, surely you've been the latest Eurostat. Yes, I've got it right in front of me. Eurostat." He whispers to Lorelai. Lorelai smirks and hands him the folder. "Yes, here it is. Let's see. Uh, the highest contributions in absolute terms were reached in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. Uh-huh. Yes, I would have to look up those specific coding and reference numbers." He says, loudly for Lorelai to get the hint. Lorelai grabs a stack of binders and walks to her dad. "Yes, I've got them right here. For the year 2001." Lorelai grabs the specific folder and gives it to him. "Here they are." Richard smiles at his daughter as she walks to answer the phone in the other office.

"Gilmore Group." She answers. "May I help you? Oh, no, Margie doesn't work for the company anymore. I'm the one who called to schedule the DSL appointment. Well, no." Richard walks in to make a cup of coffee. "We really need the DSL line installed today. It's just awful being without it. Uh-huh. Okay, if you can make it before five, everything's good, but any later than that won't work because the cable modem people are dropping by about 5:05. Oh, thank you. That's great. Okay, bye-bye." Lorelai hangs up. "They'll be here in twenty minutes." She tells Richard who is staring proudly at his daughter.

"I must say, I'm impressed."

"Well, I'm no Margie." Lorelai jokes.

"Who needs her?" Richard scolfs.

"Speaking of which..." Lorelai says grabbing the resumes.

"What's this?"

"The secretarial candidates for tomorrow's interviews. I've looked through them carefully and I think somewhere in there is a Margie for the new millennium." The phone starts ringing again.

"I'll get it."

"No. Get to know your new secretary. I don't mind." Lorelai says, handing the resumes to her father and turning around to answer the phone. "Gilmore Group. May I help you?"

"Yes. Richard Gilmore, please." Emily says on the other end.

Lorelai realizes her mom doesn't recognize her voice. "Oh, um, certainly. May I ask who's calling?" She says changing her voice a little to mess with her mom.

"Emily Gilmore."

"And does he know what this is about?"

"Well, I hope so. I'm his wife."

"Oh." Lorelai giggles. "Richard didn't say anything about being married."

"What!?"

"Mom, relax. It's me." Lorelai laughs.

"Lorelai?"

"Yes."

"Well, you're crude and unprofessional."

"I'd like that on my tombstone." Lorelai jokes. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I'm throwing a ltitle cocktail party at the office on Friday to help launch the new business. Now, the caterers will be arriving at three sharp to set up, so... Are you writing this down? You should be writing this down."

"I'm scribbling furiously."

"Margie always wrote everything down."

"Does this mean no Friday night dinner?" Lorelai asks, hopeful.

"It means we'll see you three at the party."

"Bye."

At the house, Babetter is watering her plants when she sees the girls walking up to the house.

"Oh, Rory, Lauren, hold on there, babies!" She yells, running towards them.

"Hey, Babette. Is everything okay?" Rory asks.

"I should be asking you two that question. Come here! Let me see that arm." She tells Rory. Babette grabs Rory's arm gently and looks at it. "You poor little thing. How you doing? Lauren, I heard you had a little spell and had to go to the hospital. How are you?"

"We're doing fine." Rory confirms for the both of them. Lauren was feeling a little weird cause everyone kept asking her questions and feeling sorry for her. Rory was just getting really annoyed.

"Oh, look at you two being brace like that after all you've been through." Rory and Lauren continue walking towards the house as Babette follows. "It's so hard being a woman, isn't it?"

"I guess." Lauren says looking at her sister awkwardly.

"I mean, you got your morals, your standards, and good common sense, and then BAM you meet some guy, and all that goes right out the window. For every good woman, there's a dirty little wolf ready to lead her astray! You can't help it. He's got the eyes, the chin, chest hair you could carpet your dining room with." Lauren makes a disgusted face as she and Rory stop on the porch to listen to Babette continue to trash Jess just like the rest of the town. "I mean, what's a woman to do? We're not made of steel, for God's sakes!"

"Babette-" Rory tries to stop her.

"I was in a cult once! Did I tell you girls that?"

"No."

"I met this guy once. Gorgeous, tan, looked just like Mickey Hargitay. We had coffee. He gave me a pamphlet. Next thing you know I'm wearing a muumuu, playing a tambourine jumping up and down at the airport!"

"I really need to get Lauren inside." Rory tells Babette, grabbing Lauren by her shoulders.

"Oh, sure, honey. Take good care of yourselves." Rory smiles and leads Lauren into the house.

"Mom?" Lauren calls out. "Are you here?" She drops her bag on the floor by the door while Rory walks to the living room and presses the button on the answering machine. _'Hey, my loves. It's me. I'm gonna be home late today. Still trying to find Grandpa a Margie. Order pizza. Money's under the rabbi. Rory, I hope your arm's feeling okay. Lauren, please lay down somewhere, just as long as you're not moving. Bye-bye.' _Rory looks at her sister who has made herself comfortable on the couch with a book. "I guess we're eating pizza." Rory says, walking over to the rabbi on the table by the window and grabs the money from underneath it.

"Rory, can you get me my meds?" Lauren asks as Rory walks to the kitchen.

"Yeah." Rory takes a soda out of the fridge and opens it the best way that she can before taking a sip and looking at her broken arm. The phone starts ringing bringing her out of her thoughts. "Just a sec." She yells to Lauren. "Hello?" She answers.

"I have found my calling." Lane says on the other end.

"What are you talking about?" Rory laughs.

"I'm talking about my future, my path, my destiny, my thing, my scene, my bag. I'm talking about the number-one item on my cosmic to-do list!"

"Which is?"

"I'm gonna be a drummer!" Lane yells, excitingly.

"You're kidding?"

"I went into that new music store today." Lane explains. "I don't know why. I just had to. Something told me, 'There's something in there you need to see.' And there it was. It was red and shiny. I'm so excited that I can't breathe!"

Rory smiles at her excited friend. "That's amazing."

"I know."

"Well, how will you do this?"

"I don't know."

"How are you going to buy a drum set?"

"I don't know."

"And even if you buy one, where will you play it?"

"I don't know. I don't know any of this, but I will figure something out because I am Keith Moon! I am Neil Peart! I am Rick Allen, with and without the arm! Because I am rock 'n' roll, baby! I'll call you later." Lane whispers as she drops her drum sticks in the plant and walks back into her house.

At Richard's office, Lorelai and Richard are interviewing a woman for the job.

"So, when she opened her own office, she asked me to come along as her executive assistant and office manager which was a terrific opportunity."

Lorelai smiles. "I bet." She looks at her dad who wasn't really paying attention to the woman as she spoke. "How so?" Lorelai decides to question since her dad wasn't going to say anything.

"In that I was able to build that office and its staff from the ground up and develop a system from scratch."

"Wow. So you have a system." Lorelai says pretty much to her dad, who gives her a small smile.

"Which helped double productively and billing hours, but then she got pregnant, and here we are."

"Wow. Story of my life. Literally."

"Well, uh, thank you for coming in, Karen." Richard says. "We'll let you know once we make our decision."

Karen stands up and shakes Richard's hand. "Thank you, Mr. Gilmore. It was a pleasure meeting you both."

"Here. I'll walk you out." Lorelai says walking out of Richard's office. Lorelai walks back in holding a bag of food. "Hey, look what I found."

"Good. Lunch. I'm starving!" Lorelai moves some stuff over on the desk and starts unpacking the bag. "Do you want to eat in here today?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Oh, good, they threw in pickles like I asked. It's great having this place just across the street."

"You'll never starve."

"Hm, maybe we should start a tab with them so we don't have to pay cash everyday."

"Already done." Lorelai tells him as she sits.

"Amazing! You're like the tiny fellow on that M*A*S*H program. Always anticipating."

"So, what do we think?"

Richard takes a bite of his food. "Tasty!"

"No, I mean about Karen."

"Who?"

"Karen. The woman who was here. The one with the system."

"Hmm..rather inexperienced, I thought."

"Dad, she worked as an executive assistant for six years!"

"But she's young, and young women tend be fightly."

"She worked for the same woman for five of those six years."

"This roast beek is delicious. It's lean, it's tender." Richard says, clearly ignoring Lorelai. "What did you get?"

"Cheeseburger."

"I may get one of those myself if we order from the same place tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? You mean for more secretary interviews?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, whatever's on the agenda."

"Dad, you've already seen three people who would be absolutely perfect for the job."

Richard shakes his head. "You can't rush these things, Lorelai. A man's secretary sets the tone for the entire enterprise."

"I know that, but-"

"It has to do with chemistry, which cannot be manufactured out of sheer necessity. Besides, you and I seem to be doing just fine for the moment."

"Yes, for the moment. But the moment is coming to a rapid end."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I can't work here cause I have my own job." Lorelai reminds him.

"I know that, Lorelai."

"And I need you to find an assistant soon, like, now because I don't know when I'll come back."

"Well, I need to see more resumes. In the meantime-"

"Dad, I cannot come back here tomorrow." Lorelai exclaims.

"I see." Richard says taken back.

"I didn't mean to sound so harsh. I meant-"

"I know exactly what you meant to say. I got the message. Well, I won't keep you any longer. I know how busy you are."

"Dad, I didn't mean I have to go right now. We can finish our lunch."

"Oh, I'm finished." Richard smiles. "Will you leave the phone number of the sandwich shop for me, please? I'll need it."

"All the numbers you need are there on your desk." Lorelai says, packing up her food.

"Oh, good. Now, if you'll excuse me I have some of my owk work to attend to. Thank you for all your help."

Lorelai rolls her eyes and stands up, grabbing her coat. She turns back around. "You know, Dad, if it makes any difference, I thought that Karen was-"

Richard raises his hand, pretty much shutting Lorelai up. "Thank you." He whispers as he picks up the phone.

It's Friday, and Lorelai and her girls are on their way to Richard's party at the office, but after they stopped for food.

Lorelai comes back with a big bag in her hand. "Here." She says, smiling, and handing the bag to Rory through the window.

"You know, there will be food there." Rory tells her mom.

Lorelai walks to her side and gets into the jeep. "Finger food, a.k.a. 'snooty little balls of attitude.' I need real food. Peasant food! Hearty bread, meat, cheese, little pickle chips, a sauce! A special sauce. This is the food that sustains me. The food-"

"Oh, my God. Just eat the burger already!" Rory exclaims, annoyed, handing her mom the burger.

Lorelai takes the burger. "How crabby!"

"I'm not crabby."

"I didn't even get to finish my special sauce speech!"

"Sorry."

"Does your arm hurt?"

"No, I'm just tired, I guess."

Lorelai looks in the back at Lauren who is resting her head on her hand as she stares out the window. "Hey, are you both feeling okay? We can just pop in and pop right out. We won't stay very long." Lorelai promises, taking a bite of her burger and grimacing.

"Not good?" Rory asks.

"Really not good." Lorelai throws the burger back in the bag. "I swear, Luke better come back soon, or I'm gonna starve to death."

Lauren turns and looks awkwardly towards the front. "I thought he was back." Rory asks.

"I thought he was, too, otherwise he has a very good lookalike who also sounds like him."

Lauren shrugs. "Maybe he went fishing again."

"Or he just doesn't want to see mom and he opens the diner when he knows she's not going in."

Lorelai glares her daughter. "Mean."

"I'm sorry." Rory says as they drive off.

"For what?"

"Luke's gone because of me."

"Honey, he is not!"

"He's gone because of Mom." Lauren says from the back.

"No, it isn't anyone's fault. But if it is anyone's fault." Lorelai says, hinting.

"Jess' fault." Rory exclaims.

"Well, yes!"

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Here we go again." She mutters. But she was happy she already had this fight with her mom, now it's Rory's turn.

"Why does everyone in this town think that it is all Jess' fault?" Rory asks, frustrated.

Lorelai peeks in the back real quick and sees Lauren staring harder out the window. She definitely did not want to get Lauren worked up again and she for sure didn't want to start a similiar fight she had with her youngest with her oldest. "Hey, let's not talk about this, okay?"

"Lauren and I were there, too, you know!" Rory continues to argue.

"Rory, everyone here loves you girls. They know that you and Lauren are not the get-in-an-accident-knock-over-a-bench girl."

"I know that and I appreciate that, but-"

Lorelai shakes her head. "I want you, and you.." She says, looking back at Lauren who is now looking at them. "to stop beating yourselves up about this. It's over! Jess is gone. Let's forget about this, okay? Please?" Lorelai begs.

"Fine." Rory and Lauren both say.

"Good."

At the office party, Lorelai walks in with Rory following behind and Lauren following slowly. There's a group of people lingering around everywhere.

"Oh, geez, this is worse than the clowns in the Volkswagen." Lorelai says, making her self through the crowd.

"A lot of people." Rory says.

"Do you want something to drink? Lauren? I think we're three matinies behind everyone else."

"Just water, I guess."

Lorelai looks at Lauren. "Hey, are you okay?"

Lauren slowly nods her head. "Yeah." She lies.

"Okay. Water coming up. Excuse me." She says to the people as she makes her way to her dad's office. She walks over to Emily who is smiling widely.

"Lorelai, there you are. You're late." Lorelai knew that smile was too good to be true.

"Well, you scheduled this beer bash during rush hour." Lorelai says, grabbing some champagne.

"When traffic is leaving Hartford."

"Apparently not when Emily Gilmore is throwing a party."

Emily starts smiling again. "It's wonderful, isn't it? Everyone coming for you father?"

"Yeah, Mom, but don't you ever thing about scaling back a little?"

"I scaled back a lot. I cut two appetizers, I cancelled the champagne fountain and I reduced the catering staff for six servers, not counting the point man."

"Oh, well, you can't not have a point man, then what's the point?" Lorelai says, dramatically.

"If you make it look cheap, people think you're unsuccessful."

"Absolutely right. Better to deprive them of oxygen so they don't have to think at all."

"It is rather warm in here."

"Want me to get the air going?" Lorelai asks, since she knew how to work it.

"No, no, Karen knows how to do it."

"Karen?" Lorelai says, surprised.

"Your father's new secretary. She's wonderful. Very professional." Emily turns away and walks over to Karen.

Lorelai smiles and looks over at her dad who just got done speaking to someone. She walks over. "Hi, Dad."

"Lorelai." He smiles back.

"Swell party."

"Yes, it's mostly your mother's doing."

They were starting to stand there awkwardly with eachother. "So, uh, what just went down there?" Lorelai decides to ask.

"Down where?"

"Just now. The handshake with the man in the gray suit. Did you score a deal?"

"Oh, one doesn't score deal in the insurance business." Richard says very seriously. "One builds relationships based on trust and fulfilling the client's needs. Mr. Lundquist and I just-"

"Mr. Lundquist?"

"Yes."

"Lindquist from Aero International?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"You bagged the Swede?"

"Just as I didn't score a deal, I also haven't bagged the Swede. We simply talked. We came to an agreement. We shook hands."

"You shook hands!" Lorelai says, happy for her dad. "That means-"

"I'll send him the contracts int he morning." Richard says, proudly.

"Dad, that's big!"

"Yes, I suppose it is big."

"That's gigantic!" Lorelai laughs. "It's a whole new market for you. It opens up all Scandinavia, doesn't it?"

"Beyond that. Lundquist is his company's rep for Russia as well."

"Russia!" Lorelai gasps.

"_DA_"

"Look who's taking over the world."

"I suppose that would be me!" Richard laughs.

"I see that you hired Karen."

"Yes, I had to get someone in here."

"She seems to be working out well."

"She's no Margie, but we'll see. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have several more deals to score now that I have finished bagging the Swede." Lorelai smirks and watches her dad go to work.

Emily walks back over to Lorelai. "He's really in his element, isn't he?" Lorelai asks her.

"And happier than he's been in years! Oh, there's Rory and Lauren. I was wondering where they.." Emily sees the cast on Rory's arm. "What's that on her arm?" She asks as she walks closer to the girls.

"I was gonna tell you about that." Lorelai says.

"Hi, Grandma." Rory and Lauren both say.

"That's a cast." Emily exclaims.

"That is a cast." Lorelai confirms. "She hurt her arm."

"When? How bad is it?"

"I fractured my wrist." Rory tells her.

"Oh, my God!"

"It's just a hairline fracture. It's tiny." Lorelai says.

"When did this happen?"

"Last week."

"Last week? Why didn't you call me? I can't believe you!"

"Uh, well, I meant to."

"How did this happen?" Emily asks.

"Bees." Lorelai lies.

"We got in a car accident." Lauren tells her.

"Accident? Lauren, were you hurt, too?" Emily asks, nervously.

"Lauren." Lorelai says.

"We got in a car accident!" Rory says, annoyed that her mom is trying to cover it up. "And, no, Lauren is not okay. She is all bruised up."

Lorelai's eyes widen as she listens to her girls. "Oh, my God!" Emily gasps. "How could you not tell us they got into a car accident?" Emily yells at Lorelai. "Is this why Rory missed dinner? You said she had the flu!"

"I just didn't want you to worry." Lorelai tells her, calmly.

"Yes, well, clearly there was nothing to worry about!" Emily says, sarcastically. "It was that car, wasn't it? The one her boyfriend made."

"No, it wasn't the car, Mom."

Rory glares at her grandmother. "Well, then, what was it?" Emily asks.

"A friend of mine went with me and Lauren to get ice cream." Rory explains.

"A friend? Which friend? Lane?"

"Jess." Lauren says.

"Jess?" Emily asks, confused.

"Luke's nephew."

"Him?" Emily turns to Lorelai. "I thought you were going to keep that boy away from Rory?"

Lorelai sighs. "Mom, do we have to talk about this now?"

"Yes, we have to! Rory has a cast on her arm, and Lauren is bruised. How could you be so irresponsible?"

"Mom, please." Lorelai begs.

"Don't 'Mom, please' me! It was your responsibility to stop this, to make sure that-"

"I gave him the keys!" Rory yells, interrupting her grandmother's yelling. "I told him to drive. He wanted to drive back to Luke's, and I said no. I wanted to keep on driving. That's when we got into the accident. This is just as much my fault, as it is his. Maybe more."

"Rory." Emily scolds.

"I've got this, Mom. Can I see you two in the hall for a second?" Lorelai asks her daughters. Rory and Lauren walk out of the office with Lorelai following closely behind. "What they hell was that?"

"I'm sick of this!" Rory says, angry. "I'm sick of everyone treating me like I'm a mindless idiot being led around by a guy."

"No one is treating you like that."

"The whole town is, Mom." Lauren tells her.

"Taylor, Babette, Dean.." Rory names. "..everyone, including you, is refusing to believe that I was just a responsible for what happened as Jess was."

"I believe your responsible." Lauren tells her sister.

Rory looks down confused. "You do?" She asks.

Lauren nods her head. "Yeah. I kept trying to tell mom the other day that it was your fault, too. You let him drive."

"Thank you." Rory says, sincerely.

"You're welcome."

"Hold on. Were you driving the car?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"No." Rory says.

"Then you weren't as responsible."

"What if it was Dean? What if Dean had been driving? Would everyone assume it was his fault?"

"No, because Dean wouldn't have been in an accident. Dean is a much more responsible kid who loves you and would drive more responsibly." Lorelai explains.

"How do you know that Jess wasn't?"

"Hi. It's Jess!"

"Oh, right, Jess is the Anti-Christ, I forgot. He wanted to get into an accident. He's a murderer with a death wish and he wanted to kill us both, right?"

"I know you think that Jess is your friend, but he's not. He is completely out-of-control, really angry kid who has no respect for Luke, who has no respect for me-"

"It was an accident!"

"And he was driving!"

"So, what? No matter what, you're going to choose to blame Jess?"

"Yes, I choose to blame Jess."

"Because you hate him." Lauren points out as she grabs her side.

"That's right. I'm sorry. When my daughters come home broken I get to hate the guy who broke them. That's how it works. He's gone. I win. You are wearing a cast, Lauren is in pain, and I get to hate him forever."

"Fine!" Rory yells.

"Fine!" Lorelai yells back. Lorelai looks back at Lauren who is bending down. "Lauren, are you okay?" She asks, reaching over and grabbing Lauren by her arms.

Lauren leans into her mom for support. "I just want to go home." She says, almost in tears. "I don't want to fight about this anymore."

"Neither do I." Lorelai says, holding on to Lauren so she doesn't fall.

"I want to go home, too." Rory says. "My wrist hurts and I'm grumpy. I'll take Lauren with me. She just needs to sit down for a little so we can catch my regular bus. You go back in."

"Rory.." Lorelai groans.

"It's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. We'll see you back at home." Lauren grabs her big sister's hand and they walk off down the hall as Lorelai watches.

Back in town, Rory and Lauren just got off the bus and are walking towards their home. They hear drumming coming from the music store and Rory and Lauren both smile knowing it was Lane who is playing. As they continue to walk, though, they stop when they see Luke unpacking his truck. Again.

They walk closer and Luke turns around, seeing them. "Hey. You back?" Rory asks.

"Again?" Lauren laughs.

Luke smirks and playfully ruffles Lauren's hair. "I'm back."

"You catch anything?" Rory asks.

"Not the first time. But apparently the second time they were very jumpy. I'm glad I went back." Luke tells her. He notices Rory's cast. "So, that's the..."

"Yeah." Rory says. She could tell Luke was nervous about it.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, not really. Just itches a little."

"Yeah, I can imagine. Make sure you don't use a pencil."

"Excuse me?"

"Your arm, you know, when it itches? I broke my arm once. Itching drove me crazy. I grabbed a pencil, shoved it down the cast to scratch."

"Bad results?"

"Bad results."

"Got it. No pencils, I promise."

"Good. So, you want some coffee?" He asks them.

"Sure."

Luke grabs his things and they walk into the diner. "So, Lauren, how you been feeling?"

Lauren shrugs as she and Rory sit at the counter. "I been okay. The doctor gave me medicine so that pain isn't that bad unless I'm standing or walking too long."

"Good. You gave me a scare."

"I'm sorry."

Luke grabs two coffee cups and starts pouring. "Don't ever be sorry." He smirks. "So, where's your mom tonight?"

"At a party for our grandpa." Rory tells him.

"Sounds nice. Grab some doughnuts." He tells them.

Lauren happily grabs some for her and Rory. "So, have you heard from him?" Rory asks.

"Oh, no, I talked to his mom, though. He got home okay."

"That's good."

"Yeah, good."

"What about his stuff?" Lauren asks, knowing Jess had a lot.

"I'm gonna send it."

"Right."

"Luke?" Rory says, looking up at Luke with sad eyes.

"Yeah?"

"It wasn't his fault."

Luke smiles at them. "I know it wasn't."


	40. Unforgettable

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking around aimlessly around Stars Hollow. Well, Rory and Lauren were. Lorelai knew exactly where she was going, but she wanted to surprise the girls which caused them to ask many questions.

"Where are we going?" Rory asks, tiredly.

"It's not too far." Lorelai says again for the 100th time that morning.

"Mom, you've been saying that for miles." Lauren says, running as she tries to catch up with Rory and Lorelai fast pace. "My feet are sore."

"When did you both become older than me?" Lorelai asks.

"Just tell us what this new breakfast place is, and we'll be quiet." Rory promises.

Lorelai smiles. "It's an amazing new mystery place I found. That's all I'm telling you."

"Is it in this town or the next?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai grabs Lauren's hand to pull her closer to them cause she was slowling down. "Hey, we don't patronize the next town."

"Since when?" Rory asks.

"I don't know." Lorelai shrugs. "Didn't they feed lead to our jumping frog or something?"

"Oh, yeah. Right after they stoned the woman who won the lottery."

"See, so the boycott's legit."

"Hey, hey, stop!" Lane yells from behind them.

The girls stop just as Lane approaches them. "Look, it's Michael Landon."

"You guys walk fast." Lane says, out of breath. "I've been chasing you the past two blocks."

"Hey, we were being followed." Rory tells them.

"I told you I wasn't being paranoid." Lauren says, rudely.

"Where're you going?" Lane asks, curiously.

"Mystery breakfast." Rory tells her.

"Out of town?"

"Remember the definition of mystery?" Lorelai says, annoyed.

"Sorry." Lane takes out her drum sticks from her backpack. "I was wondering if it's okay to practice on your pots and pans again."

"It's not like they have any other use."

"Thanks. I've almost nailed Ramble On. I just have to stop hitting my face with the sticks when I pull back."

"John Bonham had that same problem." Rory tells her.

Lorelai smiles. "Key's in the turtle."

"Enjoy your mystery breakfast." Lane walks away.

"Alright. Come on." Lorelai pushes her girls forward. "It's not that much farther."

Rory rolls her eyes. "We're not heading toward any businesses of any kind." Lorelai stops, facing forward, smiling. Rory and Lauren were still walking when they noticed their mom missing. "What?" Rory asks, turning back around.

"We have arrived."

"Arrived where?" Rory realizes where they are when she and Lauren look. "You are without shame."

Lauren jumps up, excited. "Awesome!"

Inside Sookie's, the girls are eating a feast of breakfast while Sookie is cooking more.

"Sookie, you did not have to do this." Rory tells her.

Sookie walks up and pours more eggs into their plates. "What do you mean? Feeding my girls, making them happy. I love doing this."

"Yeah, so feel the love and pass the salt." Lorelai orders.

Rory grabs the salt and hands it to her mother. "It makes me feel guilty."

"Eating can help drown that."

"Yeah, eat. I'm gonna eat." Sooke laughs grabbing a plate herself and sitting down next to Lauren.

"Hey, Sookie, what's up with Jackson?" Lauren asks, as they turn around where Jackson is resting his head on his hand, still half asleep and moaning.

"He's not much of a morning person."

"Now say, 'I can't believe I ate the whole thing.'" Lorelai jokes.

"It takes him about an hour to become Jackson."

"Hey, I had a good idea for the wedding."

"Cool." Sookie says, excited to hear it.

"Instead of wrapped Jordan almonds things at every place setting what if we wrap a few Aspirin?"

"Aspirin?"

"For the morning after hangovers." Lorelai chuckles.

Sooke laughs. "That's funny."

"Cause Jordan almonds are so done. Huh? Jackson, what do you think? Aspirin over almonds?" Jackson moans loudly. "Can we take that as a yes?"

"No. See, everything eventually registers. He'll chime in on this in a couple of days."

"Days?" Rory questions.

"Days."

"Hey, is Jackson in the house? Let me hear you say uhhh!" Lauren laughs.

Jackson moans making them all laugh. "A new toy!" Lorelai laughs, excitingly.

"Shameless." Rory says.

At the house, Lorelai is busy trying to study for her final test at her business college for graduation. Rory walks out of her room.

"How's it going?"

"I hate these books." Lorelai groans in frustration. "Hate them."

"Oh, no." Rory says, sadly, as she watches her mom try to organize the mess of books she had in front of her.

One of the books fall on the floor. "Ugh! See that? They're trying to escape. They hate me, too."

"Your books don't hate you."

Lorelai lets out a big sigh. "Rory, my brain is full. It has reached capacity. It's Shea Stadium when the Beatles played. It's cramped, girls are screaming, and George is fighting with Ringo."

"You have a very active head."

"I simple cannot ingest any more information."

"So take a break."

"I don't have time."

"Close your eyes, clear your hear."

"No, because clearing my head means that all the knowledge I have painstakingly stuffed in there will leak out. In order to make room for stuff, I lose stuff. It's a very vicious circle."

"I'll make some coffee." Rory walks to the coffee pot, feeling sorry for her poor frustrated mom.

"I hate finals."

"Nobody likes finals."

"Thank God I'm graduating and it's the last time I cram like this because my pursuit of higher education has led me to a very interesting discovery about myself. You wanna hear it?"

"Sure."

"I despise academics. Yeap, learning, knowledge, it's all worthless. I have no idea what you see in it."

"Learning is fun. Plus, for me and Lauren, there's that minor thing, so it's mandatory. So, make sure you don't say you hate it when you're around Lauren because she has been doing really good and if she hears her mother say that she hates education then she will, too."

"Oh, no. Trust me, I won't say a thing around her. It's already hard enough to get her up in the morning. But that's what kills me. This is self-inflicted. I'm a masochist. I might as well be carrying a switch and periodically lacerating myself with it."

"That diploma hanging on the wall is going to make this all worthwhile." Rory reminds her."

"I guess." Lorelai says not too excited. "Unless I turn into John Nash and start drooling on people."

"Hey, you're graduating." Rory repeats again.

"I know."

Rory wasn't sure if her mom actually understood what was happening. "No, you're graduating. There's gonna be a ceremony."

"Oh, I don't know. It's a community college."

"Community colleges have ceremonies."

"My college doesn't even have a lawn. They won't necessarily have a ceremony."

Rory grabs the coffee and walks back to her mom, pouring it into her empty cup, and sitting down. "They must. Did you ask?"

"No. Well, now that you mention it, I think someone said something about doing some cheesy ceremony for my business class."

Rory starts smiling. "When is it?"

"I don't know. Next Thursday or something."

"That's great! You have to do it."

"I don't know." Lorelai says, unsure.

"You have to do it." Rory insists.

"Really?"

"Yes. You've never been a part of an actualy graduation ceremony."

"I know. That's because my conservative high school wouldn't let me be in the ceremoney and nurse you at the same time."

"Don't be gross."

"You think I should do it?" Lorelai smiles.

"Yes. You've worked so hard. You've earned it."

"I guess." Lorelai sighs.

"Come on. You know that deep down you really want to do this."

"Well, I'll admit I've always wanted to wear one of those gowns."

"And the hat?"

"For the tassel. You know my thing for fringe." Lorelai jokes.

"And they call out your name, and people clap, and you get your diploma."

"And then you do that thing where you move the tassel from one side to the other. Very symbolic, very dramatic."

"That's it. You're doing it."

"If you insists." Lorelai says, shrugging. But she was just as excited as her daughter.

Rory grabs a pen and some paper. "Okay, who do you want to invite?"

"I don't know." Lorelai thinks. "You and Lauren."

"And?"

"That's cool with me."

"Sookie and Jackson?"

"That would be fun."

"Okay. And Grandma and Grandpa?"

"Oh, no. No. No."

"Come on. It's your graduation. They should be there."

"Forget it. They won't want to be there." Lorelai says.

"Of course they will."

"Rory, I was supposed to graduation from high school, go to Vassar, marry a Yale man, get myself a proper nickname like Babe or Bunny. Instead, I got pregnant. Twice. I didn't finish high school, I didn't marry your father, and I ended up in a career that apparently Jessica Hahn would think was beneath her. I humiliated them. The two proudest people in the world, and I humiliated them. I spoiled their plans. I took their fine upbringing in a world of comfort and opportunity, and I threw it in their faces." Lorelai explains to her confused daughter. "I broke their hearts, and they'll never forgive me. I guess I can't expect them to."

"I think you're wrong about how they feel. It was a long time ago." Rory reminds her.

"Rory, I don't want them to go. It'll just hurt them, and me. Okay?"

"Okay." Rory says, giving up. "You should get back to your studying."

"Fine." Lorelai turns back to her books as Rory gets up. "Great."

"What?"

"I've already forgotten everything I read in the last two hours." Lorelai says, paniking.

"No, you haven't."

"Yes, I have. In fact, I may have forgotten everything I've ever known." Lorelai grabs Rory by her arm. "Child, what be your name?"

Rory takes her mom's hand away. "Study." She says, sternly, before walking into her room.

At the grocery store, Lorelai is getting a few things. When she walks into one of the aisles she almost hits Luke. She and Luke hadn't really talked or been around eachother since the accident occured so she didn't really know what to say to him. Lauren and Rory had no problems going into the diner, though, and seeing Luke, but Lorelai was nervous.

When she and Luke lock eyes she starts smiling. "I'm sorry." She giggles.

"Sorry." Luke mumbles.

"No, I should have signaled or honked. My fault." They stand there looking at eachother for a second realizing they hadn't seen eachother in awhile. "Wow. I guess it was inevitable, us running into eachother. It's a very tiny community."

"I guess so." Luke says, awkwardly.

"How's the diner?"

"It's still there."

"Yes. I knew that. I'm able to empirically, with my eyes..." Lorelai could sense that Luke was still upset with her. "Hey, Luke, do you think we could-"

"I go to get back."

"Okay. Right." Luke walks away leaving Lorelai standing there.

At the grandparents, Rory and Lauren met up in Hartford and walked over to Emily and Richard's.

"This is bad idea." Lauren says as they walk up to the front door.

"I don't think it is. If you would have seen Mom, you would have seen that she really wants them to be there. She just doesn't know how to ask so we are going to ask them for her. They can't say no to us." Rory tells her.

Lauren rolls her eyes and presses the doorbell. "If Mom gets mad I'm telling her it was your idea."

"Whatever." Rory says just as the door opens. "Hi, Grandma."

Emily smiles, surprised to see her grand-daughters. "Hello, Rory! Hello, Lauren!"

"Thanks for seeing us on such short notice." Rory says, walking in and she and Lauren hug Emily.

"I'm thrilled to see you two on no notice. So tell me, what's this about? You were so mysterious on the phone." Emily closes the door and looks at the girls.

"We just wanted to talk to you about something in person."

"Well, come in." Emily brings them into the dining room where there is food on the table.

"Wow." Lauren says when she sees it.

"It's an English tea service. One of the advantages of our having an English maid. That, and the fact that she speaks English."

"You didn't have to do this." Rory tells her.

"But it's teatime." Emily reminds her. "And, I wanted to."

"Hello." Richard calls out.

"We're in the dining room!"

Richard walks in and smiles when he sees his grand-daughters. "Oh, Lauren, Rory, you're already here."

Lauren reaches over and hugs her grandfather. "You're out of breath." She laughs.

"I ran over from the office."

"You didn't have to run." Rory says.

"Your grandmother said you two had something to discuss with us. That certainly justifies a run."

"Alright, everybody, sit." Emily announces. "Pour the teat, Beatrice."

They all start sitting down, facing one another. "Um, actually, Beatrice, could you hold off on pouring the tea for just a minute?" Rory asks. "Thank you very much." Richard and Emily look at eachother. "Grandma, Grandpa, we would like to propose an idea to you. Now you can go for it or not. It's entirely up to you. But I would like for you to promise me that you will not get upset."

"We won't get upset." Emily says a little nervous about what the girls were about to tell her.

"And you will keep an open mind."

"Alright."

"And you will let me finish my presentation completely before you respond."

"She's been hanging around you far too much." Emily tells Richard.

Richard rolls his eyes at his wife. "Rory, we accept your terms. Please proceed."

"Thank you."

"First, let us start by saying that Mom doesn't know we're here." Lauren tells them quickly. She didn't want to calling Lorelai then minute they leave. "She'd probably be mad if she knew that we were, but Rory feels this is important."

Rory glares at her sister before continuing. "Yes, as you know, Mom's been going to business school at the community college for three years now."

"I believe she's mentioned it." Emily says.

"Well, she's doing very well and she's finishing up. Actually, she's graduation Thursday, and there's going to be a ceremony. And we think..."

"Rory thinks." Lauren interrupts.

"I think it would mean a lot to her if you guys were there." Richard and Emily look at one another. "It may not seem like it would, but it's true."

"Well, if it would mean so much to her, why didn't she invite us herself?" Emily asks, curiously.

"Cause she doesn't think you'd want to go." Lauren tells her.

"And we get that, but I think it's a mistake." Rory says. "I had a school thing once. And I wasn't sure if Mom would want to go because she had a newborn so I didn't invite her. It was my kindergarten Salute To Vegetables pageant and I was Broccoli and I did a tap dance with Beets. And the entire number, I was just thinking, "Mom's not here." And it was my fault that she wasn't there. And, well, it was kind of a life lesson for me. Now, if the thought of going to Mom's graduation upsets you, or makes you unhappy, or uncomfortable in any way then please don't go. Because this is an important night for Mom and if you go, you should go under the right circumstances." Rory nudges Lauren, who simply just rolls her eyes and digs in her bag.

She grabs two tickets and hands them to her grandparents. "Those are the ticket. It's Thursday, 7:00 p.m." Lauren tells them.

"It's indoors, so weather's not an issue. You can use them or not." Richard and Emily look at the tickets. They were unsure how to react to this and Rory and Lauren couldn't really read their faces to see how they felt about everything. "No hard feelings. Do what you feel is best. And, if you don't mind, I would really appreciate it if you would keep this conversation between the four of us. That's all we have to say. Thanks very much for your patience."

Lauren looks at Rory. "Do we have time for a scone before the bus leaves?" She asks.

"Sure."

Lauren happily grabs a scone and puts it on her plate as Richard and Emily still sit there, trying to suck everything Rory said to them in. "Beatrice, the tea, please." Emily calls out.

Later at the house, Lorelai is celebrating the end of finals and the end of college with music, margaritas, and junk food.

"I am feeling so good today, sister, because it's over." Lorelai says, excitingly, as she and Lauren high five eachother. Lauren laughs while she and Rory sit on the couch watching their mom drink and celebrate. Lorelai was so funny when she was drunk. "No more finals, no more studying, no more school. The pressure's off. Do you girls know how much pressure I felt? Do you? All last week, I felt like a giant man and his brother were sitting on my chest."

"A giant man?" Rory asks, confused.

"And his giant brother."

"Did they have names?" Rory asks, trying not to laugh.

"Clem and Clem. Same names. Which did not reflect well on their mothers imagination.

"Mother."

"Mothers. There were two Clems."

"Yeah, cause they were brothers."

"Yes, so they had mothers."

"Mom, you are wasted." Lauren laughs.

Lorelai takes another sip of her margarita. "It's not a bad place to be, my friend. Tank's empty." Lorelai gets up and walks to the kitchen to refill her cup.

Rory picks up the little book that is sitting on the table. "What is this?" She asks her mom.

"What?"

"The life plan book thing."

"A gift for the grads from the happy people at Hartford Community College. Hey, how many margaritas is too many margaritas?"

Lauren hops over and sits closer to her sister to get a better look at the book. "If you can't remember where the living room is." Lauren yells as Lorelai walks in with a smile.

"I'm still good then."

"Okay, here's an interesting question for you." Rory says. "'Have you given any thought to how children will work into your future plans?"'

"They're not gonna stand in my way, that's for sure." Lorelai jokes sitting back down in front of her girls. "I plan to have some, of course, but I'm just gonna knock them out and have nanny catch them and care for them, make sure Mick Jagger doesn't come near them and then return them to me when they're 21."

"What about us?" Lauren asks, curiously.

Lorelai smiles sweetly. "You two are my favorite children. You both get to stay by my side."

Rory looks at her sister. "I feel so priviledged." The phone starts ringing. "I'll get it." Rory gets up and walks to the phone.

"Now, if that's Mick Jagger, hang up, and blow that whistle I gave you." Lorelai says before taking Rory's seat next to Lauren.

"Hello?" Rory answers.

"Hi." Jess says awkwardly on the other end.

Rory looks at her mom and sister to make sure they weren't listening. "Hello." She says again.

"Hi." Jess repeats. "Is this a bad time?"

"No. Just hold on a sec. The music. I'll be right back." Rory tells them as she walks to her room, closing the door behind her. "Hey."

"You said that already."

"I did. You're right. Sorry." She says nervously as she sits on her bed. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing. What about you?"

"Same."

"So, what have you been doing?"

"Nothing much, just hanging out, in the park mostly."

"Central Park?"

"Washington Square Park. It's cooler. It's where David Lee Roth got busted."

"Right. I hope he's got it together now."

Jess hears music in the background. "Sounds like you got a party going on there."

"No, it's just me, my sister, and my mom."

"Right. Okay, well, I'm gonna go. This is long distance."

"Yeah, it is long distance."

"So, see you."

"Yeah, see you." Rory hangs up the phone and lays down on her bed. She wasn't exactly sure why she kept thinking about Jess. She's with Dean. She loves Dean. She...wasn't sure what she loved anymore.

Downstairs the next day, Rory and Lauren are getting there stuff together for school. They kept hearing banging from upstairs.

"Mom?" Rory calls out. "What's wrong?"

"I'm experiencing frustration." Lorelai tells them.

"At the general state of things in the world or something in particular?"

Lorelai comes halfway down the stairs. "What do you wear to a graduation?"

Lauren shrugs. "I don't know. I never graduated except for kindergarten and you dressed me."

"A cap and gown." Rory tells them.

"Duh. I mean underneath." Lorelai says.

"Whatever you want. The gown will cover it."

"It's more complicated." Lorelai says, climbing back up the stairs even more frustrated than she was before. "I don't want to overdress so if I'm sweating if it's hot in the auditorium. But if I don't have enough on and it's cold, I'll freeze."

"It is complicated especially if you over think it." Lauren tells her.

"And now I need a helpful comment."

"Take light layers. Wear your turquoise-and-tan dress you just got." Rory tells her. "It's cool and it will look good without your gown on. And wear your turquoise sweater over it. It will look great with the dress and it'll keep you warm if it's cold in the auditorium."

Lorelai comes halfway down the stairs again smiling. "You are a fasion genius."

"You taught me everything I know."

"My brain's not working."

"You're excited. It's a big day."

"Hey, we have to go." Lauren tells her sister as she grabs her backpack.

"What time will you get there?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"I have a bunch of newspaper stuff after school. But no later than six."

"And I will meet you here at three." Lauren tells her mom.

"Okay, and we'll go out to eat after?" Lorelai asks.

"Any place. It's on us." Rory tells her, following her sister to the front door.

"Bye my lovely daughters!" Lorelai yells as she runs back up.

At Chilton, Rory and Paris are walking through the school while Paris is telling Rory some kind of story about what happened earlier in class.

"I told her, 'Look, missy-"

"You called your advisor 'missy?'" Rory questions, oddly.

"It was attitudinal. I said, 'I'm not taking AP Calculus from Henemen. I'm going with Branch." Rory was listening to Paris' rant but she also had her mind somewhere else. "'Branch is a graduate of MIT, and Henemen went to Berkeley. He may have majored in Math, but what did he minor in, bean sprouts?' I'm telling my advisor all this and I look in her trash can and there's this half-eaten banana in there. Nothing else. And I pictured her sitting in this shoebox of an office, eating a banana by herself and I almost felt sorry for her. Then she questioned my judgment about Berkeley, so I eviscerated her." Paris says bitterly. "I mean, she was welling up at the end, but she held it in until I was gone. I have enough faculty recommendations to run for Student Council so I don't need her anyway." Rory stops starts walking towards the outside gates. "My locker's this way." Paris continues walking, but Rory turns around and quickly walks out of the school.

At the house, Lauren hurries and runs in dropping everything in the foyer before running to her room upstairs and just missing Lorelai when she runs down.

"Mom!" She yells. "Are you home!? You better be home because we have to go. I am so sorry I'm late. Stupid teachers!"

Lorelai runs downstairs dressed in the dress that Rory told her to wear that morning. "I'm home!" She yells. "Where the hell are you?"

"I'm changing!" Lauren yells. "Are you excited!?"

Lorelai stops and smiles. "Very very excited. I am so happy that you and Rory are going to be there."

"Uh, of course. We wouldn't miss it. We are your biggest fans. Duh." Lauren runs downstairs in a nice lavender dress her mom picked up for her.

"Oh, my gosh!" Lorelai says in awe as she looks at her daughter. "The dress looks so great on you."

"Good. Because the daughter cannot be going to her mother's graduation looking a hot mess."

"Alright. Let's go!" Lorelai tosses Lauren's coat to her and they start running towards the door. "Wait!" Lorelai yells, grabbing Lauren by her arm and spinning her around to face her.

"What?"

"What did you do at school?" Lorelai asks, remembering Lauren yell something about stupid teachers when she came in.

Lauren puts on a dumb face. "Oh, nothing." She shrugs. "I was an angel." She smirks.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Okay. We'll discuss it later. Off to my graduation, my angel." They both run out quickly and jump into the jeep.

At the bus stop, Rory walks out of a bus along with a crowd of people. Rory made her way to New York...to find Jess. She didn't know where to start first to look for him so when she makes her way outside she tries asking people for directions but they keep walking passed her, clearly ignoring her.

Rory finally found her way to the park that Jess told her he liked to go. She sees Jess sitting on a bench, reading a book when she approaches him. "Hi." She says, simply from behind.

Jess looks up, surprised, when he hears the familiar voice behind him. He smiles as he looks up at Rory. "How you doing?"

"Good. How about you?"

"Good. You hungry?"

"Starved."

"I know a place."

They begin walking out of the park and through the streets. "I feel very urban today." Rory jokes.

"Oh, yeah, the plaid just screams urban." Jess teases.

"I think I look like a native."

"How well do you know Manhattan?" Jess asks.

"I've been here a few times. We saw the Bangles here."

"When was that, 20 years ago?"

"It was a reunion, and they were great."

"They're okay."

"And a couple of years ago, Mom drove us in to shop. And she couldn't find a good parking place, and all of the lots were total rip-offs. So she kept making u-turns and cutting off taxies and we were being screamed at in so many different languages that we just turned around and drove home and bough a Hummel at the curio shop in Stars Hollow."

"How very adventurous."

"I'm just saying I'm no stranger to the Big Apple."

Jess chuckles. "You are if you're calling it the big Apple."

"So I don't have the lingo down yet, but I have the attitude."

"You do, huh?"

"Yeah. When I was getting a locker for my backpack at the bus stop there was this guy just standing there staring at me. And instead of ignoring him, I fixed him with a really withering stare."

Jess suddenly became very interested. "That I've got to see."

"No." Rory says, becoming embarrassed.

"Come on. Let me see your withering stare." Jess begs.

"It's dangerous. I could hurt you."

"I've been hurt before."

"No."

"I'm disappointed." Jess looks at Rory's arm. "So, your arm's okay?"

"Yeah. It looks worse than it is." Jess picks it up to look at the stickers. "I like this Emily chick. A friend of yours?"

"She's a friend of all of us dispossessed."

"And Lauren?"

Rory sighs. "She's good. She was just a little bruised up, but she's good. She misses you."

Jess smirks. "I miss her, too." What he wanted to say was that he missed Rory, too, but instead they just looked at eachother, awkwardly, both not knowing exactly what to say. Jess points to the hotdog stand in front of them. "So here's a our lunch place."

"A hot dog stand?"

"Hey, I eat here everyday. It's nothing fancy, but-"

"No, I love it. It's perfect."

"Good. One with everything on it." Jess tells the guy.

"Make that two, please."

"So, uh, how's..." Jess was having trouble forming the words, but Rory was surprised when she knew exactly who Jess was thinking of.

"Luke?"

"Yeah." He says, handing the guy the money.

"Okay. He went fishing."

"Fishing?"

"Yeah. He didn't catch anything, though."

"He probably used the wrong bait."

"Yeah. That's a common fishing blunder." She says, weirdly, not knowing anything about fishing.

"So he's good?"

"Yeah, he's good. I can tell him hello for you if you want."

"Whatever."

Jess and Rory grabs their hotdogs and set off down the street again. "My god. This is really good." Rory says, amazed.

"I'm glad you like it. So, how much time you got?"

"I got a bit."

"There's a record store you should check out. It's run by this insane freak who's a walking encyclopedia for every punk and garage band record ever made. Catalog numbers. He's crazy. The place is right out of High Fidelity."

"Let's go." Rory says, excited.

"Okay." Jess walks towards the subway.

Rory looks confused. "Where you going?"

"Subway."

"I thought were were gonna walk."

"It's 15 blocks. Come on, I think you'll like it."

"Do they allow hotdogs in the subway?"

Jess laughs. "You are so an out-of-towner."

Rory smiles and follows Jess down to the subway.

At the college, Lorelai and Lauren walk into the main part where the graduation is going to be taking place. Everyone is setting up. Lorelai turns and sees a sign pointing to where she needs to be.

"I'm going to go check in." Lorelai tells her daughter.

Lauren nods her head. "Go. Go. I'll just wait here for Sookie and Jackson."

"Are you sure?"

Lauren lightly pushes her mom towards the hallway. "Yes, Mom. Go. I'll be fine. Worry about yourself right now."

Lorelai smiles and playfully rolls her eyes before walking down the hall. Lauren takes a deep breath and finds a seat on one of the tables near by. She was just hoping all this would go smoothly and her mom wouldn't be mad at them.

Lorelai walks into the room to check in. She was actually the first one to show up, which meant first chose of the gown and hat. She sets her things down and walks over to the man at the table. "Excuse me. Hi. I'm one of the graduates."

"Wow. You're hours early." He says.

Lorelai laughs. "Yeah. Well, I just wanted to beat traffic, and have time to get ready and relax and also I've heard the early bird get the unwrinkled gowns without the mysterious stains."

"This is true. Take your pick."

"Thank you." Lorelai turns around and walks over to the rack of gowns. "So, this is exciting. Isn't this exciting?"

"This is my eigth year of doing this."

"So not so exciting for you. Got it." Emily walks passed the room. Lorelai looks over and couldn't help but wonder if she was seeing things. She thinks about it for a second and then decides just to see if she was imagining it.

In the main room, Emily is arguing with the camera guy she hired as Lauren stands there watching, shaking her head. She did not think that Emily would show up with a whole crew, but then again, she should have.

"You're being so cryptic." Emily tells the guy. "Do you need a power source or not?"

"My batteries are all fully charged. It just depends on how fast they deplete." The guy explains.

"So we need one just in case." Emily says. "Lauren?"

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Sure." She goes to turn around, but stops when she sees her mom walk in. "Uh-oh." She whispers.

"Mom." Lorelai says while walking to them.

Emily looks at her watch surprised to see Lorelai. "Lorelai, it's hours before the ceremony. What are you doing here?"

Lorelai and Lauren look at eachother with a confused look. "Grandma, did you think I came here alone?"

"Well, I just thought you showed up to get the good seats."

"Uh, I'm sorry." Lorelai says. "What are you doing here? How do you even know about this?" Emily looks at Lauren, who stands back a little just incase. Lorelai does a double take at her daughter.

"Lauren?"

"I am going to go look for a power source." Lauren hurries and runs to the other side of the room.

"I should know about this?" Emily asks her daughter. "A mother can't know about this?"

"No, I just mean-"

"You're graduating." Emily reminds her.

"I know." Lorelai says. She was getting flustered now having her mom there. It was getting too much for her.

"So we're here to see you graduate. This is Raul." Emily says, pointing to the camera guy.

Lorelai waves. "Hey. So you and Raul are just here to see my graduate."

"Don't be silly, Lorelai. Your father will be joining me later."

"My father?"

"Yes. Remember him? Tall, bow tie."

"I remember Dad, Mom. I just...I can't believe the girls told you." Lorelai sighs.

"Well, it's okay, isn't it? It's a little late if it's not."

Lorelai folds her arm, putting on a small smile, as she turns to Lauren who is looking under tables for the power source. "No, it's perfectly fine that you're here. Absolutely. I'm just surprised. Who are you?" Lorelai asks Raul.

"I'm Raul."

"I just told you that." Emily says.

"Did Rory and Lauren invite Raul, too?"

"Raul is my cameraman."

Lorelai looks at all the stuff Raul is putting together. "Cameraman?"

"He's going to be filming the ceremony for us. He's very talented. He screened an independent film of this as an audition. Welcome to Scabland. It was disgusting, but beautifully photographed."

"It was supposed to be disgusting." Raul tells them.

"I'm sure it was." Lorelai says. "Mom, all this stuff. Mom, please. People will be showing up here soon."

"Lorelai, I'm perfectly capable of handling this. No one will be inconvenienced."

"Okay." Lorelai gives up. "I'm just gonna let everyone deal with all of this because I need to relax and get a cup of coffee and maybe hammer a nail into my head."

"You're not needed here, Lorelai. Go get your coffee. Relax." Lorelai turns to walk away. "You're going to redo your makeup later, aren't you?"

Lorelai rolls her eyes and looks at Lauren who standing near a wall, watching. Lorelai points for Lauren to come to her, sternly. Lauren runs over and starts begging for forgiveness. "I am so so sorry, Mom. It was all Rory's idea. She wanted them here and she thought that you would want them here. I'm really sorry. Please don't hate me."

Lorelai sighs and puts her hand on her daughter's shoulder, gently. "I don't hate you. I'm just surprised.

"Well, don't worry, Mom. I will handle Grandma and Rory will handle her, too, when she gets here. Just go relax. You're graduating!" Lauren says, jumping up and down.

Lorelai smiles. "I am. Okay, I'm going chill out. Just don't let her start moving chairs."

"Got it." Lauren runs back to her grandmother as Lorelai watches the chaos in front of her before walking back to the room.

Back in New York, Jess and Rory are looking through all the records.

"I haven't even heard of half these bands." Jess says.

Rory looks at him with a big smile on her face. "I love that about this place. Lane would want to live here."

Jess picks up a record. "Who's Slint?"

"I don't know."

The owner looks up at them. "Grunge band out of Kentucky." He tells them. "Two albums plus a double 'A' side single. Disbanded in '94."

"Thanks." Jess says. Rory laughs and returns back to looking.

"Oh, my God!" She says picking up a record.

"What?"

"Look." Rory shows him.

"The Go-Go's. You must have that one."

"No. For my mom. This was her favorite group when she was my age. And it's signed by Belinda. This would be the perfect graduation present. I've been looking all week long, and I couldn't find anything. Now I have Belinda."

"Graduation?"

"Oh, from college. From business class."

"I'm surprised she has time for anything except lighting darts on fire and throwing them at my picture."

"Well, it's not a lot of time, but..."

"Go on. Get it. She'll like it."

"Thank you so much for bringing me here. This was fate."

"I think it was."

"And in return, I just might show you my withering stare."

"I'm a lucky man." He says, loudly, as Rory walks to pay for the record.

Back at the bus stop, Rory and Jess stop at one of the buses.

"I think this one's mine." She says.

"Yeap. The sign says 'Booneville.'"

"Excuse me." A guy runs up to them. "I'm sorry to bother you. Which way is 44th?"

"Oh." Rory smiles. "That way." Rory points behind her.

"Great. Thanks." The guy walks way.

"I got asked for directions!"

"I saw." Jess says.

"He took me for a native. That's so cool."

"That's very impressive. 44th is the other way." Jess says, pointing behind him.

"Oh, no."

"It's alright."

"Man, I should go find him."

Jess laughs. "He'll figure it out when he sees the number getting smaller."

"He still thought I was a native. That's cool."

"I'm your witness."

Rory smiles. "Well, I should go."

"Okay."

"I gotta go to my mom's graduation."

"And give her Belinda."

"And give her Belinda."

"Go on." Jess urges her. "I'll check on the guy. I'll make sure he's not wandering around looking for 44th."

Rory gets on the bus and walks to an empty seat. Jess follows her through the window. He mouths something that she couldn't understand so she opens the window. "What?"

"I said, why did you come here?"

"Well..."

"You ditched school and everything. That's so not you. Why'd you do it?"

Rory shrugs. "Because you didn't say goodbye." She says, sadly.

"Oh." They look at eachother for a few moments. Both wanting to say so much more to eachother. "Goodbye, Rory."

"Bye, Jess." Jess walks away and Rory sits there watching. She missed him.

Back at the college, Lorelai is sitting in chair, in front of a small mirror, as she puts her lip gloss on. She sneezes and the chalk from the chalkboard flies all over her.

"Great. I'm Woody Allen in Annie Hall."

A woman walks up to her. "You thought ahead. Smart."

"Oh, the mirror? Yeah. I never leave home without all the essentials. Mirror, makeup, picture of Shaun Cassidy." She jokes. "I'm done. Do you want to use it?"

"Thanks." The woman grabs the mirror and looks at herself with a digusted look. "Oh, don't I look charming?"

"You look great."

"I looked better. I had to run here straight from work. Kinko's."

"Hey, Liza." A man says from the back. "That gets me thinking. Maybe you and I ought to do a ltitle reproducing after the ceremony."

"Clever." She says, annoyed.

"Don't be a snot."

"Shut up."

The guy walks away and Liza turns back to Lorelai. "That's my boyfriend, Zach."

"Sure." Lorelai says, confused.

"Of course, we're breaking up cause we're transferring to different schools. He's going to Florida State. I'm going to UMass. Althought, I'm gonna miss this place."

"I'm not." Zach says from the back of her. "This place stunk. It's bush-league."

Liza rolls her eyes. "Why'd you go here?" Lorelai asks him.

"My parents, wise investors that they are, couldn't afford anything else."

"Yeah, I guess that 2.0 grade point average didn't reason into things." Liza spats.

"Shut up."

"Between the lines."

"Go die." Zach walks away.

"Sure you don't wanna give it another go, cause you're darling together?" Lorelai jokes.

Liza hands Lorelai back her mirror. "Thanks for the mirror."

"My pleasure."

Lorelai walks over to the hats just as Zach walks back in. "Hey, you guys won't believe this. There's some blue blooded rich woman out there setting up professional film equipment like she's shooting a movie." He laughs. Lorelai looks up, rolling her eyes.

"You're kidding." She says, acting like she has no idea who it is.

"Whose mother is it?" Liza asks.

"I don't know." Zach says. "Little precious must be around here somewhere."

"I hate people with money."

"So do I, with every fiber of my being."

"Me, too." Lorelai agrees. "Money people. Ugh."

Back in New York, Rory is still sitting on the bus. She was growing really irrated considering it was drawing closer to her mom's graduation and the bus had yet to show any signs of moving. Getting tired of waiting, Rory decides to go and see what the hold up is. She gets up and walks to the front of the bus over to bus driver.

"Excuse me." She says to the driver who is reading a newspaper.

"Yes?"

"Are we leaving soon?"

"I have no idea."

"Should you have an idea?"

"There was an accident closed on the interstate." He tells her. "All outbound buses were told to stand down."

"And you don't know when we're gonna be allowed to stand up again?"

"Soon, I hope. I hate missing dinner."

Rory sighs. "Yeah. Me, too." She mumbles as she turns back around goes to her seat.

At the college, Jackson and Sookie walk in the back where Lorelai is dressed in her cap and gown and waiting to impatiently to graduate already so that she could leave.

"There's our little graduate." Sookie smiles proudly. "My God, look at that gown." Lorelai starts smiling. "You look just like the Statue of Liberty."

"Aw! All big and stony?"

"No. You look amazing."

Lorelai looks over at Jackson who is dressed nicely in a suit and tie. "You look very GQ."

"Thanks to my best new friend Ermenegildo Zegna." Jackson tells her.

"Don't you love how he can pronounce it now?" Sookie asks.

"Very cosmopolitan." Lorelai jokes.

"He got it for the rehearsal dinner. It's his first real suit."

"And not my last." Jackson says, very surprise. "I look hot."

"You know that Emily's out there, right?"

"Shh! Shh." Lorelai hushes them. She looks around to make sure no one is listening.

"Why?"

"It's a long story. Just do me a favor."

"Sure."

"Lauren's already doing it, but keep an eye on my parents. The more eyes the better. Make sure they don't disrupt anything. My mother doesn't behead anyone. My father doesn't snore too loudly when he falls asleep."

"They are not going to do anything like that." Sookie assures her.

"Haven't you met them?"

"Why would they come in here and do that?"

"They're here because Rory and Lauren invited them."

"No."

"Yes. They can't say no that those little faces. It's like hitting a puppy with a rolled up newspaper."

Zach comes into the room behind Lorelai. "Hey, you guys are not gonna believe this." He tells the group.

"You're Mr. Announcement Guy today." Liza says, sarcastically.

"Are you gonna pipe in everytime I talk?"

"Can it!"

"Stuff it!"

"They're in love." Lorelai whispers to Sookie and Jackson.

"Clearly." Sookie says, confused.

"So, Mrs. Got Bucks out there not only has a cameraman, she's got a sound guy, too." Lorelai grimaces at this. "It's like a Baz Luhrmann movie out there."

"That's Emily, right?" Sookie asks, quietly, as Lorelai hushes her.

"Rich people feel so entitled." Liza says.

"Yes, damn them." Lorelai agrees.

"I swear I saw her wipe her face with $100 bill." Zach exaggerates.

"We should line them up against a wall. You know what I'm saying?" Lorelai asks, trying to join into the bashing of her own parents.

A woman walks in with a big box in her hands. "Is a Lorelai Gilmore here?" She asks.

"Yes." Lorelai says.

"Oh, good. Have a look at these, will you." The woman walks over to her and opens the box.

It's a box full of corsages. "Wow. Pretty."

"Look them over and take your pick."

Zach and Liza walk up from behind. "What for?" Lorelai asks.

"To wear."

"Are they for sale?"

"No. They're paid for. These are from your mother, Emily Gilmore."

"Wow. Ritzy." Liza smiles.

"I really don't want to wear a corsage." Lorelai says, politely. She knew that Liza and Zach were going to soon find out that she is the one with the rich mother outside.

"They're all paid for." The woman tells Lorelai again.

"Really. It's too much."

"Your mother wants you to pick one."

"Really, it's okay."

"She'll just come back here herself."

Lorelai quickly takes a random corsage. "This one, thanks."

"Good choice. The cameraman said that would look best on film." The woman turns around and walks out of the room. Lorelai looks up at Zach and Liza knowing she has been found out.

"So you're the rish girl." Zach says, smugly.

"Maybe. I'm not rich, but my parents have money. But I'm totally self-sufficient." Lorelai explains. "I take nothing from them except this corsage and my daughter's tuition. So, you're gonna stone me?"

"I should've guessed. Look at her friends." Zach says, pointing to Sookie and Jackson in the back who are helplessly watching. "They're wearing suits that drip money."

"Hey, pal, this was 30% off." Jackson snaps back.

"Enjoy your champagne and caviar at the Ritz, Your Highness."

"I am not rich!" Lorelai yells as they walk away. Lorelai rolls her eyes, giving up, and turns back to Jackson and Sookie as her pager goes off. "My pager." She takes it out of her pocket and reads it. "Oh, no."

"What?" Sookie asks.

"Rory's running late."

"Late from what?"

"She doesn't say. She'll be here, but if she's not here by seven, she'll sneak in the back. That's weird."

"She'll be here." Sookie assures her.

"I hope so."

"How about, we'll sit in the back, keep an eye out for her, and save her a seat. That way Lauren doesn't have keep looking out the window and she can watch her mother graduate." Sookie chuckles.

Lorelai smiles, gratefully. "That'll be great. Can you hang on to all my stuff for me? I don't want to leave it in here."

"Will do." Sookie says, grabbing Lorelai's things.

"Thank you. Bye."

Jackson and Sookie walk out leaving Lorelai once again to face the stares of Zach and Liza. "Oh, you don't trust your valuables around us poor kids?" Zach sneers.

"Knock it off, Zach."

The graduation has finally started and everyone is in their seats. Lauren keeps looking back at the door to see Rory coming through, but she never shows. Lauren knew her mom was about to walk up on the stage, since they were almost in the G's, and Rory was going to miss it all.

Sookie nudges Lauren. "Hey, your mom should be coming up soon. I'll watch the door for your sister. Just watch your mom." Lauren slowly nods her head and turns back towards the front.

"Victor David Fuller." The announcer calls out. "Nancy Brenda Gatson."

"Are you telling me that that is the best commencement speaker they can scrounge up?" Richard whispers to Emily.

Lauren sees Lorelai's group walk towards the stage and starts getting really excited. "Hey, there's Mom!" Lauren says, slapping at her grandmother's arm.

"I see her, Lauren." Emily looks at Raul. "Raul!" She points over to Lorelai so that Raul gets closer shots.

"Lorelai Victoria Gilmore." The annoucer calls out. Lorelai walks up the stage and grabs her diploma.

Lauren starts yelling and rooting for her mom. Emily rolls her eyes and tries hushing her, but Lauren ignores her. Lorelai turns back to the stage and smiles big when she sees her youngest standing up in her chair screaming out her name. She also sees her parents tearing up as they watch her. Lorelai was so happy to be able to show her daughter that you can always do whatever you set your mind to and succeed, and she was also happy that Rory and Lauren didn't tell her that they invited Emily and Richard. They looked so proud of her as she walks across the stage. Lorelai had never seen them look at her that way before. Lorelai and Lauren wave to one another before Lorelai heads back down and Lauren sits down in her chair with a big smile on her face. "Don't you ever do that again, young lady." Emily says, sternly.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I can't promise anything, Grandma." She says, still with a smile on her face.

After the ceremony, Lorelai is talking to a few people just as Lauren runs over, full speed, and right into her mom's arms.

"Mom!" She yells with so much excitement that Lorelai couldn't hold her smile in. She hugs her daughter as tight as she could before Lauren looks back at her, so proud, so happy. "I am so proud of you, Mom."

"Thanks, babe."

Lauren looks behind them at Emily and Richard. "Grandma and Grandpa were really happy, too."

Lorelai sets Lauren back down and they walk over to her parents. "Mom, Dad." Lorelai says.

Emily and Richard both smile at at her. "Lorelai." Emily says.

"Well, I did it." Lorelai laughs.

"Yes." Richard says, smiling himself.

"Raul thinks he got some good footage." Emily tells her.

"I should hope so. Her certainly cost enough."

"Well, I'm sure it'll be great." Lorelai assures them, considering Raul was right in her face half of the time.

"Congratulations, Lorelai." Emily says.

"Thank you. I'm glad you guys came." Lorelai wraps her arm tighter around Lauren's shoulders. Lauren looks up at her mom and knew that was her way of saying thank you.

"Yes, well, we should get going. I guess we'll see you tomorrow for dinner."

"Hey, wait." Lauren says, grabbing the camera from her back pocket. "You guys need to take a picture."

Lorelai and her parents look confused. "Excuse me?" Emily asks.

"The three of you. Mom in the middle with the gown." Lauren explains. "It's tradition." Lorelai pinches Lauren's chin, playfully, and walks over to her parents, standing right in the middle. Lauren stands on the chair to get a better shot. "Okay, one, two, three!" Lauren snaps the photo and jumps off the chair, smiling at them.

"Thank you." Lorelai says to her mother.

Emily stands there awkwardly, not knowing what to really say. Lauren could tell that her grandmother wanted to do so much more. Emily wasn't a hugger, but Lauren was hoping she would consider it just this time. "Yes, well, tomorrow then." Emily says. Lauren drops her head.

"Absolutely." Lorelai says.

Emily walks away and Richard takes her spot, pulling an envelope out of his pocket and giving it to Lorelai. "Congratulations." Richard tells her. Lorelai gasps and so was Lauren. All these envelopes she kept seeing her grandfather give out, she was sure they had to be rich by now.

"Oh, you don't have to do this, Dad."

"Put it towards something fun."

"Thank you, Daddy." Lorelai says, sincerely. Richard was surprised to hear that word. Lorelai hadn't called him that since she was a little girl. Richard smiles and walks away just when Sookie and Jackson walk up.

"We're so proud of you." Sookie tells her.

"Yeah. You were great up there." Jackson says.

"Thanks, you guys. Where's Rory?" Lorelai asks, finally noticing that her other daughter wasn't around them. Jackson and Sookie glance at eachother and Lauren looks away when Lorelai turns to her. "No Rory?" Lorelai asks, surprised.

"She called your cell." Sookie tells her. "And I answered. She said she got hung up on something and she'll see you at home."

"Hung up where? Is she okay?"

"She said she's fine. She's sorry, but fine."

"Oh." Lorelai says. sadly. "As long as she's okay, I guess. Um, well, I should probably get the gown back. Thanks for coming. Sook, Marcas Schenkenberg." She teases Jackson.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Sookie and Jackson hug Lorelai.

"Thanks." Lorelai turns to Lauren.

"I really have no idea, Mom. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Let's just get out of here."

At the house, Lorelai drives up. Rory is quickly stands up off the porch. She couldn't exactly tell what her mom was thinking or if she was mad at her, but Rory felt horrible for missing it and really needed Lorelai to know that. Lauren and Lorelai get out the Jeep as Rory runs up to Lorelai.

"I am so so sorry." Rory tells her.

"You're okay, right?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"Everything's working. Your wrist is okay. Nothing new is broken."

"I'm fine."

Lauren glares at her sister. They did all this work to get their grandparents there, and Rory pretty much made her mom do the whole ceremony thing, and, yet, she never shows up. "Anyone you know, like Lane, get sick today or break an arm themselves, or get in a car wreck?" Lorelai continues as they walk towards the house.

"No."

"Okay, good. Then I can get past worried and move on to the other things."

"I know you're hurt."

"You bet I'm hurt." Lorelai says, angry. "I really wanted both my daughters there today. More than anything. You guys are the reason I did this stupid thing in the first place. It was a once in a lifetime thing and you don't even show up. Whatever it was that kept you, you should have gotten out of it. At least this once. Was it school?"

"It wasn't school." Rory says very upset with herself.

"Was it Paris?"

"It wasn't Paris."

"Well, what was it?"

"So stupid."

"Well, Rory, where were you?" Lorelai throws down her stuff on the porch, scaring Lauren a little. Sure, Lauren was really mad at Rory, too, but she had never seen her mom this mad and hurt before. "What happened?"

"I cut school." Rory admits, shocking Lauren and Lorelai.

"You what?" Lauren whispers.

"I cut school." Rory repeats. "And I got on a bus, and I don't even know why I did it. I have no excuse. I was just standing outside of Chilton, and I must have had a stroke, or something. What does a stroke feel like?"

"I don't know. Not good, probably." Lorelai says, really confused.

"And I left school and I got on a bus and I went to New York. That's it. I'm grounded for six months or seven." Rory says, punishing herself. "And no TV, no stereo, no reading. In fact, take all my books away from me and lock them up."

Lauren was now really angry with her sister. Rory went to New York. And the only reason she could have gone to New York was to see Jess, without her. "Hold on here, you went to New York?" Lorelai asks.

"And no magazines, either. I'll do all the housework. Laundry, dishes. In fact, we're gonna start eating at home so we have dishes."

"Rory, stop. Why did you go to New York?"

"She went see Jess." Lauren answers for Rory, while glaring at her sister.

Lorelai looks at Rory to confirm it. "Yes." Rory says, sighin.

"Boy, do you know how to bury the lead."

"I don't what happened."

"You went to New York to see Jess." Lorelai reminds her.

"It was the stroke. It made me someone else. And after his phone call last night..."

"That was him?" Lauren asks.

"...it did something to me. I don't know what. In fact, you should take the phone away from me, too. That's right. Add it to the list. No books, no music, no phone."

Lorelai stood there listening to her daughter. She knew Rory was upset and being the person that Rory is, she is taking it out on herself. Lorelai wasn't that furious at her daughter, so Rory shouldn't be furious with herself. Lauren, on the otherhand, was so upset with her sister that she could barely look at her. And it was kinda surprising Lauren a little that Lorelai was becoming calm about all this. "Okay, Rory." Lorelai says, calmly.

"I'm a horrible person."

"You're not a horrible person."

"I'm sick. I'll ill. I'm cracked. This is not who I am. If I were to write this down in my diary and I would read it I would be like, 'Who is this freak? This isn't me. This isn'y my diary.' I wouldn't do this." Lorelai shakes her head she listens to her daughter freak out. "I wouldn't skip school when I had finals coming up to go see a guy that isn't even my guy and end up missing my mother's graduation, which I wanted to be at so badly. That's someone else. That's someone flighty, and stupid, and dumb, and girlie. I mean, I missed your graduation which is the worst thing I could have possibly done. I mean, I hurt you, and i had to spend hours on a stinky bus next to a guy that was spitting into a can just thinking about all the minutes going by that I wasn't at your graduation and they were hurting you because it was so selfish of this person who wasn't me to do what she did."

"Oh, my God. Take a breath." Lorelai begs her daughter.

"I don't deserve a breath. No breaths. You should add that to the list. You should beat me, ground me, take the phone away, and deprive me of air."

"Okay, look, nobody wants to say this any less than me but maybe you don't have a medical condition or a mental problem. Maybe, honey, you are falling for Jess."

"No!"

"Well.."

"No! I love Dean. Dean is my boyfriend. He will always be my boyfriend. That's it. Forever."

"Maybe not forever."

"Yes. Forever. I love Dean. And Jess is gone now. Everything's gonna be good again. Everything's gonna be alright."

"Rory, you cut school." Lorelai says.

"Yeah, I know."

"You got on a bus and went to a strange city in your uniform to see Jess."

"I know."

"That doesn't mean nothing. That means something."

"No!" Rory yells. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." Rory grabs her bag and walks passed Lauren who is sitting on the steps, listening to them. "The only thing I want to talk about is the list I made on the bus of all the way I'll make this up to you." Rory takes out a piece of paper from her bag. You get total control over the remote and the stereo for as long as you want." She reads. "Total control over takeout food choices and a special surpise present everyday for a month. Oh, my God! I left your present on the bus." Rory sighs in frustration remembering the record she got her mom.

"What present?"

"It was vinyl copy of the Go-Go's orginal album signed by Belinda. But it's not the only copy. I'm gonna find another copy. That's going on the list, too."

Lorelai grabs her daughter by her arms. "Honey, please. Forget about the list until tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll just got to bed then. I'll go to my room." Rory says, walking passed Lauren again and to the door.

"Hold on a second." Lorelai stops her. "Does this mean that Lauren and I have to celebrate alone?"

"Well, it's up to you. Sending me to bed without supper. You can't lose with that punishment. It's a classic."

"I'd rather go out with my daughters tonight." Lorelai tells her as she walks up the porch.

"I don't deserve it."

"No. But I do."

"Okay, just let me take a shower and get this horrible smell of this horrible day off of me. And then we'll go anywhere you want. My treat. And I won't enjoy it. Then we'll come home, and I'll go straight to bed and I'll have a terrible night's sleep, okay?"

Lorelai smirks. "Sounds great."

Rory stares at her mom with so much sadness lingering in her blue eyes. She was so upset that she hurt Lorelai's feelings. She wasn't even sure how she was going to make it up to her. "I am so, so sorry, Mom."

But Lorelai knew Rory was upset and didn't do it purposly. She leans in and wraps her arms around Rory's small frame. "Aw, really?" She jokes. "Cause you didn't make that clear."

Rory pulls away. "I won't be long." She says, walking into the house. Lorelai looks over at Lauren who is sitting on the steps and had been quiet through this whole thing.

She walks up behind her. "Hey, you okay?"

Lauren stands up and looks at Lorelai with tears. "I'll meet you guys." She says, before walking down the sidewalk.

"Lauren?" Lorelai calls out, worried. She sighs when Lauren doesn't turn back. This day had been long and slow. Things were unexpected and they were sad.

This day was unforgettable.


	41. Wedding Dress

Sookie's wedding is coming up and everyone is getting everything ready for it. They were still picking out the little things that make a wedding and right now they were all sitting in the dining area of the Inn listening to Sookie's music choice, who is smiling, while everyone else is sitting there bored.

Lorelai turns the stereo off. "Sookie, you've got to be kidding."

"What?" She asks, confused.

"You can't walk down the aisle to that."

"Why?"

"It's depressing."

"It's Ella."

"It's morbid."

"It's a classic song."

"A classic song about a woman who can't make her relationship work whose life is full of emptiness, regret, and pain." Lorelai explains.

"Oh, who listens to the lyrics?"

"Anyone not hanging out with Annie Sullivan by the water pump."

Rory gets up and grabs the rest of the cds off another table. "What are these?" She asks Sookie.

"Those are some alternative songs, but I really like this one."

Lorelai gets up and goes look at the cds Rory is holding. "Alternative songs? Good. Let's see. Hey, Jude?"

"Paul wrote it for Julian to cheer him up."

Michel gives Sookie an unpleasant look. "Seasons in the Sun?" Lorelai asks.

"A sentimental favorite."

"Cat's in the Cradle?"

"It makes you reexamine your priorities."

"Don't Cry Out Loud? Sookie, do you even like Jackson?"

"I have a wonderful suggestion." Michel says, standing up.

"Great. Let's hear it."

"Okay, here we go. How about I leave?"

"And then do what?" Lorelai asks.

"That's it. I leave and I don't have to listen to this insanity anymore. What do you think? Huh? I love it."

"Michel, I am in the wedding, which means you have to run it all by yourself, something you've never done before."

"Oh, please."

"How about Lauren and I come up with a few more suggestions?" Rory asks them. "We'll get Lane to help out."

Sookie smiles. "Alright, fine."

"Great. Michel, how is the RSVP list coming?" Lorelai asks.

"Well, I must say this has been especially challenging for me. I mean, when you are talking about a wedding up to forty people all living withing a five mile radius how can one person keep track of all that?"

"Just an answer will do."

"It got a little hairy there for a moment. I almost needed a second sheet of paper." He says, sarcastically.

"You know, you won't annoy me out of making you handle it." Lorelai grabs the paper from him.

"Oh, we'll see." Michel smiles and walks away.

"Hey, can I go, too?" Lauren asks her mom. She had been in no mood lately to hang around them all, which was very odd for her.

Lorelai gives her daughter a sad look. "Lauren, I really need you here, too. After the wedding you can go be depressed, but for now, be here."

Lauren rolls her eyes and rests her head back on the table. "Hey, my cousin Carl cancelled." Sookie tells them. "Anyone else you want to invite?"

"I've got Lane and Dean. I'm good." Rory tells her.

"What about Emily and Richard?"

Lorelai sits down. "Emily and Richard who?"

"Your Emily and Richard."

Lorelai laughs, awkwardly. "Sookie, you're way too sweet."

"What? She took the trouble to help me plan the first phase of the wedding."

"The crazy phase of the wedding."

"It was sweet and I appreciate it. If it wasn't for your mother, I wouldn't have settled on pink."

"Why is that?"

"Well, I wanted yellow, and she said no."

"With logic like that." Lorelai says looking at Rory.

"Come on. Just ask her. I want you to."

"Okay, I'll ask her."

"Good."

Sookie gets up and walks back to the stereo. "What are you doing?"

"It gets happier the second time you hear it." Sookie tells them as she presses the play button. "Snappier, isn't it?" She asks, happily.

The three of them grimace before plopping their head down, dramatically, onto the the table.

At Friday night dinner, Lorelai and her girls are sitting on the couch in the living room while Emily is fixing their drinks.

"You know what I just realized?" Lorelai asks her girls. "'Oy' is the funniest word in the entire world. I mean, think about it. You never hear the word 'oy,' and not smile. Impossible." Lauren starts giggling. "See!"

Emily walks over and hands Rory and Lauren their drinks. "Oh, god." She mumbles.

"'Poodle' is another funny word.'"

"Please drink up, Lorelai." Emily goes and sits down.

"If you put 'oy' and 'poodle' together in the same sentence you'd have a great catchphrase. Like, 'Oy with the poodles already." They all start laughing except for Emily. "So, from now on, when the perfect circumstances arise we'll use our favorite catchphrase:"

"Oy, with the poodles already." Rory says.

"It's knocking, 'What you talking about Willis,' right out of first place."

"For God's sake, be quiet." Emily says. She was getting annoyed with this conversation.

The maid walks up. "Dinner's ready, Mrs. Gilmore."

"Bless you, Inger. Please tell Mr. Gilmore. He's in his den."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Shall we?" Emily asks once the maid walks away.

As they are walking to the dining room, Lorelai remembers that she had invite her parents to Sookie's wedding. "Hey, Mom, Sookie wanted to know if you and Dad would like to come to her wedding."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's gonna be great. Small, low key, but fun. She's catering it herself, so the food will be fantastic, and you'd get to see me, Rory, and Lauren walk down the aisle in three of the least obnoxious bridesmaids dresses created." She says, sitting down in her seat in front of her girls.

Emily smiles. "Well, that sounds very nice. When is it?"

"A week from Sunday."

"A week from Sunday?" Emily repeats.

"Yes."

"The wedding is in one week?"

"Yes."

"So this is a pity invite?"

"A what?"

"Someone cancelled at the last minute." Emily explains. "And rather than being left with empty seats so she asked you to ask us. How nice." Emily says, sarcastically.

"That's not what happened."

"No, that's quite alright. Far be it for me to be invited with the first batch of actual wanted guests. This is just fine."

"Mom, it's not a pity invite. She really wants you to come."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's so."

"Where's our invitation?"

"What?"

"Our invitation. I mean, she must have at least given you an invitation to give us."

"She thought it would be more special coming directly from me."

"So she was out of invitations. I never felt so special." Emily says to the girls.

"Mom, she wants you to come. There's no reason to be insulted."

"I guess I should be thrilled I didn't get a call as you were on your way there."

"Do not turn this into something it's not."

"Do we have a choice between chicken or fish, or do we bring our own?"

"Stop!"

"Perhaps she would like us to pick up some ice along the way, or help out parking the cars."

"Mom, look, isn't Rory and Lauren pretty?" Lorelia asks, trying to change the subject. Emily was being far too dramatic with this whole thing."

Lauren gives her Grandma a sweet smile just when Richard walks in. "Apologies all around." He says. "I could not get Adamson off the phone."

Richard takese his seat. "Hey, Dad, we're just talking about how pretty the girls are. Give him the baby face." Lorelai tells Rory.

"Oh, Rory and Lauren get lovelier every day." Richard smiles.

"Thank you, Grandpa." Lauren grins.

"Oh, Richard." Emily says.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Oh, God."

"Guess what Lorelai just told me."

"What?" Richard asks.

"We are invited to Sookie's wedding."

"Oh, how nice. When is it?"

"A week from Sunday."

Richard's face drops. "Oh, so it's a pity invite."

Emily glares at Lorelai. "HA!"

"Oy with the poodles already." Lorelai says, while looking at her daughters.

At the diner, Rory is watching Dean eat his breakfast.

"How are your pancakes?" She asks him.

"Good."

"Good or really good?"

"Good." Dean repeats.

"So not really good?"

"Fine." Dean says, confused. "Really good."

"Okay." Rory looks at her plate then back at Dean's. "But are they great?"

"Rory, uh, would you perhaps like to trade breakfasts?"

"You mean your pancakes for my eggs?"

"Yeah."

Rory shakes her head. "Uh, okay." She gladly picks up her plate and switches it with Dean's and takes a quick bite. "You're crazy! These pancakes are great."

Lauren comes into the diner and slams the door with frustration. Dean looks at Rory. "Is she okay?"

Rory shrugs. "She's been like that for a week now."

"Well, should you go talk to her?" Dean asks. Lauren is sitting at the counter, waiting for coffee.

Rory sighs and decides to get up to finally talk to her sister. She knew exactly what was bothering her. "Hey." Rory says, quietly as she sits next to Lauren. Lauren glares at her sister. "Hey, you've been mad at me for a week now. How many times do I have to apologize?"

Lauren shrugs. "I guess until I forgive you." Lauren grabs her to-go coffee and walks out of the diner. Rory sighs and walks back over to her table just when Lauren pushes Lorelai into the diner and closes the door behind her.

Lorelai sits down next to Rory. "Okay, I did it. I'm in."

"Technically, Lauren pushed you in, but good girl." Rory grins.

"Yeah." Lorelai notices their food. "Wait. Why are you eating?"

"You took thirty minutes to come in."

"But I'm here now, and I'm like cheese."

"What?" Dean asks, confused.

"She gets better with time." Rory tells him. "Sorry, we got school." Rory takes one last bite before she and Dean stand up, grabbing their things.

"But..."

"Order breaskfast. I'll leave the paper."

"No, but.."

"I'll see you tonight."

"Dean, don't leave me." Lorelai begs

"You'll be fine." Rory assures her and gently kissing her mom on her head.

Rory and Dean walk out, leaving Lorelai sitting there looking at Luke who hadn't even turned her way. She had be confident about this. She had to get over it. Lorelai gets up and slowly makes her way to the counter where Luke is. "Hey." She says with a soft smile.

"Hello." Luke says back.

"Oh, good doughnut selection this morning, really. Good variety, good color, good goodness." Luke walks behind the counter. "Well, so the choices are there. It all comes down to what I'm in the mood for. Sprinkled or chocolate or jelly or glazed. Maple or sticky or apple or raised." She chuckles. "A little doughnut rhyme there." Luke doesn't say anything. He just contiues looking through his receipts. "Nevermind. Can I have a chocolate and a sprinkled?" Luke grabs the tongs and a bag, placing the doughtnuts. "So this is how it's gonna be with us now?"

"No idea what you're talking about."

"You're pulling a 'Mr. Freeze' on me."

"I'm not."

"Please. I'm gonna need snow chains just to get out of here."

Luke grabs the coffee pot and a cup. "I assume you want coffee with your doughnuts?"

"I'm sorry, Luke. It was bad night. I completely freaked out. I said some things. Did you get my note?"

"I got your note."

"You got my note? Did you read my note?"

"I read your note."

"And?"

"It was very well-written."

"That's it?"

"I also enjoyed the Garfield stationary. That's one funny cat." Luke smirks.

Lorelai was surprised about how calm Luke was being about this whole thing. He wasn't even acknowleding what happened. He was actually acting like nothing did happen, but yet, still had an attitude towards her. "I said I was sorry."

"Yes, you did."

"I said it like a million times."

"You said it four times, but I understand you're embellishing for dramatic effect."

"Stop."

"Stop what?"

"Stop this robot talk. If you're mad, just act like you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you."

"You're bring really unfair. Rory and Lauren were in the hospital."

"Lorelai, what is it exactly that you want me to do? I'm not mad. I'm not holding a grudge. I heart your apology. I'm being polite. I listened to your doughnut bit. I got you your coffee. What would make you happy?"

"I want Luke back."

"He's standing right here." Luke continues looking through his receipts.

Lorelai sighs. "No, he's not." She whispers before turning around and walking out of the diner.

At Stars Hollow Middle School, Lauren is walking down the hall to her next class until something suddenly hits her on the inside. Lauren grabs her stomach and starts running to the restroom as fast she possibly could, running into a few people in the process.

At Chilton, Paris is up at the potium, giving a speech to her fellow classmates for the running for student body President.

"Better drinking fountains, updated lockers, clearly marked boys and girls restrooms. Non-dairy and wheat-free alternatives in the cafeteria. A larger voice in the monetary disbursal of charitable funds donated to our institution. Because it is our institution, yours and mine. Remember, people. If Chilton soars, we soar. If Chilton fails, we fail. It is up to us. We must get involved. We must care. It is not enough to sign a petition to get a Little Debbie machine installed in the corridor. Snack cakes will not change the world. Cream filling will not decide our legacy. How will future generations of Chilton students remember the Class of 2003? John F. Kennedy once said: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' Those eloquent words are just as relevent here in this hall today. What can you, the future of Chilton, of America, of the world, what can you do for your school? I wil ltell you what you can do. You can vote for me, Paris Geller, for Student Body President. And let me start tomorrow for you today." The audience is silent as Paris waits for some kind of acknowledgement. "Thank you." Paris grabs her speech and somberly walks off the stage. Everyone begins leaving the room and Paris looks up to find Rory still sitting in the chairs below, writing down some stuff. Paris walks over to her. "Hey."

"Hey." Rory says as she continues to write.

"Did you get the 'Little Debbie' comment?"

"Uh-huh."

"All of it? Cream filling and snack cake?"

"Every delicious morsel."

"Good, good. So how do you think it went?"

"I think it went fine."

"Fine as in better than Reese and Schotzie?" Paris asks, hopeful.

"Fine as in fine."

"How are you skewing the article?"

"Well, you'll have to wait and read about it like everyone else."

"Fine. Write whatever you want."

"I will."

"Just make sure you mention that Schotzie pulling the Sharon Stone Basic Instinct bit was a cheap attempt to distract the student body from my madatory recycling program."

"Go away."

Louise and Madaline run into the room. "I got it!" Madeline yells. Paris gets up quickly and runs over to them.

"You do? Come on, tell me."

"Okay, 150 students were polled." Louise begins.

"A total cross-section." Madeline says.

"We talked to people that we should never even have to stand near."

"The hairstyles proved the Farrelly brothers are not making it up."

"I'm sorry. Have I ever been mistaken for a patient person?" Paris asks.

"Right, sorry. So we added the votes up."

"You added?"

"She added."

"Good, continue."

"Okay, when asked who is the most qualified for the job of President 90% said you."

"Really?" Paris says, surprised.

"And when asked who would be the most competent President the answer was, once again, you." Louise tells her.

Paris smiles. "So, that's it. I'm in."

"Not quite." Madeline tells her.

"How is that not quite? Most competent, most qualified. What else is there?"

"Well, we also polled likeability." Louise continues.

"And?"

"And while people think you're smart-"

"And competent." Louise adds, quickly.

"They also find you, well, a tad..."

"Scary." Madeline finishes for her.

"Someone thought a Halloween mask of you would sell big."

Paris shrugs. "Well, fine. They don't like me. Big deal, right? I'm still most competent."

"Yes. But when asked if they likeability issue would affect their voting choice almost 100% said yes."

"That's crazy. You mean people vote for moronic twink who they liked over someone who can actually do the job?"

"Said, but true."

"Well, what do I do?"

Madeline shurgs. "How for a sex scandel?"

"Louise?"

"I'm on it." Louise and Madeline walk back out of the room while Paris turns around and looks at Rory who is still sitting down, writing. She makes her way back over and sits down. "Hey." She says rather loudly, annoying Rory.

"Tomorrow, with everyone else." Rory repeats again.

"So, I've been racking my brains for weeks try to figure out who should be my Vice Presidential candidate. Who would be yin to my yang. Joel to my Ethan, Damon to my Affleck? And then, suddenly, it hits me. The perfect person."

Rory looks up. "Who?"

"You." Paris says with a big smile.

"What?"

"It's genius. We could announce it tomorrow. Geller and Gilmore. We even have 'G' thing. Never underestimate the power of alliteration."

"I don't want to be Vice-President." Rory says, grimacing at the thought of working beside Paris.

"Oh, come on." Paris begs. "Every girl wants to be Vice-President."

"Not this one."

"But you have to. It's the only way. Please, I'm begging you."

"Paris-"

"They hate me, okay!?"

Rory sighs. "Who hates you?"

"Everyone in the whole school hates me. Oh, yeah, they think I'm the best for the job, but they won't vote for me so I'm going to lose."

Rory rolls her eyes at how dramatic Paris is being. "Well, how is my running with you gonna change anything?"

"Because people think you're nice. You're quiet. You say, 'excuse me.' You look like birds help you get dressed. They don't fear you."

"Hey, I haven't been dressed by a bird since I was two."

"You will soften my image."

"You're crazy." Rory says, packing up her things quickly to get away from Paris.

"Please?"

"No, I don't want to be in politics." Rory says walking towards the door with Paris trailing close behind. "I just want to write about it."

"You won't have to do anything." Paris promises. "I'll do the work and make the speeches. You just have to sit there and be nice."

"No. Bye."

"Harvard loves this kind of crap!" Paris yells. Rory walks slowly back into the room. "Being Vice-President is just one more thing to pur you ahead of the rest of thousands of straight A students who are applying for the same spot you are. Think about it. You say no then comes the day when the letter from Harvard arrives. They've turned you down. Enjoy Connecticut State, sucker." Rory listens helplessly. She did not want to run, but she did want to get into Harvard. "Tell me you won't be thinking, 'What if I had just run with Paris?' 'What if the one thing that could hav ensured my place behind those ive-covered walls I just walked away from?'"

Rory takes deep breath, thinking about it for a second. "Fine."

"Yes!" Paris says, happily. "Okay."

"I guess just being nice to people never occured to you?"

"See? That is exactly what I need from you." Paris says, wrapping an arm around Rory's shoulders and leading her out of the room.

Back at the house, Lorelai is sitting on the couch waiting for her daughters to get home from school. She had to bring them to the doctor to get them checked out and to get Rory's cast off her arm, finally. Lauren walks through the door, quickly, dropping her things onto the floor and heading to the stairs.

"Whoa! Speedy, hey." Lorelai says, stopping Lauren. Lauren turns to her mom and Lorelai could see the redness in her face. "Hey, okay?" She asks, getting up and putting her hand to Lauren's forehead. "You look a little flustered."

"I'm fine." Lauren heads up the stairs, but before Lorelai could call out to her the door had already slammed.

"Oh, my God. Am I Emily now?" She asks herself just as Rory enters. "Hey!"

"Hey." Rory says, smiling. "What's up?"

"Your sister has turned into me and I have turned into Emily Gilmore." Lorelai says with an eye roll.

Rory laughs. "What happened?"

"She just ran upstairs without even giving me more than two words. I don't know what to do with that girl."

Rory sighs. "She might just still be mad at me. I'll go talk to her."

"Thanks, hon."

Rory smiles and heads upstairs to talk to Lauren. Rory goes into Lauren's room, but sees she's not even in it. She then turns to the bathroom and sees the door closed. Rory walks over and knocks gently. "hey, Lauren? Are you in there?" Lauren doesn't say anything. Inside, she is sitting on the floor, leaving against the bathtub. She was pale. "Lauren, I know you're still mad at me, but a grunt would be great. Just to know that you are okay and I can tell mom you're fine. She is really worried about you."

Lauren sighs and brings her knees up to her chest. "I'm not mad at you." Lauren says loud enough for her sister to hear her.

"Then let me in, or come out. Please?"

Lauren reaches over and unlocks the door before settling back on the floor. Rory peaks her head in and sees her sister huddled on the floor. She walks in and closes the door behind her. "Hey, are you okay?" Rory asks. Lauren shakes her head slowly. Rory sits down next to her. "Do you want to talk to me about it?" Lauren shrugs as a tear falls down her cheek. "Okay, fine. I guess I can try guessing." Rory takes a deep breath and begins thinking. "Is this about Elizabeth?" Lauren shakes her head. "Uh, okay, um, did, uh, did Alex call you again?" Rory says, worried. Lauren shakes her head again. "Okay, Lauren, I'm really trying here and I'm all out of ideas. Can you please just tell me." Rory begs.

"Something happened today." Lauren whispers.

"What happened? Did something happen at school?" Rory asks. Lauren nods her head. "Did a teacher do something or a kid?" Lauren shakes her head. "Then what happened?"

"Something happened on the way to class. I hadn't been feeling good since yesterday. And when I was going to class I got this sharp pain in my stomach. It hurt really bad and I ended up going throw up."

Rory just sits there staring at her little sister. "Um, where does it hurt on your stomach?" Rory asks. Lauren puts her hand down below her stomach. Rory closes her eyes and grins a little. She was not expecting this to happen yet. "And does it still hurt?" Lauren nods her head as tears start to develop once again. "Lauren, um, I have some good news and I have some bad news."

"What?" Lauren says, quietly. She was scared to hear what her sister was about to say to her. "Am I okay?"

Rory gives her sister a small smile and wraps her arm around her gently. "You are just fine." Rory promises.

Downstairs, Rory runs down to where Lorelai is sitting on the couch, reading her magazine again. She looks up with worried eyes.

"Is she okay?" Lorelai asks.

Rory gives her mom a sympathetic look. "Uh, Mom, I'm not exactly sure if you are ready to hear this yet." Rory chuckles and runs into the kitchen.

Lorelai's eyes widen as she chases after her oldest daughter. "Rory, you can't just say that to me and then walk away. What's going on?" Rory takes a medicine bottle out of the cabinet and shows her mom. Lorelai looks confused. "She has a headache?" Rory shakes her head still smiling. "An earache?" Rory shakes her head again. "Okay, sweets, Mommy is really slow today." Lorelai says, getting very annoyed.

"Mom, what other pains happen to a woman that may cause them to use this?" Rory asks.

Lorelai thinks for a second before gasps with wide eyes and her mouth open. "No!"

"Yes." Rory laughs.

"NO! She's still five." Lorelai says, not wanting to think of her daughter growing up yet.

"She's twelve and it was bound to happen. I was thirteen." Rory reminds her.

Lorelai sighs. "I know and I hated it then, too. Is she okay?"

Rory nods her head and walks back towards the living room. "Yeah, she's fine. She's just scared."

"Aw, man. Of course she is." Lorelai says. "Should I go talk to her?"

Rory grabs her mom's arm to stop her from going upstairs. "No. You stay here. I think she's embarrassed. That's why she didn't tell you. Give her some time. For now, I am going to go give her this and then I'll change for the appointment." Rory runs upstairs back to her little sister. She was going to show her how to use the things that women need for their once a month surprise. Lorelai sits back down on the couch, still astonished. Her baby was growing up and now there was absolutely nothing that she could do to stop her.

At the doctor's office, Lorelai still hadn't talked to Lauren about her little surprise visit today because she decided to give her a little time to herself to process it first, and plus she and Rory were bonding. It had been awhile since Lorelai had seen them get along. And after this whole New York thing, it was time. Lauren was feeling better after the medicine Rory gave her to help her stomach. Rory explained as much as she could to a twelve year-old, and showed her how to properly use the necessities she would need. Lorelai couldn't help but feel a little jealous. She was able to show and help Rory out when she had started, but Lauren wouldn't even go to her about it. But Lorelai was giving her space and now they sat in another room waiting for the doctor to take Rory's cast off.

"How do you feel?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Great."

"Not at all sad?"

"About getting my arm back? No." Rory laughs.

"Really? Cause I've kind of gotten used to Castie over here. I mean, we decorated him. We talked to him. We protected him from getting wet in the shower."

"It's time to stop getting attached to inanimate objects."

"Castie, no one understands you like I do. What?" Lorelai grabs Rory's arm and puts it to her ear. "No, I did not know Mr. Band Aid said that to you. I will talk to him when we get home." The doctor walks in and Lorelai stops before she embarrasses herself.

"How are you doing?" The doctor asks.

"Dr. Sue, thank God." Rory says, smiling at him.

Lorelai grabs Lauren and pushes her to her, making her laugh. "So, Rory, let's get this thing off your arm. What do you say?"

"Not a word."

Lorelai glares at her daughter just when they hear a loud man voice that sounded just like Chris outside the room. "This one here? Which one? Hey, you in the white. Come on, point a finger."

"Dad?" Lauren asks, confused.

Lorelai walks over to the door and opens it. "Christopher?" She calls out.

Chris walks to the door. "Ah-ha! There you are. Is it still on?" He asks, walking in.

"What are you doing?" Lorelai asks, closing the door behind him.

"Great, I didn't miss it." Chris kisses Rory on her head, then he turns to Lauren and does the same. "Everything good with you, too?"

Lauren smiles. She never thought she would actually be happy to see her dad. "Yeah." She laughs as he picks her up and sits her next to Rory.

"Great." Chris turns to the doctor. "Hey, Doctor, I'm Dad."

"Nice to meet you." The doctor laughs and shakes Christopher's hand.

"I can't believe you're here." Lorelai says, still stunned that Chris showed up.

"Why? I told you I wanted to come for the big unveiling."

"I know, but I didn't think you would drive all the way from Boston again. You were just here."

"You getting sick of me?"

"Frankly, yes." Lorelai jokes as they walk back over to the girls.

"Okay, so is everyone here now?" The doctor asks them before he sit down in front of Rory.

"I think so." Rory smirks.

"Then let's do it."

"And, doctor, if at all possible, we'd like to keep the arm." Chris jokes.

"I'll try my best." The Gilmores turn to Chris and smile as the doctor takes Rory's cast off.

After the doctor's, Chris, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk out and begin walking down the street.

"So, where to next?" Chris asks them.

"I have to get home." Rory says. "I have to review my campaign platform."

"Campaign platform?"

"Yeah, our little Hillary Clinton here is running for Student Body Vice-President." Lorelai tells him, proudly.

"Wow!"

"Elections are on Friday, but I'm very torn about which way I want it to go." Rory tells them.

"I spent four hours making picture buttons. You want to win."

"Yeah, so you can go to Washington for the whole summer. It'll be so great." Lauren teases her sister.

Rory nudges Lauren. "Yeah, you'll miss me. But that means six straight week of me and Paris together in a dorm room."

"Hey, how about this? I'll come back on Thursday and take you guys to dinner." Chris suggests. "Then we'll break into Chilton and tamper with the votes."

"We can't."

"Thursday is Sookie's rehearsal dinner." Lorelai says.

"Oh, well, then you have to put your trust in the democratic system. Good luck." Chris jokes.

Lauren shakes Lorelai's hand that she is holding. "Hey, Mom, why doesn't Dad just come to the rehearsal dinner?"

Lorelai looks surprised at her daughter's suggestion. Lauren was surprised, too, but she was happy that her dad was coming around a lot. They were getting better and she was proud that her dad was actually committing to stuff that he said he was going to do. "Uh, yeah, Chris, if you're gonna be in the area Thursday night, you could come with us."

"But it's Sookie's rehearsal dinner." Chris reminds her.

"Oh, she would love it. She's cooking for a thousand. It'll be fun."

"Yeah, and I'm bringing Dean." Rory tells him.

"Please?" Lauren begs.

Chris looks down at his youngest green eyes begging him. She had never asked for anything before and now she wasn't afraid to. Chris couldn't say no. "What time?" He asks, shocking them all.

"7:30." Lorelai tells him.

"I'm there."

Lorelai smiles. "That's great. I'll tell her."

Lauren jumps up in excitement and grabs both her mom's and dad's hand while they walk down the street.

It's Sookie's rehearsal dinner and pretty much the whole town and wedding party is in her small house celebrating the soon to be wedding.

Jackson walks into the kitchen holding a bag. "We need to talk." He tells Sookie while Chris and Lorelai watch.

"What's the matter?" Sookie asks.

"The bedroom, please."

"Honey, I'm melting chocolate here."

"The chocolate can wait. My father just took me aside and handed me this." Jackson takes a skirt out of the bag and shows Sookie.

"He handed you a skirt?"

"It's not a skirt. It's a kilt."

"Oh. Why did he hand this to you?"

"He gave this to me to wear on my wedding day."

"No." Sookie chuckles.

"Yes. He wore it at his wedding. My grandfather wore it at his wedding. Apprently, there's a tradition where the men in my family get very airy on the big day." Jackson explains not too thrilled about this idea.

"Well, honey, if it means that much to him." Sookie says, unsure.

"Are you crazy!?"

"Well, he's your father."

"You won't let me wear shorts in public, but you're letting me get married in this?" Jackson asks, astonished.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna wear pants. If he doesn't like it, let him not come."

"He has to come. He's the best man."

"Too bad!" Jackson yells, walking away.

"Jackson, come on." Sookie begs, chasing after him. "Shorts are different. They cut you funny."

Chris turns to Lorelai. "Okay, that's it. I need some air. Grab the bottle."

Lorelai smiles. "Bossy. I like it." She grabs the wine bottle and follows Christopher out onto the porch.

"Wow. I hope the second act is as good as the first one." Chris jokes as they sit down.

"Oh, well, it's a wedding. Things are supposed to be horrible."

"When Jackson came out holding that kilt, I felt for him."

"Oh, I know. So did I."

"Please, I saw what you face was doing."

"What? What was my face doing?"

"It was counting how many Brigadoon references you could come up with to torture him with on a later date."

Lorelai gasps. "How dare you accuse my face of that? My face is calling Gloria Allred when we get home."

"How many references?"

"None." Lorelai lies as she takes a sip of her wine.

"How many?"

"Twelve. Including a few bars of I'll God Home With Bonnie Jean." Lorelai laughs.

Chris takes off his coat. "Well, I'm begging you, take plent of pictures at this wedding because I have a feeling it'll be a classic." He puts his coat around Lorelai's shoulders.

"You know, if you are gonna be in town for the day, you should just come with us and see all the fireworks for yourself."

"Okay." Chris says without a fight.

"Okay?" Lorelai asks, surprised once again.

"Yeah."

"Just like that, okay?"

"If Sookie doesn't mind."

Lorelai smiles. "What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Mr. Suddenly-I'm-Everywhere, how come you can just agree to come to the wedding? Does Lauren have something over your head?"

"No." Chris chuckles.

"Don't you have to check your appointments?"

"It's on a Sunday." Chris reminds her.

"Don't you have to check with Sherrie?" Chris was taken back by that question and didn't know what to say. "Chris, what's up?" Lorelai asks, noticing his face drop.

"Nothing." He lies. "Sherrie's not in town."

"Ooh." Lorelai says, getting it.

"And even if she was, I still don't think she'd mind."

"Because she's the coolest chick in the world?"

"Because things aren't going too well for us lately."

"Oh, no."

"She had this big business trip planned. And before she left, we had a talk."

"Yikes."

"Yeah. We tried to come up with some answers, but we couldn't think of anything. So she left, and we said we'd take this time apart to think."

"And what have you been thinking?"

"About finding an apartment."

"Wow. That's so weird. The last time I saw you two, you were both nauseating, actually."

Chris chuckles. "Believe me, we made ourselves sick a few times."

"I don't know what to say."

"No, there's nothing to say. It's nobody's fault. It just isn't it."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm okay. Thanks."

"Well, then it's decided. You'll coem with me to Sookie's wedding and you make sure I stop one or two brigadoonism shy of Jackson taking me out with a bagpipe." Lorelai jokes.

"It would be my pleasure."

The next morning, Rory is sitting downstairs making the wedding table settings as Lorelai comes down pretty much dragging herself.

"Hey, Mom." Rory says.

"Yes, angel?"

"Do you happen to know where the almonds I made for Table 5 went?"

"No." Lorelai lies.

"Because they were here last night before Sookie's dinner."

"Really, how odd?"

"Yeah."

"And this morning, I found some on the staircase leading to your bedroom."

"Hm. Ghosts?"

"It took us six hours to make those almond bundles, Mother." Rory says sternly.

"Well, see if you can beat that next time." Lorelai smiles as she walks into the kitchen with Rory following her.

"So, you got home late from Sookie's?"

"Yeah, I stayed to help her clean up a little. Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"I know something you don't know."

"What?" Rory asks, intrigued.

Lorelai grabs a coffee mug. "Okay, just remember it's really wrong to gossip unless it's true or just way too good not to tell everyone you see." Lorelai says, as she pours herself some coffee.

"What is it?"

"Well.." The phone starts ringing. "Ugh. If that's my consience calling. Tell it enough already. I heard it the first time."

Rory answers the phone. "Hello?"

"How's this sound of a template? 'I have done my best. I have lost. Mr. Nixon has won." Paris reads. 'The democratic process has worked its will so now let's get on with the urgent task of uniting this country.'"

"What is that?" Rory grimaces.

"Hubert Humphrey's concession speech. Now, other than the part about Nixon, parts of it really seem to apply here."

"Paris-"

"I'm not going to steal it. I'll paraphrase and give him credit."

"Paris-"

"Not that the person who actually wins will even know who Hubert Humphrey is, but, hey, I bet they'll organize one boffo senior ditch day."

"Where are you?"

"In the auditorium. I wanted to be here for one last meet-and-greet. Get them before they go to the booth."

"Leave now." Rory orders her.

"But-"

"People will think you're insane and generally people are scared of the insane. See where I'm going here?"

"I'm going to lose." Paris says, sadly.

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. Because even if I win, I only won because of you. So either way, I lose."

"Come on. Go get a cup of coffee. Relax. You deserve this job. I swear. Put away the concession speech."

Paris lets out a big sigh. "Hubert Humphrey must not have been considered very fun either."

"I'll see you at school." Rory hangs up and walks back to the table her mom is sitting at. "God, she wants to win so badly, and me not so badly. I feel terrible."

"Oh, come on, you know you wanna win so you can spend your summer in Washington far away from me and your sister."

"Please. Don't even talk about Washington. It gives me a stomachache."

"It'd be wonderful." Lorelai tells her.

"Then you and I will go some day." Rory says, taking a sip of her own coffee.

"Oh, look at you. Trying to make Mommy feel better like you don't try every night to tunnel out of here with a spoon."

"Get back to the gossip, please."

"Yeah, okay. So, guess who's in the process of breaking up?"

"Brad and Jen?"

"Bite your tongue!"

"I don't know." Rory smiles.

"Sherrie and your dad."

"No."

"Yes."

"Dad told you that?"

"Last night."

"Wow. But they were so together."

"I know. Well, now they're not."

"Well, is he..." Rory stops when she sees her mom's somewhat pretty much gloating face. "Look at you."

"What?"

"You're totally gloating."

"I am not gloating." Lorelai says, getting defensive.

"Why are you smiling?"

"I am not smiling. I had a little stroke."

"You're smiling." Rory gets up and goes to the pantry.

"Look, if he was all broke up about it, then I'd be sad. But, he's not. So.."

"Fourth rung of hell, party of one." Rory says, with a pop tart in hand as she goes to grab her coffee off the table.

"Well, at least my feet won't get cold." Lorelai says, reaching into her pajama pocket and putting an almond in her mouth.

"Where di you get that?" Rory scolds.

"What?" Lorelai mumbles.

"That. The Jordan almond you pulled out of your pajama top and ate. Where did you get it?"

"Santa Claus." Rory rolls her eyes and walks away.

Upstairs in Lauren's room, Lauren is putting her shoes on for school when Lorelai knocks gently on her door before going in.

"Hey." She says, smiling at her daughter.

Lauren smiles back. "Hey."

Lorelai walks in further and sits down next to Lauren. "So, getting ready for school?" She asks.

"Yeap."

"Hey, I was thinking we could go shopping next week. Just you and me."

Lauren looks awkwardly at her mom. "Sure."

"And maybe we could hit up a movie and grab some dinner."

Lauren drops her foot and looks at her mom with a grin. "You can stop now."

"Stop what?" Lorelai asks, faking confusion.

"I know that you know." Lauren says. "And I know that Rory told you not to make a big deal about it."

Lorelai smiles. "Okay, I'm sorry. I just want to take you out and kinda celebrate."

"Celebrate?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai nods her head. "Yeah. It's a big thing. Maybe we could talk about it. I want you to be okay."

Lauren quickly finishes tieing her shoes and stands up. "Mom, I'm fine. Rory help me out a lot. I'm better now."

Lorelai was kinda hurt that Lauren was fine and she had nothing to do with it. "You're really fine?"

"Yeah. I'm really fine."

"Okay." Lorelai says, as she watches Lauren put her jacket on. "There's nothing you want to ask me? Nothing at all?"

Lauren looks up and could see that her mom was trying not to act like she was hurt. She went to Rory, after all, and not her. Lauren walks over to her mom and puts her hand on Lorelai's shoulder. "How about we talk about everything next week when you take me shopping?"

Lorelai smiles big. "And a movie and dinner."

Lauren rolls her eyes playfully. "And a movie and dinner." She repeats.

Lorelai grabs her daughter and pulls her end for a hug. Lauren smiles and wraps her arms around her mom's neck. "Please don't cry, Mom."

Lorelai sniffs. "I'm not crying." She lies.

Lauren laughs and pulls away looking at her mom's teary eyes. "I was really scared." Lauren admits as she wipes her mom's cheek with her sleeve.

Lorelai grabs her daughter's hands. "I know."

They smile at eachother once again. Lorelai just couldn't believe that her little girl was growing up into a woman. Lauren was looking more and more like her when she was a teenager and it was freaking Lorelai out. She needed this day out with her daughter so that she could once again talk about the importance of sex and what to do when she starts feeling certain things. This was not something Lorelai wanted to think about right now. It was too much. Lorelai sat there staring at her youngest daughter's bright green eyes. Something she was so happy Lauren had got instead of her blues. It made her unique and different. Lauren is so unique and different. Always ready to learn something. Always cracking jokes. And, yet, she's so loveable and loves cuddling and making people happy. Lorelai just wanted her to stay young and innocent forever. "I love you, Mom." Lauren says, smiling, bending down and giving her mom a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back later to help at the Inn." Lorelai just smiles while she watches her baby girl run out. Time was going by way too fast.

The next day, Lorelai is still at the Inn everything set up for the wedding tomorrow. Michel walks into the lobby where Lorelai is putting up flowers.

"Alright, the piano movers will be here at eight and the chairs will be set up at nine. All the rooms are made up and ready. I will be in at ten. Now, I am going home, unless you want me to stay."

Lorelai turns and smiles at him. "Actually, I would. Thanks."

"No, I'm sorry." He apologizes as he follows her around the lobby. "I think I said that wrong. I am going home now, unless you want me to stay."

"I would love you to stay. Thanks for offering."

"Okay, once again, my English, not so good. One more time. I am going home now after working six hours longer than I usually work and performing tasks I despise and I'm ashamed of. And now I am going home to wash off the stench of this horrifying day that is, unless, for some unknown, godforsaken reason you need me to say."

"Well, actually-"

"Goodbye!" Michel turns away and leaves.

"Hey, can I grab my bag? I'll go in the back and change." The woman behind the desk hands Lorelai her things. "Thank you."

Sookie comes out of the kitchen. "Hey, I went with the sugar daffodils for the top tier. Let me tell you, they look great." Sookie says, excited. "I've outdone myself this time."

Lorelai chuckles. "What are you still doing here?"

"I want to double check everything. Don't worry. I'm done. Everything's fine. I'm going straight to bed."

"Your last night as a single woman."

"Yeap."

"You still look good."

"I still feel good."

"Just think, from tomorrow, you can wear cold cream to bed and stop shaving your legs."

"That's right, cause I got me a man!"

"Go to sleep."

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

They leave eachother and after Lorelai is changed she is still putting up decorations around the Inn. Chris walks downstairs from his slumber and surprised to still see Lorelai working. "Look who's got Martha Stewart locked in a basement. Did you do all this?"

"Yeah, I did. How's it look?"

"It looks great."

"Good. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep. I sweet talked the maid into leaving me 10,000 pillow mints and then I proceeded to eat them all."

Lorelai laughs. "Serves you right." Lorelai and Chris fall back on the couch. "Oh, God. I'm so exhausted."

"You need some help?"

"No, I'm almost done." Lorelai sits back onto Christopher's chest and looks up at him with a smile. "I am so happy for Sookie. It's like a real, live love story. I saw it all happen. I mean, I hired Jackson. I watched them meet. I watched them have several bizarrely intense arguments over mustard greens. I watched them fall in love. I got to see it all. It was a nice show." Chris wraps his arm around her tightly and they both just sit there staring at eachother. "Hi." Lorelai says, finally noticing him.

"Hi." They move in slowly and kiss.

"What was that?" Lorelai asks when the pull apart.

"I have no idea." Chris leans in again and kisses her.

"Chris."

"One more time, and maybe I'll have an explanation."

Lorelai pulls away from yet another kiss. "Oh, this is not happening."

"I hope to God you're wrong."

Lorelai looks at him. "But it's us. I mean, you and I, we-"

"Have never been in the same place at the same time." Chris finishes for her even though that wasn't what she was going to say.

"But now.." Lorelai quickly kisses Christopher roughly before they pull apart again. "My head is spinning."

"It's the plants in here, too much oxygen." Chris jokes.

Lorelai laughs. "What do we do now?"

"You know, I've got a room upstairs."

"You were that sure you'd get lucky?"

"I've never dreamed I'd get this lucky."

"Oh. That's good."

"So what do you say?"

Lorelai stands up and puts her hand out for Chris to take. They smile at one another before walking up the stairs into Christopher's room.

Hours later, Lorelai comes down the stairs in a robe. She heads for the kitchen and stops when she sees Sookie standing in her wedding dress and doing something to her wedding cake.

"What are you doing?" Lorelai asks, walking closer.

"Daffodils. Am I insane?" Sookie asks. "Can't have daffodils on the wedding cake. What was I thinking?"

"Stop what you're doing now."

"There's too much pink."

"Sweetie, there's not too much pink." Lorelai assures her.

"Pink is for girls. Jackson's not a girl. Jackson doesn't like pink." Lorelai grabs the flowers out of Sookie's hands as she walks across the kitchen to grab a knife. Lorelai takes the knife out of her hands. "I have all this pink. It's like saying, 'Screw you. You want a say in this? Well, grow some ovaries.' Sookie grabs the icing and heads for the cake, but Lorelai jumps in front of her.

"Hey, put the pastry bag down." Lorelai says, sternly.

"I can't. I have to fix this."

"Sookie, down." Sookie slowly puts the bag down. "Now step away from all things edible." Sookie walks away as Lorelai chuckles. "Hey, what happened?"

"I don't know." Sookie says, sadly.

"When I left you, you were fine."

"I know. When I went home, I was fine. When I went to bed, I was fine. And then I had this dream where my dress is really short in the back, you know? So, I bolt out of bed and put my dress on. It looks okay. But then I panic. What if I remember the dream wrong? What if my dress isn't screwed up? What if It's my veil? So I put on the veil. Then I remember I'm serving salmon puffs. Salmon puffs! Completely wrong." Sookie says getting upset again. "So I had to rush over here and try to find another first course. Then I walk out and these daffodils...Something snapped. And that's when you walked in here."

"Honey, you're nervous." Lorelai says, calmly. "It's natural."

"Well, I wasn't nervous until tonight."

Lorelai goes around Sookie and takes off her apron. "Well, that's okay."

"I'm scared." Sookie admits.

"I know."

"I don't want to get divorced."

"I know." Lorelai leads Sookie to the stool and sits her down.

"I don't want to fight all the time and end up bitter.

"I know."

"I don't want to be one of those women sitting around making jokes about husband number two. I want number one to last."

"I know."

"I want a guarantee."

"Sookie, you're going to be fine."

"I know. No, I don't." Sookie was starting panic again. "I need stop obsessing on this. Tell me something."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Anything. Tell me something to make me stop thinking about this."

Lorelai starts smiling like a crazy person. "I just slept with Christopher."

"That'll work."

"It just happened."

"When?"

"Tonight in his room."

"Oh, my God." Sookie says, laughing. "Was it..."

"Yeah."

"Wow. What does this mean?"

"I don't know." Lorelai shrugs.

"I mean, is this a good thing?"

"I don't know. I think it is."

"God, can you imagine if you and Christopher got goether after all these years." Sookie says, getting excited.

"Okay, hold on. We haven't talked about that ourselves yet."

"AH! Oh, God!"

"I know!"

"When will you talk about it?"

"Probably when I go back up with the snacks I promised."

"He's waiting for you?" Sookie asks in awe.

"Yes, he is." Lorelai smiles.

"Well, you must get back."

"And you need some sleep."

"I want to hear all the details tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll grab you between the walking down the aisle and the getting married." Lorelai jokes.

Sookie laughs and stands up. "Hey, Sookie."

"What?"

"You're in your wedding dress."

Sookie looks down at herself and smiles. "I am."

"You're beautiful." Lorelai gets up and hugs Sookie tight. "Now you go get some sleep."

"And you go get some." Sookie and Lorelai both laugh while Sookie turns around and leaves.

Up in Christopher's room, Chris is sitting on the bed waiting for Lorelai when she walks in with a try of snacks.

"Room service." She says, closing the door behind her.

"I do like this hotel." He gets up and grabs the tray before they both settle back on the bed. He takes a bite of something. "That's good. What is it?"

"I have no idea. But if Sookie asks, Michel ate it."

"So, should we avoid the subject for awhile or dive right in?"

"Call me Greg Louganis." Lorelai jokes.

"Right." Chris takes a deep breath. "What just happened here...amazing." He says, looking a Lorelai, lovingly.

"I'm not arguing."

"Well, does that mean there's a chance for a repeat amazing?"

"Do you mean right now or in general?"

"Both. Let's tart with in genereal."

"I don't know, Chris." Lorelai says, honestly. "It's weird, isn't it? I mean, we just found this great balance. I've been seeing you more. We're all getting along so well."

"I know."

"And this thing with Sherrie is so recent."

"I know."

"And then there's Rory and Lauren to think about. We can't just go changing everything on them now. Not unless-"

"Not unless it's a permanent change." Chris finishes for her.

"Yeah."

"You're so sure it can't be?" Chris asks.

"No, I'm not so sure."

"The timing seems right."

"I know it does."

"Maybe all this stuff we went through that's the journey we needed to take to end up here."

"Maybe."

"Being a family. Mom, Dad, Kids, Volvo."

"The volvo will have to go." Lorelai says, pretending to be disgusted.

"It has a nice ring to it." Chris smiles.

"Yeah, it does. I guess..."

"What?"

Lorelai take a deep breath and looks back up at Chris. "I guess we'll never know until we try."

"So, we try?" Chris asks.

"Yeah, we try." Chris nods his head agreeing before leaning in and kissing Lorelai once again.

At Luke's, Luke walks upstairs and slams the door behind him. When he walks into the part of his bedroom, he stops and is surprised when he sees Jess standing there looking up at him.

"Hey." Luke says.

"Hey."

"How did you get in here?" Luke asks, finally realizing that he never seen Jess before.

"The door was open."

"I mean, I was in the diner. I would have seen you come up the stairs. You know what? Forget it. I don't want to know. So how's everything back home?"

"Fine."

"Your mom?"

"Fine."

"Are in trouble?"

"No."

"Then what the hell are you doing here, Jess?" Jess looks away as Luke walks closer to him. "You know, I called you six times. Now, I didn't expect you to call me back so we could sit on the phone in bed and watch Sleepless in Seattle together. I just expected you to call me back to say you got home safe, no one mugged you on the bus, say you were okay. You know what? Nevermind." Luke says, giving up. Jess wasn't saying anything to him. He was standing there like he didn't care. "Just tell me what it is you want. I got work to do."

"I want to come back." Jess says, avoiding eye contact with Luke.

"You what?"

Jess looks up. "I want to come back." He repeats.

"Come back here?"

"Yes."

"Here to Stars Hollow?"

"Yes."

"To live here with me?"

"I said yes a million times."

"You know what? You're the one asking for something so you don't get to be James Dean this time, okay? Now, one more time. You wanna come back?"

Jess was getting really annoyed with the repeated questions. "Yes."

"Why?"

Jess shrugs. "I just want to come back."

"You know what people told me when I said you were coming here to live with me? They told me I was crazy. They told me I was insane. They told me to start writing letters to Jodie Foster, but I ignored them. I was so sure that I knew what I was doing and then you showed up, and you know what happened? You proved them right. I was crazy. And now, after all that has happened, after all the chaos and havoc that you have wreaked, you're seriously standing here, wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a butt with hands that are flipping me off telling me you want to come back?"

Jess walks over to the bookshelf and notices that his books were still there. "You didn't pack up my stuff yet."

"No, I've been a little busy."

"When were you planning on sending it back to me?"

"Am I wearing a little brown uniform with UPS stamped on it?"

"So what do you think?" Jess asks.

Luke shakes his head. "Things are gonna have to be different, Jess."

Jess shakes his head, understanding. "I know."

Luke glares at Jess for a few moments just to make sure Jess was serious and that, well, he was serious himself. "Okay."

"Okay?" Jess asks.

"So you're staying?"

"I'm staying."

"Okay then, stay. I got to get back to the diner."

"I'll help you close up later, alright?"

Luke looks surprised. "Sure." Jess starts walking to the door. "She's not home."

Jess stops walking, but doesn't turn around. "Who?"

"She's at Sookie's wedding with Dean. They're still together. They seem to have gotten through the whole car incident. They're doing really good, Dean and Rory."

"Good."

"Just leave it alone, Jess." Jess looks at Luke. "She's got a boyfriend. Just let it go."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just going out for a walk." Jess says, turning back to the door.

"You heard what I said?" Luke yells.

"Yeah, I heard what you said." Jess walks out of the apartment.

At the Inn, there are a hundred of gifts set on a table and pictures of Sookie and Jackson everywhere. The guests are all mingling with one another. So far everything was going good. Rory is listening to Morey play the piano when Dean walks up. She smiles and grabs his hands.

"Hey, you look nice."

"Thanks. You look beautiful." Dean says.

"Thank you."

"So how many cocktails caused that?" Dean asks, pointing over to Babette and Patty singing.

"Oh, they havent' had any cocktails yet."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. When they start having cocktails, we'll hide you." Rory promises.

"I'm looking forward to that." He laughs as his phone rings. "Hm, I wonder who is calling me now." Dean picks up his phone and answers. "Hello?"

"Dean!?" Paris yells on the other end.

"Who is this?"

"It's Paris. I need to talk to Rory."

"Uh, sure. Hold on." He hands the phone to Rory. "It's Paris."

"What?" Dean shrugs. "Hello?" Rory says.

"We got the band." Paris tells her.

"What?"

"We got the band." Paris repeats. "I knew we had most of the academic clubs tied up, but band they were the wildcard. Because believe me if anybody's going to be truly scared of me, it's some artsy loser with a tuba."

"Paris, how did you get this number?"

"Oh, relax. I won't call you on Prince William's precious phone again. I just wanted you to know that we we did. We're in. Welcome to the show." Paris hangs up and Rory turns back towards Dean, stunned.

"I think we won." She tells him, handing him back his phone.

"Wow. That's great."

"Yeah."

"So I guess this means you'll be spending the summer in Washington."

"Oh, nothing's decided yet. Believe me. Let me do a little research, then I'll figure something out."

"Good." Dean smiles while Lorelai walks over and hugs Rory, kissing her gently on her cheek.

"Hey!" She says. "You know what's really great about being a grownup?" Lorelai holds up her fancy beer. "This."

"Well, thanks for the life lesson." Rory laughs.

"You're welcome. Dean, you clean up really nicely."

"Thank you." He says.

"We have to hide him from Patty and Babbette when they're drunk." Lorelai reminds Rory.

"I already told him."

"Okay. I got to check on some things. See you guys later."

"Bye."

Lorelai turns around and sees Chris sitting down with Lauren sitting on his knee. She is wearing the same dress Lorelai and Rory are wearing with her hair tied in loose waves. Lorelai was so happy to see Chris and Lauren getting along. She couldn't remember, ever, seeing Lauren sitting on Christopher and smiling. Chris looks up and smile when he sees Lorelai approaching them. "Stop it." Lorelai laughs.

"Stop what?" Chris asks.

Lorelai looks at her daughter who is looking at her wondering the same thing. "Uh, nothing." She says, quickly wanting off that subject.

"I'm going to go find Rory." Lauren says, running off passed Lorelai.

Chris stands up and pulls Lorelai to him giving her a kiss. "So, this morning you woke up and felt sorry about last night?" Chris asks her when they pull apart.

"No."

"Embarrassed about last night?"

"No."

"Eager and willing to repeat last night?"

Lorelai smiles big, but pull away quickly when she sees her mom and dad. "Mom, Dad, hi."

"Richard, Emily." Chris says, turning to them.

Emily and Richard look surprised when they see Chris. "Hello, Christopher." Richard reaches out to shake Christopher's hand. "What a pleasant surprise."

"You came." Lorelai says.

"Of course we came." Emily tells her. "We were invited. Hello, Christopher. Why did you think we would not come?"

"I thought you thought the invitation was rude."

"It was rude. However, it would have been equally rude for us not to attend the wedding when were perefectly capable of doing so, so we came. That's call 'rising above it.'"

"I see! You wanna come here long enough to get a drink?"

"Yes. That would be nice."

"I'll get it for you." Chris offers.

"Champagne, please."

"Should I make that two?" Chris asks Lorelai.

"Absolutely." Lorelai hands him her empty drink.

"I believe I'll join you to see what sort of scotch they're serving here." Richard says walking away.

Chris gets closer to Lorelai. "When I get back, you're gonna have to answer my last question." He whispers before following Richard.

Emily grabs her daughter's arm and pulls her closer. "What on earth is Christopher doing here?"

"Uh, well, he's visiting his daughters."

"That's very nice."

"Yeah. Actually, he's been visiting his daughters quite a bit lately."

"Really?"

"Yes. In fact, you might be seeing a lot more of Christopher from now on." Lorelai says, grinning.

"Because he'll be visiting his daughters?" Emily asks.

"Yes." Lorelai smiles. "He'll be visiting his daughters."

Emily starts smiling just as big as her daughter was doing. "Well, I'll be damned."

Out in the back, Christopher, Rory, and Lauren are walking along the dirt road.

"So, I'm guessing your mom has talked to you girls." Chris asks them.

"She talks to us all the time." Lauren shrugs.

"Even when we're begging her not to." Rory says.

"And she told you both what we discussed?"

"She mentioned something about it, yes."

"And what do you girls think about all of this?"

"I don't know. What exactly are your intentions?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your intentions." Rory repeats. "Are they honorable?"

Chris stops walking and stands in front of his girls. "Completely honorable." He says, with a very serious face.

Rory looks down at her sister who is looking kinda of worried, and Rory had been feeling the same way. "Yeah? Because we have been waiting for this for a really long time and we take disappointment extremely hard. I mean it. Property damage is often involved."

"Well, then I better follow through on this, huh?"

Rory looks at her sister who is smiling back up at their dad. "I think that's an excellent idea." Lauren tells him.

"Come here." Chris pulls both his girls to him and hugs them tightly just as Christopher's phone rings.

"That's probably work."

"On a Sunday?" Rory asks.

"Hey, lady, I've got a lot of responsibility now, okay?" He jokes.

"Be right back." Chris walks away, leaving Lauren and Rory.

"I hope he is serious." Lauren says as she watches their dad walk away.

"I hope so, too." Rory says, turning away. She sees Jess by the lake watching them. "Stay right here." Rory starts walking towards him. Lauren turns around and is completely surprised by who she sees. "What are you doing here?" Rory asks him.

"Hello to you, too."

"Is everything okay?"

Jess looks at Rory. "You look nice."

"Thank you. What are you doing here?"

"I moved back."

"What?"

"I moved back."

Rory looks around to make sure Dean wasn't watching. "But why?" She asks, nervously.

"I just wanted to." They stare at eachother for a moments before Rory moves in and kisses Jess right on the lips.

"Oh, my God." Rory realizes what she was doing and pulls away.

"Rory..."

"Don't say a word."

"Okay."

"I have to go." Rory runs away back to the wedding.

Jess watches then turns to where Lauren is standing. She had her mouth open, completely shocked by what she just witnessed. She looks at her sister running towards the Inn. Lauren runs over and hugs Jess tightly around his waist while smiling up at him. "Thanks for coming back." Jess wasn't sure what to say except to just smile. Lauren turns around and runs the same way her sister did. "Oh, welcome home!" She yells.

The wedding is about to get started and Lorelai is standing on the bridge waiting for her daughters.

"Lor!" Chris yells as he walks up to her.

"Hey, there." She walks up and kisses him. "We're starting any minute. Have you seen Rory and Lauren?"

"Uh, yeah, I just left them over there."

"Okay, I'll find them. Go get a good seat. The wind's kicking up so this may be a good show." She jokes.

"I have to go." Chris says, quickly before Lorelai can walk away.

She laughs. "What? Why?"

"I have to take care of something."

"Chris."

"I'm sorry, really. I'll call you later to see how it went." He says, trying to walk away.

"No, wait a minute. Tell me why you're leaving. What's going on?"

"Sherrie called." Chris says, quietly. "She's back."

"Oh, so you're going home. You're gonna tell her you're moving out?" Chris sighs. "No?" Lorelai asks, not really surprised at all. "Okay."

"I can't believe this." Chris mumbles. "I mean, I really can't believe this."

"Uh, okay. I don't know. Just drive safe."

"Drive safe?"

"Yeah, drive safe. I mean, you're still Rory and Lauren's dad, right? So whatever happens or doesn't happen between us I still need you to drive safe."

"Lorelai-"

"Just go, Chris."

"Sherrie's pregnant."

Lorelai was lost of words. "Oh. Oh, my." She says, as the tears start to develop in her eyes just thinking about Chris being a dad again to another woman when they were suppose to have a relationship.

"She just found out and she called me as soon as she found out. And that was her calling to tell me that she found out." Chris says. He wasn't exactly thrilled with this. He wanted Lorelai. He wanted to be a father to his girls.

"Pregnant?" Lorelai repeats.

"Yeah."

"Wow. Well, women all over the world will line up to see that tiny woman fat."

"I don't know what to do. I was so happy last night."

"And now-"

"Yeah."

"I missed it before with Rory and Lauren. I wasn't there. I wasn't a part of it."

"I know."

"And I never forgave myself."

"I know."

"So I'm gonna do that again? I'm just gonna take off? Disappear?"

"No. You're gonna go home."

"This is absolutely unbelievable. I waited years for this, Lor: You, Rory, Lauren, the whole perfect picture. And now.."

"Listen." Lorelai stops him. She couldn't handle this right now. "I have to walk down the aisle in a minute and be happy for Sookie and right now I'm having a little trouble standing. So maybe it would be better if you would just go."

Chris, deep down, really wanted Lorelai just to tell him to stay, but Lorelai was too good of a person to do that. "I'm so sorry."

"Oh, yeah, me, too."

"Tell the girls?"

"I will." Chris sighs and turns away. "Hey." Chris turns back towards her. "Congratulations." She says as sincere as she could.

"Thanks."

At the wedding, Jackson and his guys walk up to the front. Lorelai is waiting at the end for Rory and Lauren. They stand on both sides of her. Lorelai hands them their flowers.

"I think I'm going to Washington." Rory tells them.

Still trying to keep her tears in after hearing Christopher's announcement. "Okay." She says, simply.

"Let's do this." Lauren whispers as they begin walking.

_In your wedding dress  
To have and to hold  
Cause even at my best  
I wanna let go_


	42. Begin Again

An alarm begins ringing at 7 a.m. Lorelai reaches over and hits a million times until it finally goes off. But, then, suddenly another one, behind her, goes off. Lorelai opens her eyes and turns around also reaching over and hitting that one, too. Seconds later, another, and then another, and then a hundred more start going off. Lorelai sits up, very confused, and very tired.

"You are hilarious." Lorelai yells while she just sits there in bed looking at all of the alarm clocks across her room going off. Lorelai gets up and heads downstairs. "Okay, see, last night when I said to you: 'Tomorrow, no matter what, make sure I get up at seven,' what I actually meant was, 'Tomorrow, no matter what make sure I have the option of getting up at seven.'" She walks into the kitchen where Luke is making breakfast. 'incase when seven comes I actually wanna get up.' Which, as it happened, I didn't." She walks to the fridge and grabs the coffee. "Therefore, you're currently responsible for the great alarm clock slaughter of 2002."

"No survivors?" Luke asks.

"The one shaped like a bunny escaped with a mild decapitation." Lorelai opens her coffee and starts smelling it. "This is decaf."

"What do you mean?"

"You switched my coffee again." Lorelai sets the coffee jar down and begins looking all over the kitchen for the real stuff.

"I'm a busy man." Luke tells her. "I don't have time to sneak around switching your coffee." He starts following the crazy lady around. "I have a diner to run. I have shitments to order. I have things to flip and fry. Will you stop that?"

Lorelai opens the cabinet, below the sink, and grabs the zip-loc bag that is filled with her coffee. "AH! HA!" She jumps up with excitement. "Under the sink." Luke rolls his eyes. "Very clever. But not clever enough, bucko."

Luke follows Lorelai back over the coffee pot. He had enough of hiding that stuff from Lorelai because she found it every single time. "Okay, fine. You know what? I give up. Go one day without coffee." Luke begs.

"That's not giving up."

"I'll put a toy in your cereal."

"Dirty!"

"Fine." Luke hands Lorelai her plate of breakfast. "Here, you win."

"Thank you." Lorelai smiles, gratefully.

"You're welcome. Now you're up, you're fed. I'm leaving."

Luke grabs his things. "Hey, we need Q-tips."

"I'll alert the media."

"See, that's better with the accent."

"The reference is neough. You'll learn that one day. I'll be home early. Anything besides the Q-tips?"

"Um, cotton balls, world peach, Connie Chung's original face back-" Luke bends down and kisses her gently on her lips.

"Goodbye, crazy lady." Lorelai kisses him again and Luke bends down to her stomach. "Goodbye, Sid and Nancy."

"Leopold and Loeb." Lorelai corrects him.

"What?"

"I changed my mind. Don't tell Rory and Lauren."

"Decaf."

"Never."

"They'll both have two heads."

"More to love." Lorelai jokes before kissing him one last time before he leaves.

Lorelai smiles happily and rubs her stomach.

-Dream over-

Lorelai jumps up, awake, in her bed, in the middle of the night. She was out of breath and freaking out. Lorelai reaches over to grab the phone off her nightstand and ends up following on the floor.

"OH!" She yells as she dials the number.

"Hello?" Rory's tired voice says on the other end.

"You have to come home."

"Mom?"

"You're gone and the house is quiet. Bill Maher is cancelled. The name of the show was Politically Incorrect. Didn't anyone read the title? He was supposed to say those things, damn it!"

"You had another dream?" Rory asks.

"Yes."

"The doctor is in." Rory says, sitting up, ready to listen.

"Okay, I'm lying in bed and I'm sleeping. I'm wearing this fabulous nightgown. And 30 alarm clocks go off. And so I get out of bed and I walk downstairs. And there, standing in the kitchen, is Luke."

"Was he naked?"

"No." Lorelai says, disgusted. "He was making breakfast."

"Naked?"

"Okay, you've been in Washington way too long."

"Sorry. Go ahead. He was making breakfast."

"Eggs and pancakes and bacon. He put decaf coffee in my regular coffee bag which, of course, I knew immediately."

"Hi, the nose."

"Exactly. So eventually I find the real stuff under the sink. He hands me my breakfast, and the then..."

"What?"

Lorelai takes a deep breath. "He kissed me and talked to my stomach!"

"Why would he do that?" Rory asks, confused.

"Because apparently I'm pregnant."

"What?!"

"With twins!" Lorelai waits for some kind of response from her daughter. "Say something."

"You are going to be so fat."

"Just analyze my dream, please."

"Okay. Well, your dream is telling you that you are secretly in love with Luke, and you want to marry him, and have his twins."

"Uh, no. Try again."

"What do you mean try again? You asked me to analyze your dream. I did."

"Yeah, well, I reject that analysis. So I'd like another one, please."

"You can't just reject an analysis and try again. You're not shopping for bathing suits."

"Give me another analysis or I'll put your Taylor Hula-Hooping dream into a whole other context." Lorelai threatens.

"I told you, Taylor was supposed to be Dean. I could tell by his freakishly thick head of hair."

"I'm waiting." Lorelai says, impatiently.

"Okay, maybe you're still upset about what happened with Dad and you're jealous of Sherrie because she's having his baby and not you." Rory says, sadly. "Mom?"

Lorelai is sitting on the floor trying not to cry. "I miss you. And I miss my Lauren."

"I miss you, too. I'm so glad I only have one more day here."

"Me, too. What do you have on your agenda for tomorrow? Or today, actually."

"We have a breakfast mixer with members of Congress and the Senate."

"Cool. Try and steal me something from Tom Daschle's fruit plate."

Rory laughs. "I'll see what I can do. Tell Lauren I said I miss her, too."

"See you Friday, Doc."

"See you Friday."

Rory hangs up and sits there quietly for a few seconds. She was really missing everyone at home and was so happy to be leaving Washington soon. Rory gets out of bed and walks over to their desk in the corner of the room. She opens her binder and looks at the many envelopes of letters that Dean sent her. They were both away, out of state, but the only person Rory was trying to write back to was Jess. Rory moves the envelopes over and stares at the blank page that only has 'Dear Jess' written on it.

At Sookie's the next day, Lorelai is over, eating breakfast.

"Hello!?" Jackson yells.

Sookie quickly covers Lorelai's eyes with her hand. "Jackson, hold on! Lorelai's here."

Lorelai hurries and grabs her napkin, shielding her face. "Jackson, I'm in the kitchen! I'm eating bacon, so don't, ahh!"

Jackson walks in and grabs the napkin as Sookie laughs hysterically. "Will you stop it? I'm dressed." Jackson says, annoyed.

Lorelai lets out of breath of relief. "Well, how do I know you weren't showering and the hot water went out, and you rushed down with nothing but a teeny, tiny towel in front of you?"

Jackson grabs a drink of the fridge and turns back to the girls. "That happened once. Once!"

"Once was enough."

"Okay, honey, I got those paint chips we were talking about." Sookie says, holding up a pack of paint samples. "Do you want to look at them now?"

"Nope." Jackson says, not caring.

"But, it'll only take a minute and I picked out a couple of colors."

Jackson reaches over, grabbing some bacon. "What are you painting?" Lorelai asks.

"Nothing." Jackson tells her.

"The house." Sookie answers.

"The whole house?"

"No." Jackson tells her.

"Just the inside." Sookie answers again.

"That's a pretty big undertaking." Lorelai tells them.

"It's not such a big undertaking." Jackson tells her. "because we're not undertaking it."

"I know, but it'll be fun." Sookie says, excited."

"The girls and I'll help if you want." Lorelai offers.

"Okay, if you're gonna come over every day, you have to actually hear both of us." Jackson tells her.

Lorelai nods her head. "Okay, tell me why you're not painting the inside of the house."

"Because it was my house, and now it's our house and I want it to feel like our house." Sookie explains.

"I told you, I am happy with the way this house feels." Jackson says.

"How can you be? There's flowers everywhere."

"I like flowers. I'm a produce guy."

"The curtains are ruffly."

"I like ruffles."

"How can you like ruffles?"

"Because I'm very, very gay." Jackson jokes. "Judy, Vincente has to go to work now. Goodbye, Lorelai. Tell her I'm fine. I like things just the way they are." Jackson bends down and kisses Sookie on her cheek.

"I'll try." Lorelai walks away and leaves. "Okay, I only have a minute, then I have to leave and pick up Lauren from the bus stop. Is there any more bacon?"

"Have mine." Sookie holds up a paint sample. "What do you think about mahogany for the living room and then midnight blue for the hallway and the bedroom?"

"Sookie, Jackson just said he's fine with how everything is. I don't think it's bugging him."

"Well, he may not think so now, but it'll bug him eventually. And then he'll resent this place, and me, by extension and I would like to avoid that. And I can. I just need to butch the place up a little. Help me pick a color." Sookie begs.

"Okay, I can't now, but I'll do it later. Thanks for breakfast. It was amazing. I love you. I love the bacon. Hey, bacon's manly." Lorelai says, walking into the living room to grab her stuff. "Why don't you nail a bunch of packages of kosher bacon on the walls? Huh!? It smells like meat blessed by a rabbi. That's a manly house."

Sookie rolls her eyes at her friend's humor. "Bye."

"Okay, but if you're still thinking paint, you're still thinking like a chick." Lorelai reminds her.

Lorelai is walking to the bus stop to finally pick up her baby girl. The town is setting up some backgrounds and decorations in the square as Taylor calls out orders in a wheelchair with his foot propped up.

"Watch those streamers!" He yells. "And not too much red near that tree. Light touch! Light touch!"

"Hey, Taylor, how's the leg?" Lorelai asks.

"It's just fine."

"Still haven't found out who put the banana peel on your doorstep?"

"No, but I have a list of suspects." He says, rolling away.

Lorelai walks with him. "Hey, what's all this for?"

"This, young lady, is for the first Annual Stars Hollow End of Summer Madness Festival."

"You finally found a way to fill September, didn't you?"

"This will be very exciting. I'm going all out for this. I even think you'll be impressed."

"Really? Even me?"

"Yes, sirree, Mini-me! I did not put the word 'madness' in the title for nothing. This place is gonna be crazy, wild! Food, games. We've even got a band coming all the way from New York!"

"New York!" Lorelai says, dramatically. "That's just nuts!"

"And wait till you see the banner I ordered. It's going to make every other banner we've ever had look downright embarrassing."

Lorelai laughs. "Taylor, you're on fire."

"I love this banner!"

"I can't wait to see it."

"Come on Friday. Uh, excuse me, young lady. You know I'm talking to you." Taylor yells at some woman who just walks on by. Lorelai looks into the diner where Luke is taking orders. She couldn't stop thinking about the dream she had and it was freaking her out. Was Rory right? Did she love Luke, or was she still upset with Christopher? She didn't even want to think about it right now, so, Lorelai turns away and a huge smile enters her face when she sees her gorgeous daughter staring back at her with the same smile.

-Flashback-

Lorelai and Lauren are walking down the sidewalk of Hartford with bags in their hands. They just had a full day of shopping and were now looking for a place to eat. Lorelai hadn't talked to her daughter yet about her sudden surprise. She was waiting for the right moment.

"Hey, let's sit down for a minute." Lorelai tells her daughter as she walks over to a bench.

"Mom, I'm starving." Lauren whines.

"Hey, we've walking all day. Let's relax for a second and then we'll continue to look for a place to eat."

"Okay." Lauren follows her mom to the bench and sits down next to her. Lorelai starts staring down her daughter, making her feel a little weird. "You want to talk now, don't you?" Lauren asks, knowing her mom all too well.

Lorelai shrugs. "Well, I've been putting it off and I really would rather talk now than talk about it over food."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. So, what do you want to tell me that I don't already know?"

Lorelai smiles lovingly as she swipes her hand across her daughter's cheek. "That you're so pretty." Lauren rolls her eyes and smiles, looking around embarrassed.

"Mom."

"What?" Lorelai asks. "I'm allowed to say that. I mean, I'm the one that did make you pretty afterall."

Lauren laughs. "So, are we here to talk about how pretty I am or about me not getting pregnant?"

Lorelai laughs. "And you have my humor. That could be a problem." Lorelai hated thinking about how many boys were going to fall in love with her little girl. She knew it would happen, too. Lauren was a brilliant child. She's gorgeous and had a mouth on her that would make anyone stop in their tracks. "You remember everything I told you about sex, right?" Lorelai was getting serious now.

Lauren nods her head. "Yeah. That I shouldn't do it unless I knew for sure that I loved him. Oh, and that I should talk to you or Rory before I decide to."

Lorelai takes her daughter's hand into her own and rubs it gently. "I can't imagine you growing up." Lorelai begins. "But you are and it's scaring the hell out of me. With Rory I didn't really have to worry."

Lauren looks at her mom with a confused look. Why was she so different from Rory? "Why?"

Lorelai takes a deep breath, thinking about how she should explain this to her twelve year-old. "Well, Lauren, you and Rory got a lot of things from me. You know that. But, Rory has a few things that I don't even know where she got from. See, I never even thought about Rory dating anyone until she was like thirty and had her career together, but she proved me wrong and started dating Dean at sixteen. And that scared the hell out of me. But, Rory never rushed anything. She's been very level headed through their whole relationship and has yet to show me any kind of thought of doing more with him."

"So what are you saying about me, because, Mom, I'm only twelve. I'm not thinking about that either."

"Oh, no. I know that. But when you do, please, please, come to me."

"Mom, I will." Lauren says, quickly. She could see all kinds of worry lingering in her mom's face. "I won't get pregnant." She promises.

Lorelai scoots closer to Lauren and looks into her green eyes. "You, my child, are very much like me when it comes to doing without thinking. I need you to be cautious."

"I can do that." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai sighs. "You will do amazing things, Lauren Lorelai Gilmore. Things that I wish I could have done. You are a smart, beautiful young girl. I want you to be whatever you want to be, not who you think people want you to be. Okay? Can you promise that?"

Lauren nods her head slowly looking at her mom. "I promise." Lauren had never seen her mom this serious before. It was kind of scary, but she knew her mom didn't want her to turn out like she did, even though she was an awesome woman. She wanted Lauren to have a bright future, to do great things, and show people all the things she can offer. Not become a high school drop out with a kid and going off on her own. "Mom, don't worry." Lauren says. She could see that her mom was thinking about what could happen. "I won't let that happen. Mom, please don't have regrets about what you did. I mean, if you would have never got pregnant with Rory then there wouldn't be me around to make your life awesome." She jokes making Lorelai laugh. "But, seriously, I'm happy your life turned out like it did."

Lorelai look surprised. "You do?"

"Yeah." Lauren nods. "You think you haven't done amazing things, but you have. You are the greatest mom in the world to me and Rory. You've taught us so many things and showed us that whatever you set your mind to, you can succeed. I mean, Mom, come on, you run an Inn and you're going to have your own Inn in the future. You never stop going and I love you for that. Think about it. What other mom would take their kid shopping for clothes and whatever else they wanted because she got her period?" Lauren and Lorelai start laughing.

"Yeah, you're right. Come here, crazy girl." Lorelai grabs Lauren and hugs her tight. When they pull away Lorelai looks at her daughter again with a serious look. "So, Rory did explain everything to you, right?"

Lauren holds up her hand. "Yes. In the most digusting way that you would be proud of. Can we not start it up again?" Lauren begs.

Lorelai sighs in relief. "Absolutely." They grabs their bags and set off down the street again.

-End Flashback-

Lauren drops her bags and takes full speed meeting up with mom halfway and jumps right into her awaiting arms. Lorelai holds her daughter, happily.

"God, I missed you, kid." Lorelai whispers in Lauren's ear.

Lauren holds her mom tighter. "That was the longest three weeks I have ever had."

Lorelai pulls away and checks her daughter from head to toe. "Have you grown?" She asks, looking at her from the corner of her eye.

Lauren laughs. "I wish." She says, rolling her eyes. Her mom and sister were tall, but Lauren just knew she was going to be short forever.

Lorelai walks around her daughter. "You have a very nice tan going on."

Lauren shrugs. "Yeah, well, it was California."

Lorelai hugs her again. "How's Elizabeth?"

"She's adjusting really well. Everyone loves her just like I knew they would. She told me to tell you hi and that she misses our movie nights."

Lorelai smiles. "Well, movie nights are very memorable." Lorelai grabs Lauren's bags and they start to walk down the street.

"Have you talked to Rory lately?" Lauren asks.

"Actually last night I did. She said she misses you and she will be back Friday." Lorelai tells her. "I can't wait to have both my girls together again."

"Me, too. I really miss her. She's been gone since the beginning of summer. It's not the same."

"Definitely not the same." Lorelai agrees.

In Washington, Rory and Paris are having their brunch of with Congress.

"As one of our foremost democratic leaders, I ask you: Do you think it looks good to have the American secretary of the treasury traveling with Bono?" Paris asks one of the ladies as they walk around the room. "I mean, I know, apparently he's a saint. He's going to save to world. But, my God, he never even takes the sunglasses off." The lady looks at her watch. She was obviously getting uncomfortable. "Don't we have an image to maintain? Aren't we at least pretending we're the superpower in this world? I mean, why not just send Carson Daly to the Middle East next time Cheney goes? Or, hey, hook up Freddie Prinze Jr. with Colin Powell next time he meets NATO. I mean, hell, let's hear what Freddie has to say, right?"

"Oh, wait, Doug." The lady says, quickly grabbing the man who walks by. "Paris, do you know Republican Congressman Doug Ose from California?" Paris shakes his hand. "You don't? Great. You two will have so much to talk about. Bye." She leaves quickly.

Paris looks up, quizzically at Doug Ose who was a little frightened. "Ose, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Let's take a walk."

At the food table, Rory is getting a few things when a guy walks up to her. "Last day here?" He asks.

"Yeap." Rory says, gladly.

"So, in your opinion, how is our nation's capital?"

"Well, I got to see Archie Bunker's chair at the Smithsonian Museum. So it was a big thumbs up for me." Rory jokes.

"Yes, there are times when this country's priorites are exactly right. So, where's Paris?"

Rory looks around. "Uh, not quite sure. Last time I saw her she was beating the will to live out of our nation's representatives."

"She is a hammer, isn't she?"

"Actually, she's the entire toolbox."

Paris walks up to them in frustration. "Damn. I always seem to catch the most interesting politicians right when they have to use the bathroom. Hey, Jamie."

"Paris." He says, happy to see her. "I got a little sneak peek at the final debate pairings for today. Seems like you and I are on the same side this time."

"You're kidding? You'd think they'd give someone else a fighting chance." She says, while she grabs a plate of food.

Rory watches on. She couldn't believe Jamie had a thing for Paris and Paris couldn't even see it. "Apparently not." Jamie says.

"God, I love this. You don't realize how unqualified American's youth is until you gather them all up in a room and make them speak. So, who are we up against?"

"Jason Roundsevault and Ty Fredericks."

"Perfect. Jason's got asthma, and Ty cries."

Jamie laughs. "Okay. We should meet early and go over strategy. Make sure you bring kleenex."

"Good. Good."

"Then tonight we should meet and celebrate over dinner."

"What if we don't win?"

"Don't lost it on me now."

"You're right."

"Dinner?"

"Sure." Paris says, stuffing her face with a sandwich.

"I'll swind around for you about seven."

"Fine."

"See you at the slaughter." Jamie walks away and Rory walks over smiling.

"Wow!" She says, impressed.

"What? Can you imagine pairing me with Jamie?" Paris asks her. "I mean, why not just line the hallways with self-esteem counselors right now?"

"Paris?" Rory says, seeing that Paris really had no clue what was happening.

"What?"

"What do you mean? He just asked you out on a date."

"He did not."

"He did. You're having dinner with Jamie tonight."

"It's a victory dinner, that's it." Paris says, walking away.

"Paris." Rory follows. "If he just wanted to celebrate winning a debate you guys could've had coffee later. But he asked you out on a date."

"He did?"

"Yes."

"Did I accept?" Paris asks, unsure.

"Yes."

"I'm going on a date."

"Yes, you are."

"Oh, man! I can't believe this! I finally get asked out on a date, and I missed it? Was it a good ask out?"

"It was a very good ask out." Rory assures her.

"God. I wish I'd been there."

"You'll be there tonight."

"Tonight." Paris repeats. "Tonight I have a date." Rory nods. "Tonight I have a date with jamie, a Princeton man. I can overlook that. Oh, my God." Paris says, finally smiling as she thinks about it. "I can't believe it. I have a date."

After Lauren's long travel home from being in an airport and then on a bus for four hours Lorelai dropped Lauren off at the house to get some rest and Lorelai went head to the Inn to check up on some things. While she is at the front desk the phone rings.

"Independence Inn, Lorelai speaking."

"What day is this?" Emily asks annoying Lorelai. There was no hey, hello, how are you doing in that question at all.

"Mom?" Lorelai asks.

"What day is this?" Emily asks again.

"Mom, I have a group of-"

"It's Thursday." Emily interrupts.

"Thank God. Now, could I possibly-"

"Thursday the what?" Emily continues.

"It's-"

"Thursday the third. And what was happening Thursday the third, Lorelai?"

"I believe it was the day I was supposed to chew my head off."

"Your father and I were coming home from Martha's Vineyard."

"I know you were."

"And you said that when we got home, you would call us."

"I know I did." Lorelai says, smiling with annoyance in her voice.

"We're home and yet there's no call, no message, no card."

"Mom, it's 11:00 a.m. I said I would call you on Thursday. I didn't say when on Thursday, I just said Thursday." Lorelai explains. "Technically, I haven't screwed up for another twelve hours."

"Lorelai, everyone knows that you are supposed to call people as soon as they have arrived home. That's the polite way to do it."

"You didn't tell me what time you were coming home."

"Well, you never asked when we were coming."

"Yes, but you never told me, so I couldn't have known. So even though I didn't ask, I still didn't know, and it's only 11..." Lorelai takes a deep breath knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with this. "I'm sorry." She says, simply.

"Apology accepted." Emily grins. "Now, I assume we'll see you, Rory, and Lauren for dinner tomorrow?"

"Uh, you'll see me and Lauren, but Rory doesn't get back till Saturday."

"Oh, what a shame. I thought she was coming back tomorrow."

"Nope, she's coming back Saturday."

"I'm very disappointed. I had it written down for tomorrow."

"You must've written it wrong, Mom. She's coming home Saturday." Lorelai says, quickly.

"Your father thought it was tomorrow, also."

"See you at seven."

"Wait. Do you know where Christopher is?"

Just hearing Christopher's name made her cringe. "Uh, why?"

"We wanted him to come with you and the girls tomorrow. Even though apparently Rory's getting back Saturday though I could have sworn it was tomorrow."

"Christopher's away on business, but I'll tell him you invited him."

"And tell him to come next week. I wanna see the four of you together."

Lorelai thinks about how she would love to see the four of them together, too. "Yes. That would be a nice picture." She wonders.

"Alright, see you and Lauren tomorrow."

"Yes, you will. Bye." Lorelai sighs and tosses the phone down.

Later that day, Rory is on the phone with Dean while Paris is running around, trying to quickly get ready for her date, while freaking out.

"My plane gets in at three." Rory tells him.

"I get in at six."

"Red, purple, green. Where the hell is it?" Paris panics.

"That gives me three hours to look presentable." Rory continues. "Hm, perhaps I'll go blonde."

"I strongly request that you don't." Dean laughs.

"Afraid of change?"

"No, I just like what I have."

"I like a man who settles."

"I miss you."

"I miss you, too."

"Stop being cute." Paris yells. "I need help here."

"I have to go. Paris is melting down."

"Why?" Dean asks.

"She has a date tonight."

"Really?"

"Don't sound so surprised!" Paris yells.

"How do you know he sounded surprise?" Rory asks her.

"Because I'm a genius. I have deep and powerful clairvoyant abilities." Paris says, sarcastically.

"Oh, boy." Rory mumbles.

"For example, I can instantly deduce that when someone hears the name Paris in the same sentence with the word 'date' jaws will drop, confused looks will cover faces, words like 'how' and 'why' and 'quick, get the children in the minivan because the world is obviously coming to an end' will immediately fly out of people's mouths!"

"I have to go." Rory says back to Dean.

"You sure it's safe?"

"I'll be fine. I'l see you Friday."

"See you Friday. I love you."

"That's it!" Paris says, throwing down her hair cips. "I'm shaving my head."

"Gotta go." Rory quickly hangs up and walks over to Paris. "Okay, Paris, you have got to calm down."

Paris is putting her hair up in a ponytail. "I had a black sweater, now it's gone."

"I'm not talking about now. In general, you need to calm down."

"He's almost here. I'm not dressed, my makeups not done, and I haven't gone through the Zagat to pick a restaurant."

"Why don't you just let him pick the restaurant?"

"What if he doesn't have a Zagat?"

"He'll wing it."

"'Wing it?' How come other girls get planned out dinner, flowers, candy, rose petals thrown on the floor and I get 'wing it?'"

"Well, you don't that you may not get 'wing it.'"

"No, I have. I can't do this."

"What?"

"Date. I can't date. I'm not genetically set up for it."

"Not true."

"I get no pleasure out of the prospect or the preparation. I'm covered in hives. I've showered four times. For what? Some guy who doesn't have the brains to busy a Zagat so we don't wind up in a restaurant that's a front for a cocaine laundering ring?"

Rory grabs Paris by her shoulder and pushes her towards the bed. "Sit." She orders her.

"It's a dare." Paris says, surely. "He was dared to take me out. I bet Trent Lott was behind this."

"Trent Lott did not dare Jamie to take you out." Rory says, coming back over with a bag of make up. "Close." Paris closes her eyes and Rory begins to put eye shadow on her lids. "Jamie likes you. He asked you out because he likes you. Now look up."

"Maybe I shouldn't go. I mean, what if I fall for him and he doesn't like me?"

"Then you'll find someone else."

"What if there is no one else?"

"Then you'll buy some cats."

"I wish I knew if he was right for me. You know, so I don't put myself through all of this for nothing. I mean, women fall for men who are wrong for them all the time. Then they get sidetracked from their goals. They give up careers and become alcoholics. And if you're Sunny von Bulow, wind up in a coma, incapable of stopping Glenn Close from playing you in a movie."

"I think you should wear your hair down." Rory tells her, clearly ignoring her rant.

Rorys gets up and walks behind Paris, pulling her ponytail down. "How do you know if a guy is right for you?"

"You just have to feel it."

"All I feel is my back breaking out."

"You'll know, okay? You just have to let it happen. And then, probably when you're not looking you'll find someone who complements you."

"Meaning?"

"Someone who likes what you like." Rory explains. "Someone who reads the same books or listens to the same music..." Rory walks over to the desk to grab Paris' brush while she explains the perfect guy. "...or like to trash the same movies. Someone compatible."

"Okay."

"But not so compatible that they're boring."

"Someone who's compatible but not compatible."

"Yeah, kind of." Rory finishes brushing through Paris' hair. "You respect eachother's opinions, and you can laugh at the same jokes, but there's just something about not quite knowing what the other person's gonna do at all times. It's just really exciting." Rory says amazed. Paris looks up at Rory and smiles. "Look, just have a good time. You'll figure it out."

"Yeah, I hope I figure it out fast before I throw up." Rory helps Paris into her sweater just as someone knocks on the door.

"That's him. Turn around."

Paris turns around and fixes herself a litte. "Well?"

"Perfect."

"Promise?"

"Swear."

"Thanks. Now get in the closet."

"What?" Rory grimaces.

"If he sees you, he won't want to date me."

"Paris, that's crazy. He's seen me for weeks."

"Yes, in conferences, crowded lecture halls, badly lit banquet rooms with crappy food smells. Not at night when it's dating time and he's thinking about dating, and you look all datable."

"I'm not looking datable."

"Please." Paris begs. "At least if there's nothing to compare me to then I've got a fighting chance. Please."

Rory sighs and walks over to her desk grabbing her binder and flashlight. "Okay, but when you get home, you need to get a new therapist because the one you have is really not working." Rory walks to the closet and sits down on the floor.

Paris shuts the door. "Thanks for helping me get ready."

"Anytime."

Paris opens their door and Jamie is standing there smiling. "Hi."

"Hello." He says. "You look very nice."

"This is a really good sweater." Paris says, nervously.

"So, shall we get going?"

"Sure." Paris grabs her purse.

"Do you like Italian food?"

"I love Italian food."

"Good. I've made a reservation at a great place. At least, that's what the Zagat guide says."

Paris smiles when he mentions the Zagat. "You're perfect."

"Let's go." Jamie laughs.

Paris walks out of her dorm and Jamie closes the door. In the closet, Rory is sitting on the floor with her binder open still trying to figure out what to write to Jess.

At the airport, Rory walks into the entrance looking around for her mom.

"Hey, Gilmore!" Lorelai yells with a huge smile on her face and bags in her hands.

Rory jumps up with excitment. "Mom!" She yells and runs right into Lorelai's awaiting arms just Lauren did that previous day, except with less clumsiness. Lorelai grabs her and they instantly both fall to the floor.

"Luckily, there's video cameras that caught that very graceful moment on tape." Lorelai laughs as they sit up and stay sitting on the floor.

"I'm so glad to see you."

"I'm glad to see you."

"I'm never leaving home again."

"Oh, that's my emotionally stunted girl! I got you gifts!"

"What? I'm the one that left town. I'm supposed to get you gifts."

"Oh, but I got here early and there was nothing to do except feed Gummi Bears to the bomb sniffing dogs which apparently the United States government frowns upon." Lorelai shrugs.

"You got in trouble with the government while you were waiting for me?"

"Just a little."

"How much is a little?"

"Learn Russian. Okay, here you go."

Lorelai takes out a hoodie and hands it to Rory. "Wow. A Hartford, Connecticut sweatshirt."

"Nice, huh?"

Rory looks into the bags. "Hartford, Connecticut notebook, pencil set. Hartford, Connecticut shot glass-"

"And beer mug."

"Hartford baguette, Hartford bear, Hartford sunglasses." Rory laughs putting them on her face.

"You like?" Lorelai laughs.

"I love."

"Alright, let's go. We'll get your bags then we'll hit the road. And then I can't wait to hear all about Washington. And by the way, I got you out of dinner with the Gilmores tonight. I thought you and Dean might enjoy a little Peaches and Herb time together."

"Oh." Rory says, awkwardly. "What did you tell them?"

"That you get home tomorrow."

"Big fat lie."

"Yes, which proves how much I love you. I'm making Lauren come with me."

Rory starts looking around. "Yeah, where is my little sister? I was expecting her to come with you."

"She really wanted to, but I think she is still pretty tired from yesterday so I told her to rest so that we can enjoy tonight."

"Poor Lauren." They stand up and begin walking to baggage claim.

"Yeah, now how about some love for getting you out of Friday night dinner?" Lorelai laughs while Rory reaches over hugging her mom.

At the house, Lorelai walks in carrying all of Rory's bags.

"You do know one option was leaving some books at home?" Lorelai asks when they walk in.

"Hey, I offered to carry that one." Rory tells her.

"Next time, insist. I'm lopsided now."

"Rory!" Lauren yells while she runs downstairs.

"Lauren!" Lauren jumps right into her sister's arms and hugs her tightly. Lorelai smiles excited to see her girls together again. "I missed you so much!" Rory says, swaying her sister back and forth in her arms.

Lauren laughs. "I missed you, too. You have been gone forever."

They start walking towards the kitchen. "I know. I can't believe I'm home. Hello, kitchen."

"Hello, Rory. We missed you." Lorelai says, in different voice.

"Oh, my God, I missed everything. My room!" Rory says, dramatically as she walks into her room. "My books, my cds, my stuff." Lauren and Lorelai start making themselves look busy when Rory walks out suspiciously. "Where's my pillows?" She asks them.

"What?" Lorelai asks.

"You both took my pillows." Rory says.

"We did not take your pillow." Lauren laughs.

"You both waited until I left, went in my room, and took my pillows."

"Well, you weren't using them."

"What else did you take?" Rory glares at them as she goes back into her room.

"Hey, Mom took my pillow, too, when I left if that makes you feel better."

Lorelai gasps. "Tattle tail." Rory gasps and walks out. "What? Your comforter came into my room by itself." Lorelai lies. "It brought your Bauhaus T-shirt with it."

"I want my stuff back by tomorrow morning." Rory warns them.

Lauren walks into her sister's room as Lorelai goes back into the living room to check their messages. "Just cause you girls leave doesn't mean the world stops." Lorelai presses the play button and the voice that they were not ready to hear again appears. _'Lor, it's me. Please just call.'_ Chris begs. Rory and Lauren both walk out of the room.

"Dad?" Rory asks.

"Yeah." Lorelai says, hitting the delete button.

"You still haven't talked to him yet?"

"Why should she?" Lauren asks, getting angry as Lorelai brushes her fingers gently through Lauren's long hair as she passes by her and sits on the couch.

"Have you?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Nope." Rory answers.

"He keeps calling." Lauren tells them.

"Yeah, he keeps calling me, too."

"I just don't really know what to say." Lorelai says, turning around and going sit by Lauren as Rory follows.

"How long are you gonna freeze him out?"

"I don't know." Lorelai shrugs.

"Right."

"You?" Lauren asks, curiously. They all knew Lauren would freeze him out forever if she could.

Rory shrugs. "I don't know, either."

"I have to tell my parents tonight." Lorelai says, sadly.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you and distract them?"

"No." Lorelai smiles, lovingly. "You've got Dean coming over. I'll be fine. And Lauren will be there. She can tell them all about California." Lauren smiles confidently.

"Okay." Rory laughs. "I'm gonna go change then." Rory walks back to her room.

Lorelai and Lauren look at eachother before they get up and follow Rory. "For what?" Lorelai asks.

"For the festival."

"Honey, if you don't wanna go, we don't have to go."

"Why would I not wanna go?" Rory asks, dropping her things. "Of course I wanna go."

"But you just got home." Lauren tells her. "You got Dean coming over."

"No, I wanna go because this our town, and we need to support these things."

"Alright, but you don't have to change for that." Lorelai tells her.

"Well, I've been away for awhile. I wanna make a nice impression."

"On who?" Lorelai asks curiously.

Lauren lays down on Rory's bed, interested on seeing how Rory was going to handle this. "Whoever has to look at me." Rory says. Lauren shrugs, impressed.

"Alright. Just hustle. I promised Jackson and Sookie I'd pick them up."

"I'll just be a minute."

"No woman is ever a minute when she changes."

"Mom, don't judge Rory for your own standards." Lauren says, smugly.

Lorelai glares at her daughter. "California made you mean." Lauren laughs. Rory brings over a dress and sets it down on the chair. "Wow. Fancy."

"It's not fancy." Rory says.

"You know, you'll have time to come home and change for Dean."

"Well, I can just change now. Then I don't have to do it later."

"Okay." Lorelai walks towards Rory's door, but before she leaves she looks at her daughter. "Hey." Lauren and Rory look at their mom. "I don't want you girls to freeze out your dad because I am."

"We're not." Rory assures her.

"Because I'm fine, if you want to go back to the way things were."

"Mom, I think that would be a little hard this time." Lauren says, sadly. She was doing so well with her dad then he had to ruin again.

"Okay. Maybe not now, but eventually.

"Eventually, maybe." Rory tells her. "But for now, solidarity, sister."

"YA-YA!" Lorelai yells, throwing her hands up in the air.

Rory and Lauren start laughing. "You've been waiting for six weeks to do that, haven't you?" Rory asks.

"YA-YA!"

"I'll just be a minute."

Lorelai leaves, closing the door behind her. Rory looks and Lauren waiting for her to leave, too. "I haven't seen him since I got back." Lauren tells her sister, quietly so that Lorelai doesn't hear.

"You haven't?" Rory asks, confused. She figured her sister would want to see Jess as soon as she got back. "Did he leave again?"

Lauren shakes her head. "No. Mom's told me she's seen him." Lauren watches Rory pick up the dress and look at herself in the mirror. "That dress isn't for Dean, huh?" Rory didn't have to say anything for her sister to know the answer. Lauren nods her head and leaves the room, closing the door behind her. Rory turns back around and smiles at herself in the mirror.

In town, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk through a big bush and into the open.

"See, three minutes faster!" Lorelai tells them. "I also found a way to get to Al's Pancake World that shaves a good forty seconds off our normal route."

"You were really bored when we were gone, weren't you?" Lauren asks as they begin walking to Sookie's.

"You have no idea."

Rory goes to open the front door but stop when she hears Jackson yell. "Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?"

The girls look at eachother, confused, but walk further in to get a better listen. "I don't understand why you're so upset." Sookie says.

"How can you not understand? I told you a thousand times."

Lorelai opens the door, slightly, and sees Sookie and Jackson standing in the living room full of manly figurines and stuff hanging on the walls. "I thought you were just being nice."

"Nice? Sookie, look at this place!"

"Oh, geez." Lorelai whispers as Rory and Lauren both peek their heads in.

"I think it looks nice." Sookie argues.

"Nice. Nice. Nice." Jackson repeats over and over as he looks around. "This is nice?" He points to a big bear in the corner. "This is nice?"

"It's masculine."

"No, it's terrifying! I swear I'll come out in the night for a drink of water, turn around, hit the floor, and play dead!"

"Okay, so we have a little work to do!" Sookie yells.

"Just put it back the way it was."

'No, I want you to be happy!"

"I was happy! I told you I was happy." Lorelai looks at her girls and points to back up as she closes the door. "You just didn't want to believe I was happy!" Jackson yells.

The girls walk out of Sookie and Jackson's. "We'll just check on them a little later." Lorelai says.

"Excellent idea." Rory agrees while they walk into the middle of the square where the festival is taking place.

"Okay, so do we do cheese stick, hot dog, cotton candy, or do we mix it up? Start with cotton candy, and end with the cheese stick? Who are you looking for?"

"No one." Rory lies. "I'm just taking in all the madness."

They walk over to Taylor who is watching the tap dancers and the band. "Hey, Taylor, is this where the mosh pit starts?"

"Oh, hello, Lorelai, Rory, Lauren. What do you think of the band?" He asks them. "Pretty big city, don't you think?"

"I sure do."

"What?" Taylor asks, sensing sarcasm.

"I'm agreeing with you. They are smoking."

"I do not care for that sarcastic tone, Lorelai."

Lauren watches as Rory starts looking around again. "No, I'm being nice here." Lorelai tells him.

"You have an opinion on everything. Nothing is ever up to your standards."

"That is not true. I'm sure these guys are all great barbors."

"I don't know why I bother." Taylor sighs and starts rolling away.

"That is it. I have been nice for the last..." Lorelai turns around and sees her girls both staring at something. They were both looking stunned at what they were seeing. "What?" Lorelai asks. Lauren grabs her mom's face and points it towards where Jess and a girl are making out by a tree. "Oh, it looks like he's got his 'what I did this summer' essay all researched and ready to go. I guess you dodged a bullet there."

"What do you mean?" Rory asks.

"I don't know. Just seems kind of lucky you didn't throw everything away for Jess when you see-"

"See what? What am I seeing?"

"You're upset." Lorelai says, surprised.

"No, I'm not upset." Rory lies.

"Yes, you are. I know when you're upset cause you look like my mother."

"Thanks a lot."

"You like my mother."

"Yes, but you don't like your mother, so that's not exactly a compliment."

"Honey, what is wrong?"

"Oh, God!" Rory says, looking back at Jess.

"What is it?"

"It's that."

"Jess?"

"Yes."

"You're upset about Jess?"

"I said, yes."

"Yes, it's Jess?"

"You're not being funny."

"It's not my fault that 'yes' and 'Jess' rhyme. Did I exploit the opportunity? Of course I did, but..." Rory starts walking away. "Rory, come on. I know you had this crush."

Lauren wasn't sure what to do. To stand there to watch Jess or follow her angry sister. "It wasn't a crush." Rory says.

"I thought it was over. I mean, you haven't talked to him since-"

"Sookie's wedding." Lauren blurts out. She was tired of this arguement and felt her mom needed to know.

Lorelai and Rory both stop and turn to her. Rory couldn't believe her sister really mentioned that right now. "You talked to him at Sookie's wedding?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"Yes." Rory says.

"He was not at Sookie's wedding."

"He'd just come back and came to see me."

"Okay, so he crashed Sookie's wedding, and?"

"And nothing. He told me that he was back in town. That he moved back and.."

"What, Rory? Come on." Lorelai says, seeing Rory hesitate.

Lauren walks up to them. "Just tell her."

"And then we kissed, okay?" Rory says.

"You kissed?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes."

"You kissed, like you kissed?"

"Yes."

Lorelai takes a deep breath trying to think of something to say that wouldn't make Rory run away from her. "Okay, who kissed who?"

"What does that matter?"

"Because it matters. Did he kiss you? Did you kiss eachother? Did you trip and your faces-"

"I kissed him."

"Okay." Lorelai was not expecting that.

"I thought he came back here because he liked me or something. And I kissed him, and he kissed me back. And now he's over there, and I feel so stupid. That girl isn't even his type and-"

"Rory, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean? I'm ranting. You should recognize this. I learned it from you."

"Yeah, but you went to Sookie's wedding with Dean."

"I know."

"And then you ran off to have something with Jess."

"It was a kiss, not a thing."

"I'm a witness." Lauren says, raising her hand.

"A kiss is a thing." Lorelai tells them.

"Okay, well, it wasn't planned. It just happened." Rory says.

"I can't believe it. All this time I'm thinking, 'She's with Dean.'"

"I am with Dean." Rory argues.

"No, Rory. Kissing another guy is not being with Dean. Ask him. I bet he'd back me up."

"It was nothing."

"Then why are you freaked out?"

"I'm not freaked out!"

"Kid, you have got to make up your mind. Jess, Dean. It's enough already. If you want Jess, that's fine. Go get him. There he is. If you think that's the great love of your life, then great. Grab a liver treat and squeaky toy and run to him! Don't worry about that girl because I'm sure he will have moved on to somebody else in an hour." Rory sighs. "But do something. Dean has been sweet, supportive, and incredibly patient and now you're officially treating him like dirt. And I'm sorry, but not only is that not you, he doesn't deserve that! God, I wish they knew another song!" Lorelai complains about the band.

"I know all this about Dean."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do. I knew how great he was before you did."

"Knowing this has apparetly not stopped you." Lorelai says in an obvious tone.

"Not fair!"

"Yes, fair. The fairest! The Snow White of fair."

"I don't want to talk to you about this anymore."

"Okay, if you don't want Dean anymore, cut him loose. Let him find someone who does. Because this just so wrong."

"Alright, I get it! Just stop." Rory begs.

"Rory." Dean says, smiling and walking over to them. "Hey."

"Hi, Dean." Lorelai says, watching her daughter hold hands with the guy she didn't want to be with.

"I thought your plane didn't get in until six." Rory says.

"Well, I managed to get an earlier flight."

Lorelai starts looking around for Lauren who had suddenly disappeared. "Uh, well, I'm off to dinner with the parents." Lorelai says, nervously. "You guys have all night to talk and have fun. Enjoy." Lorelai sees Lauren behind Rory walking towards Jess and the girl. "It's good to have you back, Dean. See you later." Lorelai hurries and runs to Lauren grabbing her and pulling her aside. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Lauren looks at her mom with anger. "I was going to tell him how stupid he is."

"Hello, hi, this is not your fight." Lorelai reminds her.

"No, but someone needs to say something if Rory won't."

Lorelai sighs and grabs her daughter's hand. "My kids are crazy." She says, walking them away from the festival.

At the grandparents, the doorbell rings and Emily walks over and opens the door to a smiling Lorelai and Lauren.

"Lorelai, Lauren, it's so nice to see you." Emily says looking at her watch.

"Sorry we're late, Mom."

"No, don't be sorry." Emily closes the door. "Lauren, hello, how was your trip to California?"

"Hey, Grandma." Lauren always felt awkward around her grandmother. "It was great. Nice and warm."

"Yeah, Mom, look at her tan." Lorelai says, picking up Lauren's arm that is a bit darker than her own.

"How lovely." Emily says, not even looking. "Richard, Lorelai and Lauren are here!"

"Uh, Mom, before we get the evening started, I wanna tell you something."

"Well, tell me inside."

"No, I'll just do it right here."

"Why?" Emily looks at Lauren who steps back to the door and puts her hand on the knob incase they needed to run out. Richard walks out of his office. "You're being silly. You don't discuss things standing by the door. Come on."

"I may have to take one more call tonight, Emily. Ben Stellen and I got cut off. Hello, Lorelai. Hello, Lauren. I am so glad you're back." He says, as Lauren hugs her grandpa, happily.

"Hey, Grandpa. I'm glad to be back."

"Well, come outside with us until he calls back. Lorelai's about to tell us something." Emily says.

"Oh." Richard says, very intrigued. "Perhaps that she's decided to buy an accurate timepiece."

"Oh, stop, Richard." Emily and Richard laugh while they walk towards the back. Lorelai looks at Lauren who simply shrugs, not knowing what to do. "Is Rory okay?" Emily asks, looking at Lorelai as they walk.

"Oh, yes, Rory's fine. Everything's fine. It's really not that big of a deal." Lorelai tells her.

They walk out onto the back patio. "What would you ladies like to drink?" Richard asks, politely.

"Whatever." Lorelai shrugs.

"I can't read minds, Lorelai."

"I really don't care, Dad. Whatever you have."

"I'll just take water, Grandpa." Lauren says sitting down at the table next to her grandmother.

"Now, go ahead. Tell us."

"Oh, you sure you don't want to hear more about Lauren's trip?" Lorelai asks, suddenly becoming shy of the subject.

Lauren looks at her grandmother and smiles. "We will." Emily promises. "First I want to hear your news."

"Okay, well-"

"Wait just a second." Emily gasps. "We brought you both something from Martha's Vineyard."

"Oh, that's great. Maybe we could just-" Emily grabs the gifts and puts them in their laps. "I guess it's present time." Lorelai says smiling at her daughter.

"Grandma, you really didn't have to get me anything." Lauren says.

"Nonsense. Open it." Emily insists.

Lorelai opens hers and chuckles. "Scone mix. Wow!"

"This new little place opened down the road from our house and they make these wonderful scones. And that is their mix so you can make them right in your own kitchen."

"Well, thanks, Mom. I will put this on the counter and stare at it for many years to come."

"You're not gonna make them?"

"I'm not much of a baker."

Lauren could see where this was about to go so she quickly jumps in. "You know, Grandma, I started doing a lot of stuff around the house and helping Luke at the diner. How about I try making it?"

Emily smiles, gratefully. "Oh, well, good! Please tell me how they come out."

"Sure thing." Lauren looks at her mom who winks at her. Lorelai knew Lauren was just trying to prolong the subject of Christopher and was absolutely grateful for her.

"Now, Lauren, go ahead and open your's." Emily rushes her. Richard walks over and puts their drinks down before sitting down on the other side of Emily.

Lauren opens her gift and takes out a small box. She opens it and reveals a lightly jeweled locket. "Oh, wow. It's beautiful." She says in awe showing her mom.

"Well, Lauren, your birthday is coming up. We were going to wait to give it to you on that exact day, but we just couldn't wait." Emily explains.

"I love it, Grandma."

"Your grandfather picked it out and just insisted that we get it for you."

Lauren smiles at Richard. "Thanks so much, Grandpa. I love it."

Lorelai puts the necklace on her daughter's neck. "Yeah, Dad. Great taste." She says, honestly.

Richard smirks with embarrassment. "I'm glad you like it."

"Okay, well, what is it that you wanted to tell us." Emily says, waiting to listen.

Lauren looks down at her locket hanging on her neck. "Maybe I shouldn't have put it on yet." Lauren whispers.

"Okay, um, it's about Christopher." Lorelai begins.

"That reminds me. We got him a captain's hat." Emily tells her. "Richard, where is that hat? Lorelai could bring it to him."

"No, I can't." Lorelai says, quickly.

"Why not?"

"Well, it's just..." Lorelai looks at Lauren who is nodding her head for her mom to continue. The faster she got it out the faster they can get the thought of Lorelai and Chris getting married. ...Chris and I aren't-"

"Aren't what?" Richard asks.

"They aren't together anymore, Richard." Emily says with disappointment.

"Why not?"

"I'm sure a vague reason is forthcoming."

"It just didn't work out, that's all." Lorelai tells him.

"And there it is."

"I know you're disappointed."

"Disappointed? Please." Emily says with anger in her voice. "Lorelai, this is ridiculous. The two of you aren't in high school anymore."

"I know."

"Let's not talk about this." Richard mumbles.

"No, we are going to talk about it." Emily says, sternly. "You're running around like you have responsibility in life, like you can flit from thing to thing."

"That's not true." Lorelai grimaces.

"..from man to man."

"I don't flit from man to man."

"You have daughters, Lorelai. This affects Rory and Lauren, too."

"Emily, you're wasting your breath." Richard tells her.

Lauren sat there wondering why Emily always talked about them like they weren't around. Did she not realize that she was sitting right there listening. Lorelai looks at her daughter who is looking down at her necklace. She really did not want to discuss this in front of her, but she had to finish it. "I know this affects Rory and Lauren." Lorelai argues back. "I'm not doing this lightly. In fact, I'm not doing anything at all!"

"There's no reason to raise your voice."

"I can't believe this."

"I want to know why. I want a reason." Emily tells her. "I don't want any of this 'just because' and 'it just didn't work out' nonsense. I want a solid, adult reason why the father of my grand-daughters and their mother can't seem to put a family together."

"His girlfriend is pregnant!" Lauren yells, standing up. She was so tired of her grandmother always taking her dad's side. Lorelai looks up at Lauren surprised at her outburst.

Richard and Emily sit there stunned. "What?"

Lorelai grabs her daughter's arm and gently pulls her to her. "Sherrie's pregnant." Lorelai says. "When Christopher found out he went back to her. And that, Mother, is the reason."

"Are they getting married?"

"Probably."

"Of course they're getting married." Richard says.

Emily turns to her husband. "How do you know?"

"I know Christopher, and Christopher always tries to do the right thing."

"The right thing is for him to be with his family. Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are this family. He met this woman two minutes ago."

"I am going to go inside." Lauren tells her mom. Lorelai nods her head and watches her daughter walk into the house. She felt bad for always doing this to her girls. Why did her parents have to make a big deal about everything. It already was.

"Emily, he is going to be a father." Richard reminds her.

"He already is a father!"

"I really really don't want to discuss this anymore." Lorelai tells them. "Especially not with Lauren just around the corner."

"Lorelai, you have to talk to him." Emily begs.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Tell him you want to get married."

"Please, stop."

"Yes, Emily. Please, stop." Richard begs. "You know that Lorelai never does anything unless she wants to, no matter the consequences to anyone else."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Lorelai wants to be with Christopher." Emily tells her husband while he walks to fix his drink. "She told us that at the wedding."

"Yes. Now the wind has changed."

"Excuse me?" Lorelai asks. She couldn't believe that her parents were bluntly talking about her in front of her!

"Christopher is fulfilling his duties as he tried to do many years ago with Lorelai. And she turned him down and turned him away."

"I was sixteen." Lorelai says. Emily gives her a sympathetic look. "And the second time he didn't even try at all."

"If Christopher has found someone who will actually allow him to be a father to his own child, then that's what he's going to do."

"So you support this?" Emily asks Richard.

"I understand this."

"I am appalled by your attitude!"

"And I am shocked by your naivete. Did you really expect this to work out? Did you really have pictures of Norman Rockwell family Christmases dancing in your head?" Lorelai grabs her things and slowly gets up so that her parents don't notice her. "Lorelai had her change for a mily. She walked away from it. That was her choice. He has a chance to be a father. I applaud him."

Lorelai walks into the house where Lauren is sitting on the floor, listening. She had been crying and Lorelai instantly felt bad for saying that Lauren was coming home Thursday instead of Saturday as well. "Then you're an idiot." Emily tells her husband. Lorelai puts her hand out and Lauren happily takes it, lifting herself up.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm going into my study." Richard says.

Lorelai and Lauren, without anyone noticing, walk out of the house.

Back in town, Lorelai parks the Jeep on the side of the road. The festival is still going on so she figured she could at least enjoy something with her daughter. Lauren gets out of the Jeep and walks over to her mom.

"I'm going to go find Rory and Dean." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai nods her head. "Okay. I think I'm going to run into Luke's real quick and get some coffee. I'll meet up with you."

"Okay." Lauren goes to turn away, but Lorelai grabs her hand and pulls her back.

"Hey, you're okay, right?"

Lauren shrugs. "It's nothing I can't handle."

Lorelai nods her head and hugs her daughter. "But remember you don't have to handle it alone." Lauren nods her head against her mom's chest and smiles up at her before turning around and walking towards the festival. Lorelai turns to the diner and sees Luke cleaning up a bit. She walks over and goes right in. She stands there just looking at him.

"We're closed." Luke tells her.

"I know. Look, I didn't come here to make up or to try to get you to forgive me or talk. I wouldn't even have come here at all but I had a really crappy night and I really need a cup of coffee." Lorelai explains. She was really getting sick of this fight she and Luke had going on. It was getting frustrating that she couldn't even have breakfast or dinner or anything with daughters there. "Just pretend I'm not me." Lorelai slowly walks to the counter. "I'm Mimi, a new customer. I've never been in here before. I was just walking down the street, and I spotted this place." Lorelai reaches over, grabbing the pot of coffee, and her own mug. "Oh, hey, nice place. And I came in. Now Mimi is going to pour herself a cup of coffee and sit over here, way far away from you. And she promises just as soon as she's done she rinse out her own cup and leave." Lorelai takes a sip or her coffee. "This the second time I let myself do this."

Luke really wanted to ignore Lorelai, but he just couldn't. "Do what?" He asks, trying to seem like he wasn't interested.

"Think I finally found it."

"Found what?"

"Love, comfort, safety."

"Ah."

"I mean, first with Max, which, of course, I screwed up. And then with Christopher, which, of course all the elements of the universe got together to screw up."

"Yeah, it's tough when the universe is against you. That's like taking on the Manhattan garbage union."

"I always thought if he could just get it together, grow up, maybe we could do it. Maybe we could really be a family in the stupid, traditional, Dan Quayle, golden retriever, grow old together, wear matching jogging suits kind of way. And then he did get it together. He became that guy." Lorelai chuckles as she sniff back a few tears. "And he gets to be that guy with her. Chris is gonna have a baby with his girlfriend." Lorelai tells Luke. "He's gonna marry her. He's gonna be there for her while she's pregnant and he's gonna be there with her while their child grows up and he's gonna be there for her while she does...whatever it is she does. And I am in exactly the same place that I was in before."

"Is that so bad?" Luke asks. "I mean, you got Rory and Lauren."

Lorelai just lets her tears fall as she thinks of her two beautiful girls. "Yes, I do."

"You have friends. You got a house, a job, apparently an iron stomach."

"No, it's not so bad." Lorelai agrees. "I'm lucky, I know. I just...I feel like I'm never gonna have it. The whole package, you know, that person, that couple life. And I swear I hate admitting it because I fancy myself Wonder Woman, but I really want it. The whole package."

Luke grabs a donut and sets it on a plate. He puts it down on the counter and slides it to Lorelai. "You'll get it." He tells her.

"How do you know?"

"I know."

"How do you know?" She asks, again.

"Because I know, okay? Now eat your donut."

"I'm really not very hungry."

"Take it with you. You will be later." Lorelai gets up and grabs some money from her purse. "Forget it." Luke says, stopping her. "First time customers are on the house. Mimi, was it?"

Lorelai smiles at her friend again. "Yeah."

"Come again, Mimi."

"Thanks. I will. It seems like a very nice place." Lorelai walks out leaving Luke watching. They needed eachother no matter tried getting between them.

Back at the house, Lorelai and Lauren walk in and sees Rory unpacking her books in the living room.

"Hey, you're home." Lorelai says as they drop their stuff and walk in further.

"Yeap, I'm home."

Lauren hops on the couch. "Hey, Mom figured out how to get the Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer out of our heads. Just sing the Small World song over and over for the next 48 hours." Lauren laughs to lighten the mood.

"Of course, how to get the Small World song out of our heads, I have not worked out yet." Lorelai tells them. Rory just turns around and goes and sits by her sister on the couch. "Okay, that was not how that whole scene between us was supposed to go."

"No?" Rory asks.

"I mean, yes, I was surprised." Lorelai says, as she sits in front of them on the edge of the couch. "And I do think the basic sentiment of 'make up your mind' is kind of called for."

"Absolutely called for." Rory agrees.

"But I didn't mean to upset you, yell at you, and make you feel bad. I'm really sorry."

"I'm sorry, too." Lauren says. "I shouldn't have said anything. I guess going to the grandparents it what I get for doing that."

"Hey, that wasn't your fault." Lorelai tells her.

"You were right, though, Mom."

"That's once, I guess." Lorelai says, surprised.

"What happened at dinner?" Rory asks, thinking back to what Lauren said.

"So how was Dean?" Lorelai asks, ignoring Rory's question.

"How was dinner?"

"So how was Dean?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Williams sister take centerstage at Wimbledon once again." Lauren jokes.

"Dinner was bad."

"Sorry."

"That's okay. I knew it would be. But the good news is we can now go back to Luke's."

"You can go back to Luke's. We've already been there." Lauren reminds her mother.

"How did you make up?" Rory asks with excitement.

"Well, I'm Mimi now." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh, sure." Rory acts like she knows what her mom is talking about.

"Speaking of Dean, is there still a Dean?" Lauren asks.

"Yeah." Rory smiles. "There's still a Dean."

"Really?" Lorelai asks.

"I don't know what I was doing. Maybe it's because I haven't dated a lot, but this Jess thing was crazy. And I do love Dean, and you were absolutely right. I was treating him like dirt. And I wasn't appreciating what was right in front of me, but I'm going to now."

"Rory, I don't want you to stay with Dean because of me."

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Yeah, please don't." Lauren says, poking her head in the middle of them.

Rory laughs and puts her arm around her sister. "I know." Rory tells her mom.

"I was upset earlier. I still have this Christopher thing bugging me and tonight's dinner tension."

"I know."

"I didn't want to upset you, and I don't you to make an important decision-"

"Mom."

"It's too important." Lorelai continues. "I just want you to be happy."

"Mom, all I did was think about what you said. That's all. Then I analyzed the situation."

"Then you made a pro and con list." Lauren says.

"You're mocking me. But, yes, I did." Rory says. "And after this, I decided that I want to make things good with Dean. And he deserves my undivided attention."

"And you feel good about this?"

"I feel really good."

"Okay, because if you decided you really did want to date Jess I would help you get vaccinated."

"Thank you, but I'm good."

"Alright. As long as you're good."

"I am good."

"Okay, good."

"What about you, Mom? Are you good?" Lauren asks, worried.

"Me? Well, I'm gonna be good." Lorelai tells them.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Rory asks.

"Your existence is a huge help." Lorelai says, lovingly.

"We're all gonna be good." Lauren gets up and sits in the middle of her mom and sister and putting her arms around them both.

"Yeah." Lorelai agrees.

"Hey, Mom." Lauren says, smirking. "I'm hungry."

Lorelai knew exactly what her daughter was thinking. "Hand me my purse, will you?" Lorelai asks Rory.

Rory grabs it and hands it to her mom. Lauren quickly takes the bag out. "Scones?" Rory questions.

"Come on!" Lauren grabs their hands and they laugh running into the kitchen.


	43. Run For Your Life

_Well, first let me just say how upset I am right now. I was halfway through with it and my computer shut off without anything being saved. So, now, I know you guys weren't able to read what I had, but I will say it may have been better than what I just wrote. But thanks for reading, guys. Keep reviewing and continue being awesome! (:_

It is Friday night and the girls are at the grandparents. Emily, Lorelai, and Lauren were all sitting there quietly and had yet to say a word since they've been there. Rory was looking around, helplessly, trying to figure out how to make them all talk again. It was her first night back since she had been gone and was hoping for some good conversation.

"This is nice, isn't it?" Rory asks them. Emily turns her head and Rory looks over at her mom and sister, who both had their arms folded and just staring straight ahead. "So, Grandma, Grandpa is travelling again?"

"Yes, he is." Emily says, simply.

"Business must be good."

"Seems to be."

"That's great." Rory looks over at Lorelai and nudges her a little. "Isn't that great, Mom?"

"A jig is forthcoming." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"Mom's business is great, too. I mean, not that it's without its problems, you know, but they're usually funny problems, like, oh, Mom, why don't you tell Grandma about the mouse."

Lorelai grimaces at the thought of even speaking, but Emily was suddenly interested. "What mouse?" She asks.

"Mom?"

Lorelai sighs. "There's a mouse at the inn."

"Is the place dirty?" Emily asks.

"No. It's just surrounded by this thing called nature and mice happen."

"Mice carry diseases."

"It's a tiny little field mouse, Mom."

"I don't care how big it is. It's still a rodent."

Rory grabs her drink and sips it happily. She didn't care if they were arguing, as long as they were speaking to eachother. "Let's change the subject." Lorelai begs.

"You should set a trap."

"Got it covered."

"Make sure you don't use poison."

"Got it covered."

"They'll eat the poison, go into the walls and die, decompose, and the entire place will smell."

"I've got it covered, but thanks."

"I just don't know why you're the one sitting here with an attitude." Lorelai looks at Lauren who was still sitting there ignoring Emily. Lorelai wasn't even upset by the fact that Emily and Richard were talking about herself and how many times she had screwed up with Chris and were actually still taking Christopher's side even when none of this was her fault. She was upset because they didn't care that they were discussing it around her twelve year-old daughter who already had daddy issues with Chris from the beginning. "I'm the one who should be mad."

"Let's not do this. Okay, Mom?"

"You're the one who walked out last week without saying a word."

"Because I couldn't get a word in."

"Your father and I were shocked and upset."

"So what else is new?"

"You didn't give us five minutes to digest the news."

"Please, find the off switch." Lorelai whispers to Rory.

"You simply dumped it on us and walked out. I hardly think that's fair."

"Mom, it doesn't matter. It's over. Let's just move on, okay?" Lorelai begs her. She didn't want to have this fight again in front of Lauren, let alone, her other daughter, too. "We came here to have a nice evening. So come on, let's have it."

Emily continues sipping on her drink and Lorelai grabs a newspaper from the coffee table and begins reading it. Rory looks around, trying to think of something to break the silence again. "Something smells good." She says, smiling.

"Braised lamb shank." Emily tells her.

"Oh, braised lamb shank! I love a lamb shank when it is braised. Don't you, Lauren?" Rory asks her little sister who hadn't said word since they got in the car to come here. Lauren just continues looking forward, ignoring that side of the room.

"Oh, my God." Lorelai says, still looking at the paper. Rory and Lauren turn their mother to see what she was looking at.

"Reading in front of other people is extremely rude, Lorelai." Emily says, sternly.

"Shauna Christy shot her husband." Lorelai says, surprised.

"What?"

"Remember Shauna Christy?"

"Yes, I remember Shauna Christy. She was a lovely girl."

"Well, apparently, this lovely girl came home to find her husband giving the nanny a nice bonus package. And they say good help is hard to find." Lorelai tells her daughter making them chuckle.

"That's just gossip."

"Gossip? The man was shot thirty-five times. He looks like a sprinkler system." Lorelai hands the paper to her mother to show her.

"I can't believe this. Shauna was always such a nice girl. She was bright, cultured, well-spoken-"

"And apparently a big Annie Oakley fan."

"This is not funny." Emily tells her, unamused. "The woman commited a crime."

"Fine."

"This is a tragedy."

"My bad. Sorry." Lorelai says, trying to calm her mother so it doesn't even up an unnecessary argument.

"A man is dead, a young woman ruined."

"Consider the subject dropped."

"At least she had a husband to kill." Emily says, smugly.

Lorelai and Lauren both turn to Rory with unpleased looks. "This is nice, isn't it?" Lauren asks, sarcastically. Rory just turns away, smiling. At least Lauren said something.

At the diner, the place is filled with people, including the gilmore girls, minus one, having coffee. Lorelai kept continuously sneezing since she walked in.

"Bless you." Rory says, handing her mom a kleenex.

"Thank you. Ugh. I hate having a cold."

"I know you do."

"It's bad enough being sick, but anybody can have a cold."

"I know they can."

"I mean, I'd like to have a good illness, something differen, impressive. Just once I'd like to say: 'Yeah, I'm not feeling so good. My leg is haunted."

"See, there's a reason why you only take one packet of Theraflu at a time."

Luke walks over with their breakfast. "Pancakes, one fried egg, side of bacon. Chicken noodle soup, side of mashed potatoes."

"Thanks, Luke." Rory says, digging right into her food.

"Thanks." Lorelai says.

"How's the cold coming?" Luke asks Lorelai.

"It's fine." She lies.

"Any better?"

"It's fine."

"It's the third day you've ordered soup for breakfast."

"Oh, thanks for the tally."

"Know what helps cure a cold?"

"Endless vague questioning in the morning?"

"A healthy immune system."

"My second guess."

"Know how to get a healthy immune system?"

"Remember when you hated me? Wasn't that fun?"

"Is it eating nothing but crap all day and blowing out your brain cells with coffee?" Luke continues.

"No." Rory says.

Lorelai glares at her daughter.

"That's right. No."

"Why are you helping him?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"'No' seemed like the right answer." Rory tells her.

"Eat a vegetable now and then, some high fiber cereal in the morning-"

"Listen, Grandpa, my soup's getting cold."

"At least eat the carrots this time, not just the noodles."

"I promise."

Lauren runs into the diner in her soccer gear, dirt smeared across the face, but a smile with it. "Guess who is in the lead to play small forward this year?" She asks them with excitement.

They all turn to her and smile, but Lorelai and Rory had no idea why they were smiling. "You?" Luke asks, surprised.

"Yes!" Lauren jumps up and hugs Luke quickly.

"That is great, Lauren! I am going to make you a big breakfast."

Lauren shrugs and sits on on the other side of her mom. "Don't worry about it, Luke. I had a kit kat on the way here."

Luke looks at Lorelai. "This is your fault." He says, before turning away.

"Eat my carrots." Lorelai tells Lauren as she pushes her bowl to her.

"Apparently maturity is extremely overrated in your universe." Rory tells her mom.

"That's right. The Empress Bobo Bell forbids it."

The girl that Jess was making out at the festival walks into the diner and goes right over to Jess. "Hi." She says, before reaching over the counter and making out with him again.

"Hey." He says. "Give me a sec." Jess walks to the back.

Rory and Lauren were sitting there watching the whole thing. "Wow." Lauren says. Jess walks back in and looks at Rory. "Let's go." He and the girl leave the diner.

"Ladies and gentlemen, an entire conversation in ten words of less." Lorelai jokes.

"A true meeting of the minds." Rory says, before taking a sip of her coffee.

Lorelai turns back to her youngest remembering her news. "So, what is small forward?" She asks.

Lauren's smile reappears again. "It means that I will most likely do all the scoring and pretty much all the stealing when possible." Lauren explains.

"Which means you're the one that will probably get hurt first." Rory says.

Lorelai looks at her daughter with worry. "No. You can't mess up that beautiful face."

Lauren shrugs. "It's not for sure yet. Coach just asked me what I thought about it and of course I said I'd be happy to do it."

"Well, I'm proud of you." Lorelai tells her even though she was scared out of her mind.

Dean walks in. "Okay, don't be mad at me, but I already had breakfast." He tells them.

"See?" Rory says, pointing to her boyfriend. "Nice, full sentences."

"What?"

Lorelai smiles up at him. "Don't ruin it."

At the inn, Lorelai and Michel are looking into the fireplace.

"You're sure?" She asks him.

"Positive. It ran across the lobby and into the fireplace." Miche tells her.

"I don't see it."

"It must have found a hole to crawl into."

"We can't have this mouse running around. Customers will freak."

Michel stands up. "Well, tell them it's a baby. People love babies. They'll talk to it in funny voices."

"Did you call an exterminator?"

"What a wonderful idea. I was actually going to fasten a wedge of cheese to my head and lay on the ground until Mickey gets hungry and decides to crawl out and snack on my face."

"When does he get here?" Lorelai asks, sensing the sarcasm.

"He said we were the first stop."

"Well, what do we do until then?"

"Make cat sounds."

Kirk walks into the inn, holding a large package in his hands. "Excuse me, Lorelai."

"Hey, Kirk. Hold on a sec." She turns back to Michel. "Just stand here and make sure it doesn't come out."

"Oh, goody! A promotion."

Lorelai rolls her eyes and walks over to Kirk. "Hi, Kirk. What can I do for you?"

"I have a delivery for Sookie." He shows her.

"Oh, wow! Anything good?"

"No, just some wedding photos."

"Great. She stepped out for a minute, but I'll take them to her." Kirk hesitates. "I swear, I'll give them to her." Kirk hands Lorelai the package. "If you want, I'll leave and find her and then I'll give them to her."

"No, that won't be necessary." Kirk tells her, but still continues to stand there.

"Okay. Well..."

"Lorelai, can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Sure." Lorelai says, feeling awkward.

"Could we sit?" Kirk asks, pointing to the couch.

"Sit? Sure. Let's sit." Lorelai follows Kirk over to the couch. "Is everything okay?"

"Okay?"

"Yes."

"With me?"

"Yes."

"Well, my mother has developed a condition. It makes her knees enormous." Lorelai gasps. "Yesterday, I spent all day cutting holes in her pants so she could sit. But other than that and the dyspeptic parrot problem, everything is fine."

"Well, good. I'm glad. Okay, well, I'm-"

"I was just wondering..." Kirk says, quickly.

"Yes? Wondering what?"

"We've known eachother for a good moment of time now." Kirk continues. "Our paths have crossed professionally and socially a number of times, all with relatively pleasant results. I was just wondering if you would like to have dinner with me." He asks, surprising Lorelai.

"Oh." Lorelai didn't know what else to say to Kirk.

"In two weeks."

Now Lorelai was really confused. "Two weeks?"

"I heard you have a cold. I think two weeks is enough to ensure the virus it out of your system."

"Well, Kirk, I..."

"You don't have to answer right away. I know this is completely out of the blue for you. Take a few days and think about it." Kirk gets up and begins walking to the door.

"Kirk, wait." Lorelai stands up to follow him.

"By the way, I think you might be the prettiest girl I've ever seen outside of really filthy magazines."

"Thank you." Kirk walks out and Lorelai sighs turning, going towards the kitchen. She passes Michel is laughing after hearing their conversation. "Don't." She warns him.

"I am doing nothing." Michel says, continuing to laugh.

In Rory's room, Rory is waking up and jumps up when she sees her mom sitting across the room in her chair just looking at her.

"How long have you been sitting there?" Rory asks.

Lorelai just smiles at her daughter. "Not long. An hour-and-a half."

"Why?"

"Because." Lorelai shrugs.

"Because why?"

Lorelai stands up and walks over, excitingly, to her daughter. "Because today is the last first day of high school you're ever gonna have." She sits down next to Rory on her bed.

"You're insane."

"I'm not insane. I'm just sentimental, and you're grown."

"I'm not grown."

"Yes, you are. You're all grown up, and soon you'll be going off into the world."

"Not yet."

"But soon. And after you spread those wings and fly away I won't have the opportunity to give you this." Lorelai hands Rory a folded piece of paper.

Rory smiles, opening up the paper, thinking it is something good. "What is it?"

"It's your bill."

Rory's face drops. "My what?"

"Yeah. I've been crunching the numbers, you know, adding up what you've cost me over the years, raising you, clothing you, feeding you, etc, etc, etc. Yes, I've itemized everything here by years and income ratio. I thought you could factor it into your student loans."

Rory glares at her mom. "Oh, boy." She hands the paper back to Lorelai.

"One thing that's painfully obvious here: you've used an extraordinary number of diapers."

Rory throws her blankets over and gets out of bed. "I'm gonna go take a shower." She says ignoring her mom.

"Really, it's cost a fortune. What were you using all those diapers for?"

"I was building my make-Mommy-go-away castle. You know, this is also Lauren's first last day of Junior High before she goes to high school. Why aren't you bothering her?"

Lorelai takes out another piece of paper from behind her. "Oh, don't worry. I have one for her right here. I have a list of things for her, too, and then I'll just add some more when she has her first last day of high school. I'm going to go in there in exactly..." Lorelai looks at the clock. "..twenty minutes. Okay, so you got home late last night, and I couldn't talk to you."

"I got home at ten, and you were already asleep."

"Well, Lauren and I were trying to watch The Legend of Bagger Vance again."

"Okay, what did I miss?"

Lorelai stands up in front of Rory and take a deep breath. "Okay. Kirk asked me out."

Rory starts laughing. "Shut up."

"Yesterday he came to the inn and asked me to dinner."

"That's so sweet."

"Sweet?"

"You should wear your dress with the ponies. I bet he likes ponies." Rory teases.

"You and Lauren are definitely sisters. Rory, I cannot go out with Kirk."

"Why?"

"Why? He's Kirk!"

"As long as he loves you.."

"You are not serious."

"We just want you to be happy."

"Hello, Headmaster Charleston, this is my stepfather, Kirk. Please don't make any sudden movements. He's a fear-biter."

"Okay, so how'll you let him down?"

"Don't know. That's why I need to talk to you. You're the nice one in the family. Lauren just told me to ignore him like I usually do."

"Well, tell him the truth." Rory suggests. "You could tell him you're not interested in dating him and just want to be friends."

"That sounds so lame."

"Tell him you're seeing someone."

"Yeah, because my current karma is so great in that area I can really afford to jinx it with that kind of lie. No."

"Okay, then you figure it out."

"Alright." Lorelai thinks. "We're gonna have to move."

Rory rolls her eyes, smirking. "Okay."

"Take off in the night and leave everything behind. Assume different identities. I'll join a local community theater and I'll drive Lauren to her journalism job and you to soccer. It'll work for many years, until the FBI comes to get me and by that time, you and your sister are on your own."

"Changing mine and Lauren's career's choices. Yeah, they'll never figure that one out." Rory laughs walking into the kitchen. Lorelai sighs and follows her into the kitchen to get Lauren's breakfast ready before she went to wake her up. Rory starts laughing thinking about her mom and Kirk. "Stop."

"It's funny."

"It's not funny." Lorelai whines. "It's bad. I have to see this guy. He works at every business in town. I can't get away from him."

"Well, then you should marry him and move in with his mother." Rory laughs. She grabs a bowl and some cereal. Lorelai grabs the marshmellows and they pour both in a big bowl.

"I'll handle it myself, thank you."

"Just trying to help."

"So you have your swearing in ceremony today."

"At three. Do not be late."

"I will not be late."

Rory starts pouring the milk. "I have something to tell you."

"Is it about Vince Foster?"

"It's about Grandma. She's coming today."

"No."

"Mom, I'm sorry. She found out about it. She called-"

"You said yes?" Lorelai asks.

"She's my grandmother. What am I supposed to say?"

"Say, 'Sorry, Grandma, but if my mother sees you she'll run screaming down the hall.'"

"You'll be sitting there listening to the ceremony. You hardly have to talk at all."

"Rory."

"Hey. We are family." Rory says, sternly.

"Yeah, well, look how great that worked out for Sister Sledge."

Lauren comes downstairs, looking very tired. "Mom?" She calls out.

"In here." Lorelai tells her. Lauren walks in and sits right on her mom's lap and grabbing some cereal with her hands. "You guys talk too loud."

Lorelai kisses her daughter gently on her forehead. "I'm gonna go take a shower." Rory tells them. "You'll be pouting here when I'm done?"

"No. I gotta go to work. I'll see you this afternoon."

"At three."

"Why are you pouting?" Lauren asks her mom.

Lorelai looks up and sees Rory shaking her head at her mom. "Uh, I have your first bill." Rory knews Lauren wouldn't want to go if Emily was there, and she really wanted her family there, so she had to go.

Lauren looks confused. "My bill?"

Lorelai hands Lauren a similar paper that she handed Rory earlier and Lauren begins opening it.

At the middle school, Lauren is walking down the hallways once again. She knew this would be the last time she would be in this building so she figured she'd better try to make the best of it and at least somewhat memorable. Elizabeth wasn't with her this year so she was now on her own. Lauren also had the biggest decision weighing down her shoulders this year, too. Chilton or Stars Hollow High? Good thing she had all year to think about it. While Lauren is walking to her next class, she passes by a sign up sheet on the bulletin board for writers for their paper. This was something Rory would do and Lauren didn't want to be like Rory. She was going to pass it up, but then a guy walks in front of her and signs his name. He turns to Lauren and gives her a quick smile before walking off again. Lauren stood there staring at him. He was so cute. Short blonde hair and somewhat muscular for his age had Lauren's heart beating faster than she thought it could. She hurries and signs her name before anyone could see her do it and also gave her time to look at the name right above her's. Holden Kramer. Hm, must be new. Lauren smiles and walks away. She could not tell her mom or sister or anyone what she just signed up for.

At Chilton, Lorelai and Lauren come running down the hallway, full speed, over to where Rory is standing and waiting.

"Time!" Lorelai yells.

"3:01." Rory tells them when the approach her.

"No! Oh, man! Not fair. Stupid traffic lights." Lorelai groans. She just told her daughter that morning that she wasn't going to be late and she was.

"That's okay. It doesn't start until 3:15."

"But I so tried...you lied to me." Lorelai realizes what her daughter did. She looks over at Lauren who is smiling.

"Did I?" Rory asks.

"You both did. You knew it wasn't until 3:15." Lorelai says, pointing to Lauren.

Lauren shrugs. "Maybe."

"That's it. I'm standing up in the middle of your speech and demanding a recount."

"Shall we seat you?" Rory asks, pulling her mom and sister into the room.

"Betrayed, lied to, and humiliated."

"Well, get use to it. Rory's in politics now." Lauren tells their mother.

"Hey, where's.." Lorelai asks, quietly, tapping Rory on her shoulder.

"She's not here yet." Rory whispers.

Lauren looks at the two clearly hearing everything because they were horrible at keeping secrets. "Who's not here?" She asks.

Lorelai and Rory continue walking, ignoring Lauren's question. "How's this?" Rory asks, pointing to the second row of seats.

"Fine." Lorelai says.

"Okay, great. Sit there, and put your purse on that chair to save it for Grandma."

"Grandma's coming!?" Lauren groans dramatically.

"Oh, yeah, great idea." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"Mom." Rory warns.

"Fine, yes. Saving the seat."

Lauren sighs and sits down on the first chair. "You're sitting next to her." She says, pointing to Lorelai. Lorelai sits down next to Lauren and puts her purse on the next chair.

"Thank you." Rory smiles, gratefully. "Now, I'll meet you both right outside afterwards, okay?"

"Okay. I just want you to remember three things while you're up there: I love you, you're the greatest kid in the world, and you're in a skirt. Keep your knees closed."

"Bye."

"Hey, this is good advice. When I was in school Linda Lee was class treasurer, and she could not keep her knees closed, if they were magnetized. Hanes should have given her an endorsement deal."

Rory rolls her eyes and walks away. Lorelai looks over at the seat she saved for Emily and thinks about taking her purse off. "This is what you get for hiding that Grandma was coming from me." Lauren tells her.

Lorelai rolls her eyes and takes her purse off the seat. She thinks about it a few more moments and goes to put her purse back when her name is called. "Lorelai." They look up and see Emily coming towards them.

"Hi, Mom." Lorelai says. She nudges Lauren.

"Hey, Grandma." Lauren says, a little quieter.

"You could have put your handbag there to save my seat, you know." Emily says, sitting down.

Lorelai looks at Lauren who simply turns away, smirking. The lights dim and the Headmaster Charleston begins. "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you. Assemblies like this are always happy ones for me initiating in a new group of school leaders. Chilton's always prided itself on the quality of its student government and this year, we may have outdone ourselves. These young men and women up on this stage represent the best and the brightest of what this school has to offer." Lorelai looks at her mother who is just sitting there watching. "Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present to you your Student Body Government of 2003. Everyone begins applauding for the kids.

Lorelai bends down to Lauren's ear. "Look around." She tells her. "This is where you want to be next year."

Lauren starts looking around the building they were in. "Yeah, maybe." She whispers hesitantly. Lorelai gives her a smile and returns to the stage.

Hours have gone by and each was giving a speech. Rory was now in the middle of her own. "...a larger awareness of the world around us. Problems that not only face us here at school but will face us when we leave school and, more importantly, will face the next generation that follows us. We must learn that our actions have consequences that someone else will have to clean up our mess. We must figure out how to make that mess a little smaller. If a small fraction of these things can be accomplished this year then I'll feel like our administration has done it's job. Thank you." Rory smiles and walks back to her seat. The crowd starts applauding again. Lorelai and Lauren smile proudly while Emily does the same but doesn't hide her boredness.

But then actually was getting boring. Paris was up now doing her speech and it felt like it was going on forever. Lorelai sat there waving her bulletin in her face, Lauren was resting her head on her mom's shoulder, and Emily sat there trying to get comfortable in her seat. It was not only boring, but awkward, too, considering Emily wasn't on good terms with her daughter and grand-daughter.

Finally, the kids were sworn in. "Congratulations and good luck." Headmaster Charleston tells them.

Out in the hallway, Lorelai, Emily, and Lauren are standing and waiting for Rory to meet them. Lauren kept figeting back and forth in her spot next to her mom and it was annoying Emily.

"Lauren, can you please be still?" Emily asks her. Lauren rolls her eyes and stops moving. "Is Rory coming out?" Emily asks, impatiently.

"That's what she said." Lorelai says. "It was nice ceremony."

"Yes, it was."

"Long."

"Very long." Lauren says, dramatically.

"The longest."

"Lorelai-" But before Emily couldn't say anything else Rory walks in.

"Hey." She says, going over to them.

"Rory, thank God." Lauren hugs her sister tightly. She was so happy that they were there so they could leave.

"Hey." Rory laughs. "Grandma, you're here."

"Yes, I'm here. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. You looked wonderful up there." Emily tells her, proudly, as she hugs her. "Good job, Rory."

Lauren was still hanging onto her sister. "Yeah, good job with the knees." Lorelai jokes as she kisses her on the cheek.

"Thank you. I'm gonna run and get my backpack then we can go."

"I'll be here."

"Bye, Grandma. You want to come?" Rory asks Lauren.

"Sure!" Lauren happily follows her sister away from the tension.

"You know you don't have to wait, Mom, if you have things to do." Lorelai really didn't want to be left alone with her mother again.

"Oh. Alright." Emily goes to walk away, but turns back around. "Lorelai, I was wondering if we could have lunch."

"Lunch?" Lorelai says, a little surprised by the invitation.

"Yes, just the two of us."

"Oh, well..."

"Tomorrow would be good for me."

"Tomorrow. Lunch with you tomorrow."

"We could do it anywhere you like. Perhaps that Luke's Diner you three seem to love so much."

"Lunch at Luke's with you? I can't even put the visual together."

"I can meet you there at one."

"One."

"If one isn't good, you pick a time. I'll make it work."

Lorelai puts on a smile and nods her head. "Alright. One at Luke's."

"Wonderfull. I'll see you then."

At the middle school, Lauren walks up and down the hallway of where the newspaper was going to be taking place. She couldn't exactly get herself in there quite yet. She was nervous, and especially nervous to see Holden. Lauren looks through the window and sees a group of kids talking with the teacher, but she didn't see Holden. Lauren sighs and turns to walk away.

"Hey." Holden says, walking right up to Lauren.

Lauren looks at him nervously. "Uh, hey."

"You going in?" He asks.

"Um, yeah. I'm going."

Holden opens the door for her. "Well, after you." Lauren looks at him and then back at the door. Wow. No one has ever opened a door for her besides her grandfather.

"Thanks."

At Chilton, Paris is having her first official meeting as President. There are few of the student body kids there sitting around the table listening.

"The last administration might as well have run around yell 'toga' for all the brilliant things they accomplished. But this year, everything changes. Starting with the library. It's completely out of proportion with its subjects. I mean, there are 500 volumes on the French Revolution yet only three on the Crusades." Paris explains to the group while walking around the table. "How do they expect us to get a decent education with inferior resources like that?" Paris stops at Rory. Rory raises her arm to show Paris the time. "Huh." She says, looking at it. Everyone was completely bored with the long speech Paris was giving and Paris obviously wasn't getting it. "Seems like the hour's almost up. Okay, well, this has been an extremely successful first gathering. I appreciate all the class presidents coming and being on time. So, before I adjorn this meeting is there anything anyone would like to say?"

"People's names might have been nice." Rory tells her.

Francie stands up. "Actually, I have something I'd like to put on the table to be discussed."

"Oh, okay. We only have a couple of minutes, so give us the Reader's Digest version."

"As president of senior class, a certain problem has been brough to my attention. For the past thirty years, Chilton regulations have stated that skirts must be no higher than three-quarters of an inch above the knee. That's it. Any higher, the student gets written up. I propose to put to an immediate vote an amendment to raise hemlines an additional inch and a half."

Paris was obviously surprised by this subject. Of all things, this girl was choosing hemlines to discuss. "Hemlines?"

"That's right."

"That's the major issue on the senior class's mind?"

"It's one of the major issues, yes."

"Well, okay. Thank you, Francie for giving us something really important to mull over. I antipate a lot of sleepless nights for many of the people in this room." Paris says sarcastically which didn't go unnotice by anyone. "I wll take it under advisement and get back to you as soon as I can."

"Oh. Okay. Fine. Thanks."

"Okay, if that's it, I officially call the first meeting of the student body presidents to a close. I'll see you all Friday."

Everyone begins getting their things and leaving. Rory walks up to Paris. "Okay, the whole point of having an informal get to know you gathering was actually to have an informal get to know you gathering."

"What's your point?"

"You just spent an hour talking about your agenda."

"I'm student body president. That's my job."

"But we got doughnuts. We didn't touch them. They are still next to the coffee that we never passed out. We were supposed to talk, bond, get to know eachother."

"Geez, Rory, we've been sitting in a room together for sixty minutes. What do you want? A ring?"

Rory ignores Paris' comment and walks away. Francie walks up to Paris. "Hi, excuse me, Paris. I just wanted to say on behalf of the entire senior class congratulations on your win. I'm really looking forward to working closely with you this year."

"Thanks." Paris says without looking up from her paperwork.

"Okay, see you later. Bye, Rory. You two are gonna make a great team."

"Yes. The jerseys are coming on Friday." Paris says, sarcastically while Francie leaves. "Okay, I'm gonna draft a demand for the librarian's resignation tonight. You want to read it before I send it?" She asks Rory.

"Are you sure the first thing you want to do in office is to get a 93- year-old woman sacked?"

"Hey, at least I'm not putting her on an iceberg and shoving her to sea. But since you can't find the Shakespeare section without psychic powers yet the Cliffnotes rack practically smacks you in the face on the way in is totally justified."

"And we're off."

At the Inn, Lorelai is doing some paperwork when Sookie walks in from the kitchen.

"Okay, I just got a message that a vegetarian menu was requested for tonight." She tells Lorelai with major disappointment in her voice.

"Yeah, Lasanos, party of five at eight." Lorelai explains.

"But I thought you said you weren't gonna let vegetarians in anymore." Sookie says, still looking at the note.

Lorelai laughs. "No, you said you weren't gonna let vegetarians in anymore."

"But I'm making my baked stuffed pork chops for tonight."

"Well, just make something else for the Lasanos."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Pasta. You make great pasta."

"That's boring. Anyone can make pasta. I'm an artist. You don't dictate to an artist. You don't tell them what to do. No one walked up to Degas and said: 'Hey, Pal, easy with the dancers. Enough already. Draw a nice fruit bowl once in a while, will you?'"

"A great artist can make art out of anything, including pasta."

Sookie sighs. "Fine, pasta." She grumbles.

"Is there coffee?"

"Just made some."

"Great."

"Oh! Today's your lunch with Emily. Any idea what she's gonna say?"

"I bet it's not, 'I'm joining the circus. Feed your father till I get back.' I should just cancel." Lorelai says, annoyed. Emily was already ruining her day and she hadn't even seen her yet.

"You can't. You're meeting her in an hour." Sookie reminds her.

Lorelai and Sookie begin walking to the kitchen. "I know. But this goes against every rule I have in the Gilmore Survival Guide. Number 1: No running with scissors. Number 2: No pageboy haircuts. Number 3: Never ever have lunch alone with the mother."

"It might not be so bad."

"Saying yes to this lunch is like saying, 'Sounds fun!' to a ride with Clemenza."

"Think good thoughts. She could surprise you."

Lorelai groans and makes herself some coffee. "I guess."

"People change, you know. They do it everyday. I mean, one minute you could be, let's say, a vegetarian. And the next minute you could accidently have a bite of a stuffed pork chop that changes your entire way of thinking." Sookie laughs.

"Sookie." Lorelai scolds.

"Suddenly life's fun. Suddenly there's a reason to get up in the morning." Lorelai follows Sookie around while she rambles. "It's called 'bacon.'"

"Forget it."

"Come on!"

"Pasta." Lorelai tells her while turning away to the kitchen door.

"Let the people grow, damn it!" Lorelai laughs and leaves out the kitchen to go meet up with for the dreadful lunch with her mother.

At the middle school, Lauren is looking through all of the paperwork she got from the meeting for the newspaper. It was a lot to go through and a lot to memorize. Lauren couldn't help but wonder how Rory got through it the way she did. But Lauren did have someone else on her mind. Holden. Lauren couldn't help but look like a creep during the meeting because everytime Holden would look up at her she would quickly look away. Was she really having a crush right now? This was so new to her. She didn't know how to handle it. Holden was just sitting there so cute and tall with the perfect smile and the perfect hair. NO! Lauren wasn't like this. She couldn't act like a girl right now. Lauren sighs in frustration.

"Hey." Holden walks up to Lauren and sits down next to her. Lauren sat there wide eyes, nervously. Holden was really sitting here talking to her right now.

Lauren looks at Holden and smiles. "Uh, hey."

"So, your name is Lauren Gilmore?" He asks. Lauren nods her head slowly. "I'm Holden. I seen you in the meeting for the newspaper."

Crap, was all Lauren could think right now. Maybe he saw her staring at him like a weirdo. "Uh, yeah. I am."

"That's cool. I don't mean to be weird or anything." Weird? Lauren was being weird. "But I've heard your name a lot since I've got here." Lauren looks confused. "You're Rory Gilmore's little sister."

"Ah." Lauren says, finally understanding now.

"I don't know her, but everyone talks about her. They say you're on the newspaper because your sister was."

"Hey, look.." Lauren starts to explain, but Holden stops her.

"I know it's not true. People like to talk." The bell rings. "I have to go, but I'll see you around, Lauren Gilmore." Holden smiles at Lauren once last time before walking away.

Lauren couldn't even think about moving. Holden was so nice. He was so perfect. He was the only one who didn't know Rory, and even by what everyone was saying about her, he still wasn't judging her. Lauren closes her things up and takes a deep breath. "What am I doing?" Lauren repeats again to herself.

At Chilton, Rory is walking down the hall to her next class when suddenly someone pulls her into the restroom unexpectantly.

"Rory, hi." Francie says. "Nice of you to join us." The three girls are surrounding Rory's way out.

"Francie.."

"No, I talk." Francie interrupts, rather rudely. "Okay? Great. Now let's discuss Paris."

"What about her?"

"She seems to have this strange idea that she's actually in charge around here and I thought it would be good if I let you in on a little secret. She's not."

"Why not tell her this yourself?"

"Because talking to Paris is like shopping for a bathing suit in December: frustrating, fruitless, and a complete waste of time. No. You. You might be the wallflower, but you're obviously the Meyer Lansky behind this organization."

"I am not the Meyer Lansky."

"What's that noise?" Francie asks, sarcastically. "Oh, wait! It's me still talking. Didn't you hear it? Obviously not." Rory rolls her eyes. "Anyhow, Paris is studeny body president. Big fat deal. There are three other class presidents: the junior class president, the sophomore class president, and, oh, yes, the senior class president: me."

"I know all this."

"Then it's off the short bus for you. Now, if Paris think she's gonna march around dictating mandates and ignoring what I have to say, then she's in for a major bikini wax."

Rory grimaces. "Thanks for the visual." She says.

"Without me, she's nothing. Just another power-mad, insecure, friendless, dateless, highlightless loser wandering and trying to make someone care that they exist, which no one does. I control the senior class. I am also the leader of the Puffs, the most exclusive society on this campus." Rory was standing rather bored and annoyed with this conversation. "I have the power to make her life a living hell."

"Francie, she's just-"

"I can ensure she does nothing but lead the students in whatever version of the Pledge of Alliegiance is constitutional at the time."

"What do you want me to do?" Rory says, raising her voice.

"I want you to go back to Margaret Thatcher and tell her to play ball. She's gonna support the hemline issue and any other issue that I bring up for the rest of the year. Otherwise, I'll make her so ineffectual she'll make Jimmy Carter look like Martin Sheen. You get me?"

"We should be representing the interests of the students. We're not supposed to be brokering back door deals and pushing through agendas with intimidation and bribery. I mean, what are we, French skating judges?"

"Wise up, Goldilocks."

"My hair's brown."

"This is politics." Francie reminds Rory. "If you've got a problem, tell it to Noam Chomsky. I live in the real world. Now, blow." Rory turns around, relieved that this conversation is over. "And I would keep this conversation between you and me. Paris tends to get a little paranoid when there's other mammals at the watering hole. So her finding out that you were conferring with me might not make your vice presidency easy."

Rory turns back around to face Francie who was trying to put this all on her. "I am not conferring with you. A hand pull me into the bathroom."

"What are you talking about?" Francie chuckles. "You sought me out because you thought Paris was out of line today and you wanted to make sure my very delicate feelings weren't hurt. You are so sweet to think of me. I feel much better now that I have you on my side. Bye now. See you at the hemster." Rory rolls her eyes and leaves the bathroom.

At the diner, Lorelai walks in and stops right at the door looking around for her mom. Luke comes from the other side of the diner looking confused when he sees her.

"What are you doing here?" Luke asks.

"I came for the warmth."

"It's just that you're not usually here this time of day, that's all."

"I'm meeting someone for lunch."

"Kirk?"

"What?" Lorelai asks, a little taken back.

"You meeting Kirk?"

"Why would you ask that?"

"I know he asked you out, so I assumed."

"How do you know he asked me out?"

"He told me."

"He told you?"

"Yesterday."

Lorelai couldn't believe this. Kirk had the whole town knowing already. "Oh, my God." This was not going to make her decision any easier.

"Relax. I think it's great." Luke says, smiling.

"Why? Why would he tell you?"

"Actually, he came to me for advice."

Lorelai grimaces as she walks to an emtpy table. "About what?"

"About whether or not I thought he had a shot with you. Afterall, I know you. I've been to your house. I know if you have stain-resistant rugs."

"I'm lying down now." Lorelai puts her head down on the table in embarrassment.

"When he found out you had wood floors, he seemed very pleased."

"Oh, Luke!"

"I told him you liked movies and junk food, and, of course, talking incessantly. But we both agreed that there's nothing like some good loving to shut a person up."

"I'm sorry." Lorelai picks up her fork. "Can you bring me a sharper fork? I'm not sure this one may not go all the way through your hand."

Luke takes the fork and looks seriously at Lorelai. "Now, I know it's new, so you probably don't want to jinx it. So I won't talk about it anymore." He jokes. "But I have to tell you, seeing that guy's face when he talked about you he almost had an expression."

"Far away from me!"

"Love is in the air." Luke sings as he walks away. Lorelai throws a spoon at him just as Emily walks in.

"Why are you throwing cutlery in a public place?" Emily asks with disapproval in her voice.

Lorelai straightens up and looks at her mom. "Cause I feel stupid doing it at home."

"I'm sorry I'm late. There was traffic on the way. Perhaps, if I'd been on time, there'd still be the possibility of soup."

"I haven't been here that long. See? I still have a knife." Lorelai smiles, showing her mother the knife.

Emily fakes a smile. "I'm glad to hear it."

"So, are you gonna sit?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Emily pulls back the chair and makes a digusted face when she looks down at it. She grabs a wipe from her purse and begins wiping the seat before sitting on it. "There we go. Well, this is nice. You certainly can see the whole town from here."

Lorelai smiles while looking around as well. "Yes, you can." She agrees.

"I can see why you come here so much. It must be fund to just sit and people watch. Well, let's see what they've go, shall we?" She asks as she starts looking through the menu. "Oh. Caesar salad. Is that good here?"

"I'm sure it is." Lorelai shrugs.

"You never had it?"

"No."

"Has Rory?"

"No."

"Lauren?"

Lorelai thinks for a second. "Nope."

"Oh. Well, caesar salad can be extremely unsafe if they use bad eggs."

"Get something else, Mom."

"If they're coddled, it would be fine. Do you know if they coddle the eggs here?"

"No idea."

"You don't know? You come here every day."

"Why don't you ask Luke?"

"Oh, he'll just say they are. I'll have a Cobb salad. What will you have?"

"Caesar salad with extra uncoddled eggs on the side." Lorelai jokes.

Emily rolls her eyes. "Really, Lorelai? Would a serious answer once in awhile kill you?"

"I'm sorry, Mom. Honestly, I'm a little confused."

"About what?"

"About this." She says, pointing to the two of them together at the table in the diner.

"What's confusing? We're having lunch."

"I know we're having lunch, but we don't usualy have lunch especially not in my town at Luke's diner."

"Well, I just figured since you had to work, it would be easier this way."

"Okay. That's fine."

Luke walks up to them ready to take their order. "You two ready to order?"

"Yes. How is your caesar salad dressing prepared?" Emily asks.

"I'll have to call Paul Newman and ask him."

Emily looks at Lorelai, displeased, as Lorelai was holding in her laughter. "A Cobb salad and an iced tea."

"Cheeseburger, fries, onion rings, and a cherry Coke." Lorelai tells him.

"Any pie today?"

"Mmmm, no thanks."

"Cutting back? Trying to look good for the big day?" Lorelai smiles at Luke's teasing. "Smart. Very smart."

"Make sure you check the frying oil with your face."

Luke chuckles and walks away. "What was that all about?" Emily asks, confused.

"Nothing. Just a little small town charm. Now please, Mom, tell me why did you ask me to lunch?"

"Because I wanted to spend some time along with my daughter."

Lorelai smiles knowing that was the reason. "Mom."

"Rory drops by after school every now and then so we see her alone. But we never see you alone, or Lauren, because she goes to school here, unless Rory leaves the room for a second. And even then, you and Lauren are trying to go with her. If I had a nickel for every time you've used the 'girls go to the bathroom together' line I'd be a very rich woman."

"You are a rich woman. Mom, please, is this really a me and you lunch? No hidden agenda?"

"Of course not."

Lorelai was surprised, but she decided to not go any further with it if this was true. "Okay. Fine."

"I talked to Christopher. "

And there it was. "What?" Lorelai asks, her face dropping at that name.

"I called him last week. We talked for a long time, and I have to tell you he is not in love with that woman."

"Oh, God."

"He never actually said it, but I could tel from his voice. He would much rather be with you, Rory, and Lauren."

"Are you out of your mind?"

"You need to talk to him."

"And that would be a yes."

"All he needs is to hear that you want this, too."

"Mom, what the hell are you doing calling Christopher?"

"Well, somebody had to."

"No, somebody didn't have to."

"I certainly wasn't going to just sit by and watch this situation explode. You two belong together. It took you years to figure that out." Lorelai takes a deep breath trying to control her anger. "Now that you finally have it, you can't let it go away just because of a little complication."

"Mom, his girlfriend is pregnant. That is more than a little complication."

"Women have gotten pregnant since the beginning of time, Lorelai."

"Before I resort to the totally called for 'duh,' tell me what your point is."

"This woman is trying to trap him. You can't let that happen."

"Mom, this is none of your business." Lorelai stresses.

"Yes, it is. If affects Lauren and Rory, it affects you, all three of whom are my business."

"Do not get involved in this. I mean it. Butt out. Don't call Christopher and talk about me or us. Just stay out of it." Lorelai grabs her things and stands up.

"Where are you going?"

"I have to get back to the inn."

"Do not walk out of on me."

"Mom, I will not discuss this with you now or ever. I would love for you to respect that, but I know you. So give Christopher my love."

"A family life doesn't just happen, Lorelai. You have to work for it. You have to fight for it." Lorelai ignores her mother and walks out of the diner. "Lorelai, come back here."

At the middle school, Lauren is walking down the hallway with a ton of papers and books in her hands. A girl walks passed her and purposely pushes her against the lockers, making Lauren drop everything in her hands.

"Seriously?" Lauren yells at the girl who just keep walking and laughing with her friends. Lauren would usually turn around and follow the girl just so she could knock her out, but instead Lauren just took a deep breath and started picking up her things. Afterall, it was just the first week of school. Holden walks up to Lauren and starts helping her. "Holden, you don't have to help."

Holden continues helping her, though. "No, it's okay. What happened?"

Lauren fakes a laugh. "I'm just really clumsy." She lies.

Holden looks at one of the papers and sees that it's about Rome. "Rome, huh?"

Lauren shrugs. "Yeah. I'm doing a piece on it."

"So you like to travel?" Holden asks, smiling, while they stand up.

"Yeah, I do. My mom and sister, and I are going to take a backpacking trip to Europe when my sister graduates."

"That's so cool. Well, it's a good thing Mr. Richards has you doing the travel section, right?"

Lauren nods her head. "Yeah, I guess so." She laughs. "You're doing sports, right?"

"Yeap. I'm a big football and baseball fan."

"That's cool. I play soccer for the school."

"Really?" Holden asks, surprised.

"What? Didn't think I could play a sport?" Holden looks away embarrassed. "It's okay. I didn't think I could either until Coach asked me to try out. Sucking at sports kinda runs in the family."

"Well, then, I'm going to have to check out your games just to see how good you really are."

Lauren blushes. "Great. Well, I guess I better go. I need to reorganize this again." She says, looking down at the pile in her hands.

"Okay." Holden says as he watches Lauren stumble away.

At Chilton, Rory and Paris are hosting another meeting with the presidents.

"As soon as she's out of intensive care, we'll get her signature, and then we can finally set about hiring a new libriarian." Paris tells the group. "Anything else?"

"Yes." Louise says. "I was thinking this year we should throw a beginning of the school year dance. I mean, why wait till the tan fades to have a formal?"

"Dances are distracting."

"Dances help bring in money for the stupid topiaries you want in the quad."

"Draft a proposal and have it on my desk by tomorrow." Madeline raises her hand. "Madeline."

"I would propose that a profession photographer take the senior class photos. Every year we use that cheesy picture place and every year people wind up with those VH1 Before They Were Stars pictures. I, for one, would like to stop humiliation now."

"How are we going to get a professional photographer?"

"Helmut Newton is my godfather." Louise tells them.

"Sign him up. And tell him to leave the whips and chains at home. Alright, I think that's all we have time for today."

"Excuse me, Paris." Francie interrupts. "I was just wondering if you had time to think about my proposal?"

"What proposal?"

"You know, the higher hemlines."

"Oh, right. No, not yet."

"Okay. I guess I can wait." Francie looks over at Rory. "For awhile."

Rory rolls her eyes. "Patience is a virtue. Meeting adjourned." Paris says, dismissing them.

Francie continues to stare at Paris while everyone begins leaving. "Hey." Rory says to Paris.

"What do you think of Helmut Newton being Louise's godfather?" Paris asks, impressed. "Explains a lot, doesn't it?"

"Listen, it might be a good idea to consider getting behind this hemline issue."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No. I mean, if girls want to make their skirts a little shorter, who cares?"

"I care." Paris tells her. "I'm building a legacy here, Rory. You want the first stand I make against the faculty to involve fashion? It would be my 'gays in the military.'"

"I think it would be smart to establish goodwill among the other class presidents."

"Why?"

"Because you have to work with them and you might even need their support in the future. And throwing them a tiny bone like a hemline amendment is no big deal."

"I don't know."

"It's at the beginning of your term. No one will remember the first thing that you passed. You have plenty of time to establish your legacy. I mean it. By the time that you implement public executions for line cutters, hemlines will be a thing of the past." Paris looks up, curiously. "I was making a joke, not a suggestion."

"Why do you care?"

"What?"

"Why do you care? You seem very invested in this whole thing. Why?" Paris asks, confused. This wasn't like Rory to want to actually consider stuff like this.

"Hey, I'm not invested." Rory says, defensive. "If you don't want to do it, fine. I'm just giving you my opinion. I just thought you might want to be one of those presidents that beloved as well as respected."

"Raising hemlines would make me beloved?" Paris asks.

"It's certainly a step in that direction."

"Alright. I'll push it through."

"Good." Rory says relieved. Now Francie was going to finally be off her back.

"But the next genius with a brilliant plan to put an Elizabeth Arden in the chemistry class can bite my ass."

At the house, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are all dressed up for Friday night dinner. Lorelai walks downstairs, not at all thrilled to see her mother when Rory walks into the living room where Lauren is sitting in front of the coffee table looking through all her papers.

"I'm not going." Lorelai says.

"You are going." Rory tells her.

"She's done this to me for the last time." Lorelai complains. "From now on, I'm not telling her anything about my life at all."

"As opposed to everything you've told her in the past."

"I can't believe she called Christopher." Lorelai grabs her keys from the table. "She has no respect for my feelings or privacy."

"She didn't think that. She thought she was helping."

"Why are you always defending her?" Lauren asks from the floor.

"Can we all just try to forget this?" Rory asks them.

"I'm never going over there again."

"Not an option." Rory says, following her mom to the mirror so that she can put a necklace on her.

"It should be. Sometimes you have to cut people out."

"She's your mother."

"I want proof. I want tests done."

"You want your red purse or blue?"

"Blue." Rory walks over to the couch and grabs the purse behind Lauren who sighs and hits her head on the table with frustration. "Geez. I wonder who else she's calling. She must be talking to Kirk now. 'I heard you're taking my daughter out to dinner. Let's talk china patterns.' God, I'm furious."

Rory rolls her eyes at her dramatic mother and looks at Lauren. "Hey, what's got you so annoyed?"

Lauren quickly looks up at her sister. "Um, nothing." She hurries and closes her notebook before Rory starts being nosey. "Just school stuff." She stands up and grabs her coat. "Shouldn't we get going?"

The phone starts ringing. "Don't get that." Lorelai tells her girls. "It might be her."

"I doubt she'd call when we'll be over in half an hour." Rory says, turning back to her mom.

'Hello?' Kirk's voice says on the machine. Then he hangs up. Lorelai and the girls look at eachother.

"The answering machine confused him." Lorelai says. "And that's the guy who likes me. Ugh. My life stinks." Lorelai suddenly gets excited and grabs both her girls. "Hey, let's all look into eachothers eyes and say, 'I wish I were you,' at the same time. Maybe we'll pull a Freaky Friday."

"That would be really confusing if all three of us change bodies." Lauren says.

"Or we can pretend like we did, and you can go around acting really immature. Oh, wait-" Rory says, sarcastically.

"Why won't you both switch bodies with me?" Lorelai sighs.

"Forget it, Mom. Then Rory will have to date Kirk, and I would have to deal with Paris. It will suck for all of us."

The phone rings again. 'Lorelai?' Kirk's voice says through the machine again. 'I just called. There might be a problem with your phone.'

Lorelai hurries and grabs her things as if Kirk was going to be there soon. "My, God." She groans. "Let's go." Kirk is still talking while Rory and Lauren laugh following their mom out of the house.

At the Gilmore's, the doorbell starts ringing incessantly. Emily walks in, drink in hand, looking agitated.

"My god." She says, before opening the door.

Lorelai and her girls walk in. "I don't think your doorbell's working." Lorelai tells her.

"Believe me. It's not the doorbell." Emily says, closing the door behind them.

The maid walks in. "Oh, so it was the door."

"Yes, Sarah. Once again, it was the door."

"Okay, so I just have to remember that the big bell is the door and the small one is the oven."

"Yes, that would be a wonderful thing to remember." The maid smiles and walks away. "Okay. Let's have a drink, shall we?"

They start walking towards the living room. "So, Grandma, you have a new maid?" Rory asks.

"Yes, I do." Emily says, finishing her drink.

"Good thing we're in time for happy hour." Lorelai jokes.

"Wine, Lorelai?" Emily asks, as she stands by the drink bar while the girls sit down.

"Yes, if there's any left."

"Soda or water?"

"Soda, please." Rory says.

"Water." Lauren tells her.

"What's up, Mom?" Lorelai asks.

"Nothing."

"You seem tense."

"You always think I seem tense."

"Tonight you seem tenser than usual."

Emily hands them their drinks. "Well, I'm not." She says, in an annoyed voice. Lorelai was suddenly in a good mood now since her mom was in a bad one. "Rory, tell me about school?" She asks, while sitting down herself.

"Okay. School's good." Rory tells her.

"Do you like student government?"

"I think so."

"Lauren, are your grades still good?"

Lauren nods her head. "Yes."

"Do you take any physical education at that school?"

Lauren looks at Lorelai. She wasn't sure if she should tell her grandmother about soccer. "Uh, yeah, sorta."

"Well, what kind do you do?"

"She plays soccer, Mom." Lorelai smirks.

Lauren nudges her mom. "When did you start playing soccer?" Emily asks, surprised.

"Um, last year."

"So you had a whole year of soccer and your grandfather and I had no idea."

Lorelai looks at Lauren who was starting to look bad. Yeah, Lauren wasn't fond of her grandmother, but she never wanted to hurt her feelings. "Mom, she just wasn't sure if you'd enjoy going."

"They're kinda long games." Lauren adds.

Emily grabs some more wine and pours it into her cup. "Lauren Gilmore, you are my grand-daughter. I enjoy going to whatever you and your sister participate in. I am your grandmother afterall."

"Sorry, Grandma." Lauren says, sincerely.

Lorelai taps her daughter's leg lovingly. "Her next game is in two weeks, Mom. It's actually their first one this year. You and Dad are invited if you want to go."

Emily thinks about it for a second just staring at the two. "I will have to check our schedules." She says, turning away.

Lauren sighs into her mother's shoulder. They could never win with them. The maid walks back in with a big smile on her face. "Dinner's ready!" She announces.

"Sarah." Emily begins. "I told you we eat dinner at seven. And right now, it's 6:30." The maid nods her head. "Therefore, one could conclude that maybe it's just a tad early for dinner."

"Oh, I'm sorry-"

"We want to eat at seven!" Emily interrupts.

"But the food's ready now."

"Okay." Emily says, giving up. "Nevermind. We'll eat." Lorelai slaps her daughters legs in shock. "We're eating. Up, up. Let's go." Emily orders them. They get up and follow Emily towards the dining room. "It's fine. It's better. Then we can all be in bed by nine. Sit down."

"Mom, tell us what is up right now." Lorelai asks as they sit.

"What is up with what?"

"With you and her. With you and her."

"Well, she's new, Lorelai. She's only been her three days. She's still getting the hang of things. I think it's only fair to give the woman a chance." Lorelai was still confused. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Mom, you've had maids deported who were better than her."

"I have not."

"Talk."

Emily sighs. "Your father made a crack the other day about my not being able to keep a maid. Of course, it's a gross exaggeration. Yes, I've had maids I haven't liked, but I've also had maids I've loved."

"Name one." Lorelai tests her.

"Daiha." Emily smiles.

"Who?"

"You remember her. She took you shopping once."

"How old was I?"

"I don't know."

"Guess."

"Four, five."

"Mom, you haven't liked a maid since I was four or five?"

"I have lied a maid. You asked me whom I've loved. I loved Daiha."

"And whatever happened to Daiha?"

"Oh, how should I know? But I loved her."

Lorelai looks at her girls who start laughing. "Okay. Salad?" The maid asks bringing in two plates.

"Thank you, Sarah."

The doorbell starts ringing. "Big bell." Sarah turns around with the salad plates still in her hands and walks to the door.

"Sarah, the salads. Sarah!? Pass the wine, Lorelai."

"You want a straw with that?" Lorelai jokes as she hands her mother the wine bottle.

"You're enjoying this?"

"Well, yeah."

Christopher walks in. "Lor, I need to talk to you."

They all turn around surprised to see him. "Chris, what are you doing here?"

"You won't return my calls."

"Did you do this?" Lorelai asks Emily.

"I knew you'd be here."

"I did not." Emily tells her quickly.

"You gave me no choice."

"After I told you to stay out of it." Lorelai says, still believing Emily was behind this.

"Lorelai, I did not do this." Emily stresses.

"You have to go." Lorelai tells Chris.

"I'm not going until you talk to me." Chris begs her.

Lorelai gets up and pushes Chris towards the front. "Christopher, Lorelai, come back here." Emily yells.

Rory and Lauren watch them leave. "Why won't you call me back?" Christopher asks once they reach the front door.

"Hey, this could be the worst time for this conversation." Lorelai says to him.

"Really? It seems to be the only time to have this conversation."

"Look, go home, okay? I promise I will talk to you tomorrow."

"Well, sure, I believe that." Chris says rolling his eyes.

"Hey, I've never lied to you. There's no reason to doubt my word." Lorelai says, getting upset.

"Really? Forty five unreturned phone calls isn't a reason?"

"No, it isn't."

"You shutting me out like this is wrong."

"I'm not discussing this with you here in my mother's house."

"You don't get to dictate this." Christopher argues. "I need to talk, you won't call back, I did what I had to do. Sorry, but after all we've been through in the last few months, you shutting me out is wrong. And you know what hits me the hardest?"

"Apparently, it isn't the door on your way out."

"You keeping Rory and Lauren from me."

"What?" Lorelai gasps.

"I never thought you'd do that."

"I am not keeping Rory and Lauren from you."

"Then why haven't they called me back? I mean, no matter where you and I have been in our lives my daughters have always called me back. Until now."

Rory storms into the room behind her mom. "I didn't call you back because I didn't want to." She yells at him. Lauren runs in, but stops at the doorway watching on. She was surprised that her dad was even there and surprised that Rory was the one yelling at him. Emily walks up behind Lauren, keeping her hand on her shoulder so that she doesn't move. "Me! Mom had nothing to do with it."

Lorelai's face softens when she looks at her upset daughter. "Honey, calm down."

"You promised us at Sookie's wedding that this was going to work that you were gonna be there. You promised us!"

"Honey, please understand." Chris begs her.

"No, I always understand, and I don't want to understand. I don't even want to talk about this right now. Lauren and I have Mom. That's all we need. Go be somebody else's dad."

"Don't say that."

"I'm going upstairs. Call me when he's gone." Rory runs passed Christopher and up the stairs.

Christopher sighs and looks behind Lorelai where Lauren is standing with tears streaming down her face. She was really angry at her dad for ruining everything, but this time she didn't have to yell at him for it. Her big sister fought for the both of them. Lauren walks passed them intending to follow Rory. "Lauren." Chris goes to grab Lauren's arm, but she jumps back.

"Don't touch me." She yells, running upstairs to her sister.

Christopher turns back to Lorelai. "They did not get ther by themselves!"

"Hey, have you ever met your daughters?" Lorelai asks, completely shocked herself by Rory's outburts, but she was not going to let Christopher blame her for this. "They can get anywhere by themselves. They could get to the third dimension by themselves. Rory was helping the crossing guard when she was four."

"I'm going to talk to them."

Lorelai grabs Christopher's arm and pulls him back, away from the stairs. "No, you're not. They want to be alone and cool off. Respect that. I'll talk to them later."

"Great. That makes me feel a lot better."

"Okay. You need to leave. Right now." Lorelai opens the front door.

"This isn't right." Chris continues to argue. "They need their father."

"I know they need their father! I've been telling Lauren that ever since she could talk. But they feel like their father bailed on them. They are mad and hurt. I can't change that in three minutes!"

"You think I like this situation? Do you? After what you and I had going and now-"

"Chris, do you remember why we're here right now? What events in your life caused this very pleasant moment we're sharing?"

"That has nothing to do with this."

"What?! What? Chris. Man! What do you want from me?" Lorelai begs.

"I want to talk!"

"About what?"

"I don't know. I just...I don't like how things are."

"But that's how they are."

"I didn't want things to turn out this way."

"But I didn't want that!"

"Christopher, is Sherrie still pregnant?"

"Of course she is."

"Are you still with her?"

"Yes."

"Are you gonna marry her?"

"Yes."

"Then, honey, we are where we are. Accept it."

"I can't."

"Don't you understand that I can't talk to you because it hurts? Talking to you really hurts! Standing here right now is killing me, okay!? Don't you understand that?"

"Christopher.." Emily says, from behind them. "I think you'd better go now."

"Emily, I-"

"Leave now, please."

Chris sighs and looks at Lorelai one last time, who wasn't looking at him, and walks out of the open door, slamming it behind him. Lorelai looks up, gratefully, at her mom. "You know, you need a mask and a horse when you do that."

Emily smiles, but suddenly smells something in the air. "Something's burning." She hurries and runs into the kitchen.

Lorelai walks outside where Christopher is about to leave on his motorcycle. "Chris." She calls out. Christopher looks up at her, sadly. "Give it time." Chris nods his head and starts down the road.

After their dinner, Lorelai and her girls are walking down the street in Stars Hollow.

"Well, that was a fun night." Lorelai says sarcastically. "I haven't had that much fun since labor."

"Geez." Lauren groans.

"Seriously, ladies and gentlemen, is this on?" Lorelai acts like she is holding a microphone.

"I just can't believe he came over." Rory says..

"He misses you girls."

"He misses you." Lauren tells her.

"We're very missable." Lorelai jokes. "He loves you both so much. He didn't mean to-"

"No. He never means to, but he does." Rory interrupts her. She did not want her mom defending him for them.

"I'm not going to his wedding." Lauren says annoyed just thinking about her dad getting married.

"You don't have to." Lorelai assures her.

"Good."

"But you might. Later in life, when you're not so angry and you both make up with your dad as we know you will.."

"Rory will. I won't."

Lorelai puts her arm around her younger daughter. "Yes, Lauren Gilmore, queen of grudges. "But you both might be sorry you missed it."

"It's the wrong wedding." Rory says, sadly.

"Well, things happen for a reason."

"Since when is that your philosophy?"

"Since now. By the way, I'm also a communist."

"Really?"

"Yes, cause I look damn good in red."

"I'm starving." Lauren says, holding her stomach.

"Really? Could it be because dinner sucked?"

"Could be."

"Let's do mac and cheese." Lauren says, jumping excitingly.

"And tator tots." Rory adds.

"And those little pizza rolls." Lorelai says.

"And chili beef soup."

"After which, we will instal our own vomitorium. And add some cake. Let's be organized." Lorelai tells her girls as they stand in front of the market. "Be snappy, and if there's impulse buying, make it chocolate."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Lauren saloots her mom.

"Lorelai." Kirk calls out walking up behind them.

"Oh, no." Lorelai whispers. "Go on in."

"You sure?" Rory asks.

"I have to take care of this."

"Good luck." Lauren grabs her sister's arm and pulls her inside the market.

"Hey, Kirk." Lorelai smiles as he approaches her.

"I know you haven't made up your mind yet and I'm not here for an answer. I just need to know are you allergic to tuna?"

"Uh, no."

"Good. Thank you very much."

Lorelai stops him before he walks away. "Kirk, I have made up my mind."

"You have?" He says, surprised. "Already?"

"Yes."

"And it's fully formed?"

"Yes, it is."

"You don't need any other information?"

"No."

"Cause I could have my mother call you."

"Totally unnecessary."

"Okay. Then go ahead."

"I just got our of a really weird relationship and I know that sounds like a line, but it isn't. I'm just not fully over the shock of it yet and I never want to hurt you, because you're my friend and I like you. So I have to say no. I'm sorry."

"Was the tuna inquiry too personal?"

"Oh, no, I thought it was very thoughtful."

"You sure you won't feel like it anytime soon?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Well, at least I've asked. Goodnight, Lorelai."

Lorelai watches Kirk walk away.

In the market, Rory and Lauren are grabbing random things off the shelves quickly. They go to another aisle and hesitate when they see Jess standing there.

"Doing a little shopping?" He asks Rory.

"Yes." Rory tries to hurry in front of him but Jess puts his arm out stopping her. "Excuse me."

"Why the cold shoulder?"

"No cold shoulder. I just have perishables here."

Jess looks into their basket. "Oh, yeah. You want to get home before the beefaroni goes bad."

Lauren nudges Rory forward so they could get away from Jess. "Our mom's waiting for us." Lauren tells Jess, smugly.

Jess ignores her and catches up with them. "How was Washington?" He whispers into Rory's ear?

"Fine."

"Do anything interesting?"

"Nope. What about you?"

"What?"

"Anything happen? The summer, I mean."

"Nope."

"Really?" Rory asks, already knowing the answer.

"Really."

"So nothing happened this summer at all?"

Jess acts like he is thinking. "It was hot." Rory rolls her eyes and walks to the cash register. "What are you talking about, then?"

"Nothing."

Lauren stands back and continues to watch the two. "Her name's Shane." Jess tells her.

"As in, 'come back?'"

"Yeap."

"Great. That's great. Really, it's great.

"So I've heard."

"It is."

"Are you upset about something?"

Lauren decides that it was enough. She walks over and gets in the middle of the two of them. "Rory, I can pay for it. Go make sure Kirk hasn't kidnapped Mom."

Rory and Jess look down at Lauren in confusion. Lauren gives her sister a look and suddenly Rory was grateful for her sister interrupting because things could have gotten ugly. "Okay." Rory looks at Jess one last time then leaves.

Lauren stands there waiting for the casier to finish. Jess still hadn't moved from his spot. "So, what happened at Sookie's wedding didn't mean anything?" Lauren asks him while still staring at the cashier.

Jess looks down, surprised that Lauren even brough that up. "I didn't hear from her at all this summer. Or did I just miss the thousands of phone calls she made to me?" Lauren rolls her eyes at Jess' sarcasticness. "Did the postman lose all those letters she wrote to me? She kissed me and told me not to say anything, Lauren. Then she goes off to Washington and then nothing. Plus, she's still with Dean."

Lauren sighs. She knew Jess was right. Rory didn't put much of an effort into showing Jess that she was interested. "Yeah. She's still with him." Lauren says, sadly, as she and Jess watch Rory and Lorelai talk outside of the market.


	44. Hanging On

In the living room of the Gilmore Girls, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are sitting on the couch staring at the tv with smiles on their faces.

"This is sublime." Rory says.

"It was the golden age of television." Lorelai tells her.

"The music, the costomes, the sets." Lauren says, amazed.

"All cylinders were firing on this one, boy!" Lorelai laughs, pointing to the tv that had the Brady Bunch hour playing.

"Who knew that they all had such musical talent?" Rory chuckles.

"And such far out booty shaking abilities as well." Lauren jokes.

The mailman walks into the already opened door. "Mail, ladies."

"Thanks, Eddie." Lorelai says as Eddie leaves.

Rory gets up to get the mail. "Did you see that TV guide had this on their list of the worst 50 shows of all time?" Rory asks.

"I know! Who are they to judge?"

"I know, it's on my top 50 best."

'Yeah, right after Holmes and Yoyo and Hee Haw Honeys." Rory walks back over as she looks through the mail. Rory stops walking, staring at a big envelope in her hands. "Oh, Rory. Get back here, they're in clown suits and headed for the pool."

Lauren turns around and sees her sister's face. She nudges her mom to turn around. "Oh, my god!" Rory says. "It's here."

"What's here?" Lauren asks.

"My application to Harvard."

"Oh, my god!" Lorelai says. She and Lauren quickly run over to Rory's side to look at the envelope. "It's beautiful." Lorelai says, as she slowly touches the envelope.

"Impressive letter 'H.'" Lauren says, staring at the envelope as well.

"Oh, yeah, it's so.." Lorelai gasps.

"Very." Rory agrees.

"Can I hold it?"

"Be careful."

Rory slowly sets the envelope on top of her mom's hands. "Oh. It's heavy with importance."

"I feel dizzy."

"Are you sure it's not the sight of Robert Reed in the clown pants?" Lauren jokes.

"Oh, geez." Rory grimacing at the tv. "Let the record show that when my application to Harvard arrives we were watching The Brady Bunch Variety Hour."

"You don't lose points for that, do you?"

"I hope not. Man, this morning I was reading Dead Souls. It couldn't have come then." Rory grabs the envelope back.

"Well, we'll just tell people that's what you were doing and that Lauren was studying a big globe while I made us a spectacular lunch. They'll never know." Lorelai tells her.

"You can keep a secret?" Lauren asks, glaring at her mom, already knowing the answer.

"No, but there's always a first."

"Dead Souls, big globe, and lunch. Deal!" Rory agrees as they all shake hands on it.

In the kitchen, Lorelai is sitting at the table looking at the Harvard application while Rory is looking in the refridgerator for refreshments for the big moment.

"Come on, come on, I wanna get started." Lorelai says, impatiently.

"Hold your horses there little Miss Horsey Holder."

"Ugh. They're going to expect a higher level of wit at Harvard." Rory grabs a soda and begins opening it as she sits down next to her mom. "Oh, watch that drink!" Lorelai scolds.

"I'm nowhere near it."

"Well, keep it that way. This is an uncontaminated area. I even cleaned the table using something other than the sleeve of my sweater and spit."

"I love the image." Rory grins. "I'll be careful."

"Okay, here we go. First question." Lorelai gasps. "Oh, my god!"

"What?"

"What were you doing when you received this application counts for 50% of your eligibility."

"Stop."

Lane walks out of Rory's room looking very defeated. "I need help."

"What?" Lorelai asks.

"She's writing her 'Drummer Seeks Rock Band' ad." Rory tells her as she grabs the paper from her best friend.

"And it's not reading right to me. Could you guys look it over?" Lane asks.

"Let's see. 'Drummer with strong beat seeks into The Accelerators, The Adolescents, The Adverts, Agent Orange, The Angelic Upstarts, The Agnostics Front, Ash.' You went alphabetically?" Rory asks, confused.

"It seemed tidy."

"And a little OCD." Lorelai adds.

"A little long." Rory says.

"I can't make cuts." Lane argues.

"It's three pages, single spaced. Make cuts." Rory hands Lane back her notepad.

"But this is the cut down version. Just from the letter 'A' I excluded AC/DC, The Animals, and A-Ha, footnoted as a guilty pleasure."

"If we can't get through it, no one can."

"Okay, I'll try to make cuts, but no guarantees." Lane walks back into Rory's room.

Lorelai looks back at the application. "Okay, 'Person information: State your full name.' Better not get that one wrong." Lorelai laughs.

"I'll try."

"And nickname, if any."

"That would be 'Rory.'"

Lorelai smiles at her daughter. "Or 'Droopy Drawers.'

"That was never my nickname." Rory laughs.

"Wrong, I called you that as a baby."

"What?"

"That's right. You had these little Oshkosh cords. And they were way too big, once they fell down to your knees, and I said, 'Whoa there, droopy drawers.' And I'm just afraid if we don't answer everything accurately the Harvard police will hit you with an atlas and say something mean in Latin."

"How would they know you called me that?"

"Well, we could be at a Hartford event, and I could slip up and say, 'Pass me a lobster puff, Droopy Drawers.' And they can hear me, and that'll be that."

"How about you don't drink at any of these Harvard events?"

Lauren comes in looking very frustrated. She is carrying a big binder and tosses it right into the trash. "I hate my life." She yells.

"That's the spirit." Lorelai grins.

Lauren rolls her eyes and walks back into the living room.

"Okay." Lorelai returns back to the application. "Parental information: Mother." She looks at Rory with a serious look. "Breathtaking."

Rory laughs. "I think they just want your name."

"Father. Ostracized. Siblings: One beautiful beautiful sister!" Lorelai yells so that Lauren hears her.

"Yeah, yeah." They hear Lauren mumble.

"Personal statement."

"The essay, the big kahuna." Rory sighs.

"You can evaluate a significant experience that's had an impact on you. How about that time your drawers drooped?"

"Enough of the droopy drawers."

"Or you can write about a person who's had a significant influence on you."

"You?" Rory asks.

Lorelai smiles lovingly at her daughter. "Or one of your authors. Faulkner."

"Or Sylvia Plath?"

"Might send the wrong message."

"The 'sticking her head in the over' thing?"

"Yeah. Although, she did make her kids a snack first. Shows a certain maternal instinct."

Lane walks back out. "Okay, I just crunched the numbers and at 2,000 words and 25 cents a word, this stupid ad's gonna cost $500! That's five months of Minwaxing at my mom's store. I give up."

"No, don't give up." Rory encourages. "Just cut down your influences to the important ones. Like David Bowie."

"Gotta have Bowie."

"But do you have to list every album he recorded plus your personal rating?"

"Maybe not."

"And what's with Jackson Browne making the lists?" Lorelai asks.

"Ah. Seem cool people know he's more than a hippie dippie folkie that he actually wrote some of Nico's best songs and was her lover before he bored us with Doctor My Eyes. That will separate the posers from the non- posers."

Rory hands Lane her notepad back. "Wax on, wax off."

"I hate this." Lane storms back into the bedroom.

"Okay, what activities interest you?" Lorelai reads.

"All of them except sports."

"I thought you were the lacrosse kid."

"Mom, a modicum of seriousness as we do this would be much appreciated."

"Hm, so, circle all of them except sports. Oh, they want a picture. How about the one of us sticking our heads through the carved out holes of Johnny Bravo and Spongebob Squarepants?"

"There's the seriousness I crave." Rory says, sarcastically.

Lane walks out again. "I'm going to have to crank the Ramones if I have to make deep cuts!" She yells before walking back in and turning the radio on.

"We'll move outside." Rory says.

"The outside's contaminated!" Lorelai yells as they run out onto the side porch.

At Luke's, Rory and Dean are eating as Luke refreshes their coffee.

"Thank you." Rory says politely.

"Do they let kids drink coffee before school?" Luke asks.

"Why? Do you think it might lead to harder stuff? Lattes, cappuccinos?"

"Forget I asked." Luke walks away.

"So, what are you doing Saturday?"

"Just my usual chores." Dean tells her.

"Your usual chores, John Boy?" She jokes.

"What else do you call 'house jobs?'"

"I call them 'the stuff you avoid until the Environment Protection Agency steps in.'"

"Why do you ask?"

"I thought we could see a movie or something."

"You're not free."

"How do you know?"

"Because you'll be working on your application."

"No, I'm not."

"Really?" Dean asks, surprised.

"It's not due for weeks, and I already picked my essay topic."

"Which is?"

"Hilary Clinton."

"Sounds perfect."

"I know." Rory says, proudly. "She's so smart and tough and nobody thought she could win New York, but she did. And she's doing amazing. Have you heard her speak?"

"Only when you've played me the thousands of hours of C-Span footage." Dean tells her.

"She's a great speaker. Strong and persuasive with a wonderful presence and even those suits of hers are getting better."

"I'd include that in the essay." Dean jokes.

Rory chuckles. "Anyhow, now that I have Hillary, all I need is a date for Saturday. Suggestions?"

"You're on."

"Great." Rory hurries and takes a sip of her coffee. "There's my bus. Kiss." She leans over and kisses Dean right on the lips. "And bye."

"Bye."

Luke walks by just as Rory runs out. "Fast runner."

"It's the coffee."

"Not your face?" Luke tries to joke.

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, just missed my youth for a second. I'm back. Coffee?" Luke looks up suddenly distracted by Taylor. He is outside standing in front of the building by Luke's and taking pictures. Taylor spots him in the window and tries to act like he is just taking pictures of random things around the square.

At the house, Lorelai walks into the kitchen and goes to take out of the trash. She sees the binder that Lauren threw out the night before. It was a rather big binder. Lorelai picks it up. It was heavy, too. She carries it to the table and opens it. There were a lot of things in there written about different places in different countries. Lorelai picks up one of the papers that is titled for the Stars Hollow Gazette for Stars Hollow Middle School. Lorelai starts smiling when she realizes that Lauren was now on the paper and she couldn't help but wonder why Lauren threw this away and why she was hiding it from them.

At Chilton, Rory and Paris are standing in the auditorium. They were holding seminar for the seniors and they were going to speak on behalf.

"Can I have your attention, we need the seminar started." Mr. Hunter, one of the teachers, announces as he stands on stage. "I'd like to bring up the organizers of this event, Paris Gellar and Rory Gilmore."

Everyone begins clapping as Paris and Rory make it up the stage and sit at their table. "Thank you, Mr. Hunter. Everybody, this is a seminar called 'The Business of Getting In.'" Paris tells everyone. "Its goal is to help guide us through the tortous process of applying to and getting into the right college. My panelists are Jim Romaine, Admissions Officer at Princeton University and Ivy League college consultant, Rose Samuels. Welcome, panel."

"Yes, welcome." Rory tells them.

"Now, panel, you're addressing a group of kids just beginning the stressful process of applying to college. Question. What is the biggest mistake a person can make on his or her application? Mr. Romaine?"

"Well, forgetting to send it in would be the worst mistake." He jokes. "But perfunctory answers would be high on my list."

"Explain." Paris encourages.

"I'm talking about run of the mill responses, a lack of originality, particularly in the essay category. If I read one more piece of prose about Hillary Clinton.." Rory quickly looks over frightened. "..and her profound influence, my head will explode." He laughs.

"I hear that." Rose agrees. "Sometimes a mistake like that comes from writing what one thinks an admission officer wants to read."

"Big mistake."

"And sometimes it's a lack of original thought."

"Just as big a mistake."

"Personal anecdote." Paris says. "When I was twelve, and I was writing the first of my trial essays in practice for the day I'd write my real essay, I chose Hillary Clinton." Rory looks over at Paris. She was so confused and worried now because she was going to choose Hillary. Now, she had no idea what she was going to do. "I realized every brain-dead bint in a skirt would be writing about Hillary, but it was good to clear the pipes. Now, what are some other mistakes?"

"Well, small things, but if your printing is bad, that says something we don't like. If your extracurriculars and volunteer activites are too by the book that says something we don't like." Mr. Romaine explains.

"Yes, those activites should have a personality behind them, a focus, a direction." Rose tells them. "I've seen applications wheres students have circled every activited listed." Rory was not even more worried. "Again, you're trying too hard here. One can't be interested in everything."

"They're the ones that've had college paraphernalia on their walls their whole lives." Mrs. Romaine jokes, but Rory didn't find that funny considering she was one of those people.

"Too hungry. It's a little immature."

"Interesting." Paris says. "Interesting. Rory, do you want to ask a question?"

"No." Rory says, quietly.

"What?"

"No. Thank you."

"Okay. So, how early should a student get an application in?"

"By the due date. Earlier makes no difference." Mr. Romaine tells her. "It's a complete myth that there's a benefit to be derived from early admission. I do think it's important to talk about the interview process. I believe it's an opportunity to weed out the hyper intense candidate."

At the Gilmore's, Emily walks into the living with Lorelai and Lauren following behind her.

"So, she's meeting you here?" Emily asks about Rory.

"Yeah, she had a thing after school, a rumble or something." Lorelai explains. "She said she'd be over after."

"A rumble?"

"A bunch of kids meet in an alley they pirouette, they pull knives. It's a whole to-do." Lorelai jokes.

Lauren walks passed them and quickly sits down. "So she's meeting you here?" Emily asks again.

"Yes, she's meeting us here. Where's Dad?"

"Tha magazines." Emily remembers and runs to the desk across the room.

Lorelai walks over to the couch where her daughter is sitting. "That was weird and unresponsive."

Emily walks back over with magazines in her hands. "These are college issues of various magazines. I've been collecting them for a couple of months now."

"Oh, well, Rory's probably seen all those but thanks, anyway."

"Have you read these?"

"No."

"Well, you should. I've unearthed some shocking statistics." Emily puts the magazines on Lauren's lap. "You need to read these, too, Lauren. You're going to be going to college soon."

"Yeah, in like five years." Lauren tells her as she stare at the magazines in her lap.

"Do you both have any idea how hot the competition is to get into a school like Harvard?" Emily asks, ignoring Lauren. She sits down in her chair as Lorelai sits down also and takes the magazines from her daughter.

"Oh, yeah." Lorelai says. "It's very hot, it's one of the top schools in the country."

"In the world! People from China, Russia, India. Children from every country apply to Harvard. There's more competition than ever before." Emily explains.

Lorelai shrugs. "Really, Mom, I know all this."

"With the dot com bust and the job market dwindling and the stock market going up and down like a yo-yo everyone knows the best chance for success and financial security is not just to go to college, but to go to a top college."

"Thank you. Got it. Appreciate the info." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"Every child that applies has the same high grade point average." Emily continues. "They've taken the same AP classes, and all are on the student council."

"They're not all that identical."

"One admissions officer said that he puts random stack of applications in the 'yes' pile and the rest in the 'no' pile because he knows it doesn't make any difference. He doesn't even glance at them."

"That does not sound real."

"And now it's the in thing for young Hollywood celebrities to go to universities. What do they call themselves? 'The brat pack?'"

"About a hundred years ago."

"They get into wherever they want based on name recognition. I was watching tv, and that insipid Kate Hudson was talking about going to a university. If she decides to go to Harvard, she'll get right in over Rory who we knew is more qualified."

Lorelai looks over at Lauren who has her head in her hand. Emily was not stopping and it was annoying them both and kinda making Lorelai nervous, now. "How about a drink, Mom? You want one? Cause I sure do." Lorelai gets up and goes to the drink bar.

"Lorelai, hold on here. What are we going to do about this?"

"Mom, there is no 'we.' It's 'me.' Me and Rory. That's the 'we.' I appreciate your concern and your prodigious research but it's all gonna be fine. Rory's special."

"Well, you know that, and I know that, but those idiots at Harvard may not necessarily know that."

"Can we talk about something else please?" Lauren begs.

"Hello?" Rory calls out from the front.

"Rory, thank god." Lauren sighs in relief.

"We're in here, honey, and hurry!" Lorelai yells.

Rory hurries in and goes over to her mom. "Hi, Grandma."

"Hello, Rory." Emily says, with worry. "You look flushed."

"I ran from the bus stop. I'm okay. Mom, hey, I've been trying to call you. Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Is something wrong?"

"No. I just need to talk to Mom about something. We'll be quick."

Lorelai grabs her daughter's arm. "Okay. We'll be back." Lorelai tells her mother and daughter.

They walk away and Lauren falls back onto the couch as Emily begins talking about colleges to her again.

In Richard's office, Lorelai and Rory walk in.

"I'm not getting into Harvard." Rory tells her.

"What?" Lorelai asks, quickly. "Who says?"

"I'm completely unprepared, and I have no original thoughts."

Lorelai sighs. "No, no, don't blame yourself, it's not you." Lorelai assures her. "It's those jerks at Harvard. I hate them."

"What?"

"It doesn't matter how qualified you are. Those lazy-ass admissions officers take applications and stick it in the 'yes' and 'no' piles without even glancing at them!"

"Well, it won't matter because my Hillary Clinton essay will be just like every other girl's essay because apparently, that's all we can think of. I'm a hack."

"Is it true everyone has the same GPA?" Lorelai asks. "How is that possible?"

"Because we all take the same classes and we all give the same perfuctory responses and I'm interested in too many things. I have to limit them. I'll circle travel. From now on, that's what I'm interested in. Travel."

"No, no, don't do that, no, because all those people coming from China and India and God knows where else are nuts for traveling. That's why they're traveling here. And jobs are dropping and dot come bombing and something's acting like a yo-yo. It's not good." Lorelai says in hysterics. "And over my dead body is Kate Hudson getting your spot. Let me just say that right now!"

"Mom, you're freaking out!"

"Yes, I'm freaking out!"

"Well, you can't freak out. I'm freaking out!" Rory's phone starts ringing. "Hello?" She answers.

"What the hell did Romaine mean about wedding out the hyper-intense?" Paris asks on the other end. She was freaking out just as much as Lorelai and Rory were right now. "He stopped just short of calling me by name. I'm losing it."

"Not now, Paris."

"I tried to throw the questioning over to you because I was about to heave, and you left me hanging. So I had to come home and heave."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Paris."

"Wait!"

Rory hangs up. "Okay, we gotta calm down here." Lorelai tells her.

"So, set an example."

"I'm human, too."

"My forehead is burning up."

"My heart is beating so fast. Gotta slow down."

"Okay, let's take a breath."

"Okay." Lorelai and Rory both take deep breaths and slowly let it out. "This freaking out is not good."

"It sucks!"

"If other can do this, we can do this!"

"Well, I'm not so sure anymore."

"That is unacceptable."

"Well, I don't want to accept it."

"Then we won't!"

"Then what do we do?"

"I don't know! We definitely need some perspective."

"I think we need therapy."

"And booze for those of us over twenty-one. Okay, are we calming? Are we less freaked?"

Rory thinks about for a second. "I'm totally freaked out." Rory admits.

"Hide it!"

"I can't hide it."

"Then prepare yourself for an evening of magazine recitations by Emily 'DJ Doommeister' Gilmore."

Rory nods her head. "I'll hide it."

Lorelai lets out a breath and a thankful smile as they walk out of the office.

The next day, Lorelai is drinking her coffee when the phone rings.

"Hello?" Lorelai answers. "No. Lane should be here any minute. Is this about the ad? Well, give me your number and she'll call you back. Okay, then, what's the number of the dude whose couch you're sleeping on? Oh! Dude doesn't have a phone? Try back later, dude. Thanks." Lorelai hangs up. "Rory, are you up? If not, get up!" Lorelai yells at Rory's closed door. The phone starts ringing again. "And where's Lane? She's supposed to be fielding these. Hello?" Lorelai answers once again. "No, she's not. May I take a message?" Lane suddenly runs through the side door of the kitchen. "Oh, wait a minute. Here she is. Hold on."

"Sorry." Lane quickly grabs the phone.

"It's okay."

"This is Lane." Lane says, walking to the living room when Rory comes out of her room.

"Hey." Lorelai says, when she sees her oldest daughter's sad face.

"Hey." Rory says back.

"What's up?" Lorelai asks, rubbing her daughter's hair gently.

"I didn't sleep so well." Rory sits down and grabs herself a donut from the box Lorelai got from Luke's.

"Poor thing."

"I'm fine. I'm just a little bummed." Rory tells her when she sees a huge binder sitting on the table in front of her. "What's that?" Rory asks.

Lorelai starts smiling which scared Rory a little. "I found this in the trash can when I was taking it out yesterday. It was what Lauren threw out after she said she hated her life."

"Ah." Rory remembers. "Well, what is it? It's bigger than her."

"Well, Rory, your little sister has been hiding from us that she has now joined the newspaper at Stars Hollow Middle School."

Rory looks surprised and starts smiling as well. "No way." She says, grabbing the binder and starts looking through it.

"I'm assuming she is in charge of writing about travel. Which is weird since she has done none."

"Yeah, but she wants to." Rory tells her, impressed by what she is seeing. "I wonder why she was going to throw this away. It looks like she took a lot of time to research."

Lorelai shrugs. "You never know with her."

Lauren comes into the kitchen dressed for school. "Why is Lane talking so loudly about music? Does she not realize that it is still morning?" Lauren asks, walking over to the table and grabbing a donut from the box.

"Well, hello, grouch." Lorelai jokes. She gets up and gently kisses her daughter on her head before going prepare some more coffee for them.

Lauren notices the binder in front of Rory. "Where did you get this?" Lauren asks looking very upset that her binder was on the table and not in the trash where she originally put it. "Did you go through my trash?"

Lorelai chuckles. "Uh, your trash it our trash, kid. No. I was taking the trash out yesterday and seen this. Don't you need this?" Lorelai asks.

Lauren rolls her eyes and walks to the pantry, grabbing some pop tarts. "Nope."

Rory and Lorelai look confused. "Lauren, why didn't you tell us you were on the newspaper?" Rory asks.

"Because I'm not."

"So, you did all of this for fun?" Rory points to the binder.

"I'm not anymore."

"Honey, what's up? You've been in a funk for a few days now." Lorelai asks, worried.

Lauren sighs. "It's nothing. I just don't want to be on the paper anymore. It's too much. And after the other day with Grandma I definitely don't need to be because I'm not going to college anymore." She jokes. She was going to college, but her Grandma really gave her a headache about it.

"Very funny. Sweets, this is a good thing."

"I'm done talking about it." Lauren grabs her bag and starts walking to the door.

Rory hurries and catches up with her sister. "Lauren, wait." Lauren turns back facing Rory. She did not want to discuss this, especially not with her sister. "You're not quitting just because I'm on the paper, are you, because that would be really stupid. You're a really good writer."

"Not everything is about you, Rory. I gotta go." Lauren turns back around and walks out of the house.

Rory walks back into the kitchen where Lorelai was looking through the binder now. "Hey, maybe insead of going to college you and Lauren should drop out, and I could quit my job and we could form an all-girl band with Lane, you know, like Bananarama?" Lorelai suggest, joking obviously. Rory starts nodding her head. "Honey, I'm just kidding. You gotta go to college."

"I'm up for anything at this point." Rory says, honestly. "I gotta go. I'll see you later." Rory kisses her mom on her cheek.

"Feel better, okay?" Lorelai hands her daughter another doughnut.

"I will."

At the middle school, Lauren closes her locker and heads down the hall to her next class when Holden runs up to her.

"Hey, Lauren."

Lauren gives him a small smile. "Hey, Holden."

"What's up? I haven't seen you in the meetings lately."

"Uh, I don't think I'm going to be on the newspaper anymore, Holden."

Holden frowns at this. "What? Why? I seen your first piece and it was really good. You made me really want to go to Rome." He laughs. Lauren doesn't say anything, she just continues walking. "Lauren, come on. Why not?"

"I just have a lot going on. I mean, I have soccer, and I seen my sister go through this. She is still going through this at her other school, and she barely has time to have a life. I want a life."

"You have a life."

"You don't know what I have. You don't even know me. You just started talking to me and now you think we're friends. But we're not friends, Holden, so stop talking to me!" Lauren yells and walks away leaving Holden staring there completely confused. Towards her classroom, Lauren sees the girls that have been bothering her lately. She decides to do just as the girl had been doing to her. Lauren walks over and 'accidently' pushes her making the girl's book fall on the floor.

"Uh, excuse me!" The girl yells.

Lauren turns around and fakes surprised. "Oh, it sucks, doesn't it?"

The girls huffs and runs over tackling Lauren to the ground.

At Luke's, it was a busy morning and Luke was taking orders from the counter.

"Hey, Tom, what's up?"

Tom closes the menu. "Nothing much. Get me a ham on rye, mustard, no mayo."

"You got it." Luke writes it down.

"Hi." A boy walks up the counter.

"You got money?" Luke asks him.

"Yes, sir."

"What can I get you?"

"Let's see, how about a nice cold egg cream?"

"A what cream?"

"An egg cream. A cold one."

"What is that?" Luke asks, confused.

"It's like milk and soda water with flavoring." Tom says.

"You're asking me?"

"Cold." The boy repeats.

"I heard that."

"We used to get them at Coney Island." Tom tells them.

"Go to Coney Island, kid."

The boy walks away just as another one approaches. "Sir, can I get something?"

"You got money?"

"Uh-huh."

"What do you want?"

"A black cow."

Luke growns. "Now, come on!"

"It's just root beer and ice cream."

"Root beer and ice cream?" Luke asks.

"Uh-huh."

"I can do that."

"As long as the ice cream's made the old-fashioned way, on the premises." The boy tells him.

"Now, wait a second."

Kirk walks in and stands on the other side of the boy. "Luke, can you whip me up something?"

"What, Kirk?"

"A chocolate phosphate."

"Okay, now, what the hell is this? Why do you want a phosphate?" Luke asks, getting frustrated with these kids and Kirk coming in wanting something he had no idea about.

"Because nothing says refreshment like a phosphate."

"This is Taylor, right?"

"I'm not at liberty to say."

Luke looks down at the little boy. "Then you tell me, and if you lie, you'll go to hell."

"He didn't say you'd get mad." The boy says.

"Come on!" Luke walks from behind the counter and grabs the boy and Kirk from their arms, dragging them out of the diner, and into the market where Taylor is.

"What is this?" Taylor asks.

"That's my question. Now, what the hell is going on?"

"I have no idea." Taylor lies.

"They're asking for phosphates, egg creams, black cows, and they already gave you up, so tell me what's going on."

"Who finked him?" Taylor asks looking over at the boy and Kirk.

Kirk points to the little boy. "Him."

"Snitch!" The boy yells.

"Well, you did."

"It's not the kid's fault." Luke argues. "What is this about?"

"You are so closed-minded to new things, Luke." Taylor explains. "That I decided to make an admittedly desperate attempt to convice you of the need for something that I think is a terrific idea."

"Which is?"

"An old-fashioned, turn of the century soda shop." Luke groans, grimacing at one of Taylor's once again crazy ideas. "It's just the kind of wholesome hang today's teens need to keep them off the streets."

"And our streets are so wild and out of control."

"If you ask me, yes, and I have proof." Taylor walks behind the register and grabs an envelope of pictures and hands them to Luke.

"What are these?"

"Surveillance photos of town goings on, the dark side of Stars Hollow, not a pretty picture."

"These are kids on skateboards."

"Slaloming around pop bottles right down the middle of the street and I'm telling you, Luke, if we don't quick furnish these skateboarding Z-boys with a moral distraction, they're going to turn Stars Hollow into Dogtown!"

"This is the space next to the diner." Luke says, pointing to one of the pictures.

"I know."

"I own the space next to the diner."

"I know."

"You want to open up the soda shop there?"

"It's the only one that's appropriate." Taylor says, defending himself.

"Taylor, no! No! No! And every day, from now on till the end of my life, I am going to come in here and say, "Taylor, no.' And when I die, I'm gonna have them freeze me next to Ted Williams and when they find the cure to what I died of and unfreeze me, my first words are gonna, 'How's Ted?' Followed closely by, 'Taylor, no!'"

"But the space is empty."

"Not for long!"

"And what are your plans for it?" Taylor asks, curiously.

"A skateboard and pop-bottle shop." Luke teases.

"That's not funny."

"With in-house experts to teach the craft of street slaloming."

"Still not funny."

"I'm not in a very funny mood!" Luke walks out of the market.

At the house, Rory walks in, tossing her bag next to the door. Lorelai is sitting in the living room.

"Hey." Rory says, smiling towards her mom.

"Hey, guess who I actually had a very nice productive conversation with today? Headmaster Charleston."

"You're kidding." Rory sits down next to Lorelai.

"No. I think we came up with a solution to our application anxiety. Wanna hear it?"

"I guess."

"Well, we spent the first ten minutes on him bugging me to volunteer for more stuff at school, or in lieu of that to make a donation to build the new basketball court and then another couple of minutes of me convincing him that what sounded like me going, 'Ha!' was really me clearing my throat, but after that, we had a very pleasant productive conversation."

"And?"

"He suggested setting up a meeting with a Harvard graduate, like a dinner or something. He even gave me the number of someone he knows."

"An alumni dinner?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Do they do that?"

"According to him, it's done all the time."

"Wow. It would be an opportunity to talk with someone who's been through it all and did it successfully. You can ask questions, get some perspective. It seems perfect."

"Sounds a little weird."

"Yeah, a little." Lorelai agrees. "But I'll go with you, and we'll bring Lauren. God knows she could use some inspiration, and what's the wrost that can happen? We're bored and we blow a meal, but if this person can help, then that's a good thing."

"I do have some questions. A lot of questions."

"Well, let's call him." Lorelai says, happily.

"Now?"

"Yes, there's no time like the present." Lorelai pushes Rory up off the couch and they walk to the phone. "His name is Darren Springsteen of Westport, Connecticut. Harvard class of '74. Ask if he has a brother named Bruce."

"I'm not gonna ask him that." Rory starts dialing the number. "It's ringing." Rory quickly hangs up the phone.

Lorelai laughs. "Why'd you hang up?" She asks, amused.

"I'm not good at these things!"

"Did he answer?"

"Yes."

"Yes! Rory, that's a really terrible first impression!" The phone starts ringing. "Uh-oh."

"Him?" Rory asks.

"Maybe."

"He star-69ed us!?" Rory asks, panicking.

"Well, the Harvard people can afford all the latest technology. Answer." The answering machine answers instead and Lorelai's voice comes on. _'Hey, you've reached Suffragette City. If you're calling about Lane Kim's ad, we're not in. But don't commit Rock 'N' Roll Suicide.' _Lorelai smiles, proudly, as she listens to herself. "_Just crank a message at the feedback.'"_

Rory grimaces. She couldn't believe this person was actually listening to this. "Oh, geez!"

"If he is related to Bruce, he could dig it." _'Hi, my name's Dave Rygalski. I'm calling about the ad. I left my number before. Call when you get a chance.' _Rory sighs in relief while Lorelai picks up the phone again. "Let's try this again."

"Can we just do this later?" Rory begs.

Lauren walks in and drops her things on the floor next to her sister's. She was looking very exhausted when she walks into the living where her mom and sister were. "No, let's get it done now." Lorelai tells Rory. "It's ringing." Lorelai tries to hand the phone to Rory.

"No, let's do this later." Rory begs again.

"What's going on?" Lauren asks them.

"It's ringing!" Lorelai says again.

"I'm gonna say the wrong thing or have the wrong tone." Rory takes the phone. "I'm not in good first impression mode right now." Someone answers the phone. "Mom!" Rory panics handing the phone to Lorelai again.

"Hello?" Lorelai says. Rory and Lorelai turn to Lauren, who they finally notice has a bruise on the right side of her cheek. "Uh, uh..." Lorelai starts hesitating after that. "This is Rory Gilmore." She lies. Rory points to Lauren's cheek and Lauren quickly covers it with her hand. "I believe you were expecting my call. Uh, oh, well, this is such a wonderful opportunity for me." Lorelai says in her worse Rory impression voice ever. "Whatever's good for you would be great for me."

Rory grimaces and Lauren starts chuckling. "Not so breathy!" Rory complains.

"That's how chickens talk." Lauren whispers.

"Lunch?" Lorelai asks. "Yes. Let me just check my organizer. Oh, perfect. My mother will be there, too. She's terrific." Now Rory couldn't hold in her laughter. "Alright, I'll see you this weekend. Bye." Lorelai hangs up.

"You're no Danny Gans." Rory tells her.

"I never claimed to be."

"He'll be expecting Chilton High School senior Trixie McBimbo."

"And her mother, Bambi McBimbo."

"I guess it can't hurt, right?"

"It can only help." Lorelai turns to her other daughter who is still covering her face. "What happened to you? Did you get into another fight? Are you in trouble again?" Lorelai asks, sternly.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I was just clumsy today and hit myself with my locker." Lauren lies.

"Kid, we have got to put you in a bubble." Lorelai jokes.

"So, what's going on? Who are you guys having lunch with?" Lauren asks quickly changing the subject.

"Your sister is going to have lunch with a graduate from Harvard. And you are going to tag along, too, get some inspiration."

Lauren smiles. "Cool. I can see what Rory is going to turn into when she leaves us here."

Rory rolls her eyes. "Very funny." The phone rings again.

"I swear, if that's another person calling for Lane." Lorelai answers. "Hello?" She looks at Lauren, surprised. "Oh. Yeah, she's right here. Hold on." Lorelai hands the phone to Lauren. "It's some boy."

Lauren looks confused and takes the phone. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Hey, Lauren, it's Holden. I hope it's not weird that I'm calling you. I found your number on the registration sheet from the paper." Lauren sighs. "I just wanted to talk."

"I don't want to talk. I said to stop talking to me. Bye." Lauren hangs and looks up at her mom and sister who are staring curiously at her.

"You have a boyfriend and we don't even know about it?" Rory asks.

"No. I don't have a boyfriend. There's just this annoying boy from the paper who won't leave me alone." Lauren says, walking over to the couch.

Lorelai smiles at Rory. "You so like him." Lorelai laughs.

"I do not."

"Yes, you do." Rory agrees. "You have it written all over your face."

"I do not." Lauren argues again.

"Honey, is he the reason you don't want to be on the paper?" Lorelai asks.

Lauren shakes her head. "I just don't want to be on the paper. Is that so hard to believe?"

"Well, kinda because if you didn't then you wouldn't have signed up in the first place." Rory tells her.

Lauren walks to the stairs. "I'm done talking about this." She says, running up to her room.

"Thanks for not being that complicated when you were her age." Lorelai says, gratefully to her oldest.

"No problem." Rory smiles.

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking up the Harvard graduates house. Rory was very nervous and Lorelai and Lauren were trying their best to get Rory comfortable.

"So alumna is a girl graduate?" Lauren asks.

"Right." Rory tells her.

"And alumnus is a man."

"Singular."

"So an unmarried man?" Lorelai jokes.

"No, not, not married." Rory tells her. "He can be married or single. All 'alumnus' means is one man, singular as opposed to many men, plural."

"And plural is alumni." Lauren says.

"And that can be girls and boys."

"Kinky." Lorelai laughs.

"Not kinky, just what it is." Rory says getting annoyed with this conversation as they walk up to the front door.

"Ugh. You're not fun with you're nervous." Rory rings the doorbell. "So, what do we call this guy? Alumnus Darren, like you know, you'd say Farmer John or The Butcher Lazar Wolf?" Rory ignores her mom and faces the door just as it opens. They all three smile at the man. "Hello, I'm Lorelai Gilmore." Lorelai says, reaching out to shake the man's hand.

"Darren Springsteen. Nice to meet you." He looks over at Lauren. "And this must be the reason we're all here."

Lauren smiles awkwardly. "Uh, no, sir. She's the reason we're all here. I'm just the sister Lauren" Lauren says, pointing to her big sister behind her.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Lorelai tells him. "They are used to it."

"Hello." Rory says. "I hope we're not putting you out."

"Putting us out? Today you are the Springsteen family's raison d-etre. Come in. Come in." He says, ushering them into the house. "Was your drive long?"

"Not too." Lorelai answers.

"Stars Hollow is charming." Darren tells them. "The last time we drove through there, there was a pumpkin patch."

"Sounds like us."

"In March."

"Oh, that would be the year the pumpkins arrived late."

"Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book. You came bearing gifts?" Darren asks, noticing the big envelope in Rory's hand.

Rory laughs. "Oh, no, this is not a gift. These are my records, grades, SAT's."

"It's Rory in a bag. You add water, and her brillance springs out." Lorelai jokes.

"Why don't I just glance at this some other time?" Darren asks. "Today, why don't we just talk and get to know one another?"

"Sounds good." Rory chuckles with embarrassment.

"You're a very nice alumni." Lorelai smiles.

"Thanks." Darren puts the envelope down and begins walking further into the house.

"That's a plural." Lauren whispers to her mom.

"Oh, rats!" They follow Darren to where the rest of his family is.

"Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren, say hello to Marie, my wife."

Marie walks up very happy to see them. "Hello." She says, shaking Rory's hand. "So good to have you here."

"Hi." Lorelai says.

"Thank you." Rory says, politely.

"How about drinks, iced tea, water?" Marie asks.

"Iced tea's good."

"Same here." Lorelai says for herself and Lauren.

"You like art, Rory?" Darren asks.

"Very much."

"Modern painting is my passion. I've got a Hockney, a Kline. What I don't have is a Diebenkorn. So please don't ask, 'Where's the Diebenkorn?'"

Lorelai sighs, playfully. "You warned my just in time."

"I only recently got into sculpture. My latest acquisition, it's a Zoltan Kemeny, very provocative." Darren says, walking over and showing them the piece behind them. "Don't you just love its audacity?"

"Yes, it's very audacious."

Lauren looks up confused at what they are looking. Lorelai just shakes her head and turns her child's head around because she surely couldn't explain it. "So, what are some of your other interests?" Darren asks, Rory.

"Oh, well, pull up a comfy chair there, Darren because they are widespread and extensive." Lorelai jokes as they walk into the living room to sit.

"I read a lot." Rory tells him. "I'm into the Russians lately."

"Totstoy? Turgenev?" Darren asks.

"Gogol's my thing right now. Dead Souls."

"One of my favorites."

"You were reading that when we got your Harvard application, weren't you?" Lorelai asks.

"Yes." Rory says, playing along. "Yes, I was."

"I saw that Harvard logo on the envelope, and I said: 'Rory, get your nose out of your Gogol and get over here!' Of course, we have a tv somewhere, but it's more of a funny little table to put a cup of chai tea on, you know what I mean?" Lorelai jokes.

Darren shakes his head. "I'm afraid I don't, I watch way too many sports and I go to all the Harvard games. How about you? Do you like sports?"

"No." Rory says, honestly, but Lorelai says yes.

"Yes. That is, we follow certain things." Lorelai says, quickly.

"We enjoy verious aspects of certain sporting endeavors."

"But it wouldn't be the kind that you could ask any follow up questions on."

"It's a general interest. We mainly just follow my sister's soccer games." Rory says, pointing over at Lauren who was just looking around the house and not really paying attention to their conversation.

Darren looks suddenly interested and he looks at Lauren. "Lauren, you play soccer?"

Lauren quickly turns to him. "Um, yes, sir."

"What position?"

"Forward. But it's not a for sure thing yet. I just tried out, but we'll see."

"Well, that is very interesting. And you are how old?"

"Thirteen."

"Ah, teenager." Darren smirks. "Good luck." He says, looking at Lorelai.

Lorelai chuckles and puts her arm tightly around Lauren. "Thanks. I need it." She jokes. Lauren rolls her eyes, playfully, at her mom and hopes that the conversation is off of her now.

"I collect memoribillia, too." Darren tell thems. "I've got each year's Harvard team pennant going back to 1927."

"Lots of displayed Harvard parahernalia." Lorelai says, nudging Rory.

"It's all over the wall at the rec room."

"See. See. Lots of paraphernalia." Lorelai says, again, nudging Rory numerous times.

"Watch the ribs, there." Rory tells her.

Darren's kids walk into the house. They are dressed in tennis gear and of course, looking perfect. "Oh, here are the kids." Darren says as they walk over to them. "Jack, Jennifer, this is Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren."

"Hi, there." Jack says.

"Nice to meet you." Jennifer adds.

"Likewise." Lorelai smiles while Rory and Lauren give them a small wave.

"Jack's premed at Princeton, and Jennifer's bound for Harvard, like you, Rory." Darren says.

Jennifer gets excited. "Oh!" She says, sitting down by Rory. "We should talk!"

"Sure." Rory says, awkwardly.

"If not today, another day, okay?"

"Okay."

"Do you wanna pick a time now or later?"

"Later's fine."

"I'll make a note in my Palm Pilot."

"Cool."

Maria walks back in with a tray of drinks. "Here are your teas." She announces.

"Thank you."

"Darren, we should really get the chicken going."

"Oh, right, you're getting my famous chicken today." Darren says, getting up. "I hope you like chicken."

"Love it."

"There's some of my Harvard yearbooks, peruse them, if you like."

"Okay." Lorelai grabs a couple and starts looking at them.

"We should go clean up, Jen." Jack says to his sister.

"Definitely. I will see you in a jiff." She says in a very creep way to Rory.

They both run off together. "Ew." Lauren grimaces towards her mom and sister.

"What?" Rory asks.

"Did they just leave to take a shower together?"

"Oh, gross."

"Hey, they did bounce in together, out together." Lorelai says.

"New topic?"

"Can't take gritty reality?" Lorelai asks.

"Or slanderous postulating."

"How is it they came from tennis and aren't sweating?" Lauren asks, curiously.

"Maybe when you're that white, you don't sweat."

"Darren's nice." Lorelai smiles.

"He's very nice." Rory agrees. "Hey, do you think I'm making a good impression?"

"Great impression! He loves you. Especially when he found out you share his love of various aspects of certain sporting endeavors."

"You started it. We could have just told the truth."

"I was trying to humanize us. Plus, you were the one who brought up your sister's soccer games."

"Yes. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, and listening. Then he started asking me questions. I'm not the one going to Harvard here." Lauren reminds her big sister.

Rory rolls her eyes. "Well, I didn't want him to them we were completely clueless on sports."

Lorelai chuckles and turns back to the yearbook in her hands. "Zoltan Kemeny." She says in an accent.

"What?" Lauren laughs.

"That artist's name, it sounds like robot language. Zolton Kemeny." She repeats making her girls laugh once again.

"Mom, stop!" Rory laughs hysterically.

"Zolton."

Maria walks in. "Oh, I'm sorry." She says, amused. "I'm interrupting the fun."

"No." Lorelai says, quickly. "You're not, we were just laughing at the funny haircuts."

"I know. Aren't they a blast?"

"Just a sea of gooft sideburns."

"Lunch will be ready in just a few minutes." Maria tells them as she walks away.

"Zolton." Lorelai repeats in her robot voice.

"Stop!" Her girls laugh.

In the dining room, the table is set very nicely when the girls and Maria and Darren walk in.

"What a beautiful table." Lorelai says.

"Yes, you didn't have to do this." Rory tells them.

"Oh, Rory, honestly, it's our pleasure." Darren tells her. The kids walk in. "Perfect timing, kids."

"Excellent." Jack says, happily.

"Nice-looking lunch, Mom." Jennifer says.

"Color-coordinated." Lorelai whispers to her daughters as they look at Jennifer and Jack's matching clothes.

"Guests of honey, why don't you sit over there." Darren leads them around the table.

They see pictures when they walk by. "Family pictures." Lorelai admires. "You have another girl?" She asks, noticing another girl in the pictures.

"Yes, we do." Maria tells her.

"Where is she? What does she do?"

"Oh, uh.-" Darren hestitates as they family looks around thinking about something to say.

"She's not here." Maria tells them.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

"Not, it's alright. That's Carol." Darren explains. "She's a year ahead of Rory. She's..."

"She's following her own path." Maria finishes.

"Right. Carol's doing her own thing."

"Okay." Lorelai says, not needing to hear anymore.

"Okay, let's eat everybody. Honored guests, please choose from the chicken first. You two are gonna have to fight over to breasts as you always do." Darren jokes with his kids. "So, Lorelai, what's your alma mater?"

"Well, I was too preoccupied to go to college, with weighing a couple hundred pounds and having feet twice my normal size and all." Lorelai jokes.

"I see." Darren laughs.

"But she took night classes and graduated last year." Rory tells them.

"She has an A.A. degree in business." Lauren adds in. Rory and Lauren were really proud of their mom and Lorelai to be proud of herself, too.

"That's wonderful." Maria says.

"In fact, it's refreshing. Might even be to Rory's benefit." Darren tells them. "Good things didn't come to your family in one fell swoop. You struggled for it."

"That's true." Lorelai agrees.

"'One fell swoop.' Interesting phrase.

"Very." Jack says, intrigued.

"Origin?"

"It was coined in Macbeth and derives from Middle English."

"Very good, son. You know your Shakespeare, do you?"

"More than most."

"In which play does Falstaff appear?"

"That would be plays. Henry IV, Part One and Two and The Merry Wives of Windsor."

"So, that was a different Falstaff in Henry V?"

"Aw, shoot!"

Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are watching on confused. "This is a little tradition with us, quizzes at meals." Darren explains. "It keeps the Springsteen sharp."

"Very Kennedy-esque." Lorelai says, as she continues filling her plate.

"Oh! We love the Kennedys." Jennifer tells her.

"As do we all."

"Now, the person questioned can challenge me with a follow-up if he gets his question right." Darren tells them. "It gets pretty competitive."

"If pistols are drown, we're ducking." Lorelai jokes.

"Jack, which Polish composer-"

"Chopin." Jack answers right away.

"Patience. Became prime minister of his country?"

"Paderewski?"

"That's right. But your impetuousness cost you a follow up. Jennifer, can you give me the three subclasses of the Meszoic era?"

"Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous." Jennifer answers.

"Good."

"Follow up. What preceded in Mesozoic era?"

"Paleozoic."

"He's good." Lorelai tells Maria.

"It's hard to stump Darren." Maria tells her.

"Impossible." Jennifer smiles. "He's brilliant." She says, creeping Lorelai and her daughters out a little.

"What mythological figure has the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion?" Darren asks. "Here's a hint, it's also the title of a novel by Robertston Davies."

"Oh, Maticore." Rory answers.

"Very good, Rory!"

"What about the year of Germany's victory in the Franco-Prussian war?" They all look towards Lorelai and Lauren.

"Us?" Lauren asks, freaked out.

"If you wish." Darren tells her.

"You know, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'd like to wash my hands." Rory tells them.

"Our fault. We rushed you in here." Darren apologies.

"Downstairs is being remodeled. You have to use upstairs." Maria informs her. "End of the hall."

"Thank you." Rory says getting up.

"Hurry up." Lorelai pleads.

"I will."

Upstairs, Rory is lingering around in the hallway looking for the bathroom when she hears music coming from one of the rooms. Suddenly a girl rushes passed her.

"Coming through!" She says, quickly running into the room.

"Sorry." Rory says, surprised. "I just heard music." Rory follows the girl into her room. It was obviously the other daughter that no one wanted to speak of. Rory looks around and sees all the posters of musicians and countries. "Cool room."

"Tom Waits."

"What?"

"The music." Carol tells her.

"Oh, I thought so. I love him."

"I worship him. I even mildly stalked him once." Carol laughs.

"Really?"

"Last year, I heard he was staying in this hotel.." She explains as she starts unbuttoning her clothes. "...I went there everyday, sat in the lobby, waiting for him to walk by."

"Did you see him?"

"No, never came down. For all I know he's still there. Hand me that brush?" Rory grabs the brush off of Carol's bed and hands it to her. "Stupid manager made me cover for Fiona today. The girl is a major piecrust. Ears?"

"What?" Rory asks looking confused.

"On the chair. What time is it?"

Rory grabs the rabbit ears off the chair that is next to her. "Uh, three."

"Ugh. I'm totally late for my next job. Oh, well." Carols puts the ear on her head. "I guess Grandma had to take another trip to the emergency room, right?" She jokes. "Are they on straight?"

"I think so."

"Okay, good. Who are you?"

"I'm sorry. I'm Rory Gilmore."

"You're one of the Harvard-bound?"

"Yeah, at least, I hope so." Rory says, as she watches Carol jump into a bunny costume.

"Trust me, you are. You've that really good, straight, shiny, Harvard hair. Zip me up?"

"I'm sorry, are you Carol?" Rory asks, zipping Carol's costume up in the back.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know. I just didn't expect-"

"What?" Carol smiles, curiously.

"You."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Your parents just made it sound like-"

"Like I was in the Chelsea with a needle sticking out of my arm screaming, 'Sid!'"

"Kind of."

"To them, this is pretty close."

"Can I ask you what exactly you are dressing up like this for?" Rory asks.

"Morgan Tanner's fourth birthday party."

"You're kidding." Rory smiles, amused.

"Yeah, this is my fifth birthday party this week. Great tips, all cash, and, of course, cake."

"So you're a waitress and birthday bunny and you go to school. That's amazing."

"I don't go to school."

"Oh, sorry. I just assumed. I mean, your family-"

"My brother and sister are on that conveyor belt." Carol explains. "I, however, escaped somewhere around the 11th grade, thank God." Carol notices Rory's demeanor change. "Oh, hey, no offense. That's just me. If you like being on the conveyor belt, then good for you."

"I'm not on the conveyor belt."

"Okay." Carol says, not believing it.

"I'm not." Rory argues. "I want this. I've dreamt of going to Harvard since I was a little girl."

Carol laughs. "Yeah, a lot of four year olds dream of that. It comes right after meeting Harry Potter." She jokes.

"Hey, I'm not gonna justify myself to someone with a tail."

"You're right. I'm sorry. It's just that around here the Harvard brainwashing starts in the womb. If you were to tell either of my siblings that there was another life choice outside of the ivy league, I think their khakis would wrinkle."

"Well, maybe they really want it."

"No. My parents want it, and they wanna please my parents. Have you seen a carrot?" Carol asks, looking all over her room.

"Don't you wanna please your parents?"

"Yeah, but not at the expense of finding myself."

"Or your carrot." Rory grabs the large carrot from Carol's bed.

"You gotta have your carrot." Carol jokes and happily takes it from Rory. "So, tell me something, Harvard Hair, how bad to you wanna please your parents?"

"My mom, and really bad, but it's not hard to please her. She's okay with anything I do. As long as I'm happy, she's good."

"You sure?"

"I'm very sure."

"Then you're lucky."

"Yeah, I am lucky."

Lorelai runs into the room looking very panic. "Hey, Rory, quick, what are they three major Hindu deities? Because I've missed four questions, and Lauren's missed about three. One more, and I don't think we get dessert."

"Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu." Rory tells her.

"Hi, other daughter." Lorelai waves to Carol.

"Hi." Carol says, smiling.

"And I shouldn't do a gesundheit joke when I say 'Vishnu?'"

"Good thinking."

"Okay, thanks, bye. Lauren is going to kill me if I'm not down there."

"Wait, I'll go with you." Rory says, turning back to Carol. "I'm glad to have met you."

"Same here. Good luck with Harvard."

"Thanks." Rory runs out of the room where Lorelai is waiting for her in the hallway and she quickly hugs her mom.

"What's that for?" Lorelai asks, a little surprised.

"For not putting me on the conveyor belt."

"Yes, that was very big of me." Lorelai jokes.

"You don't know." Rory says very gratefully.

After dinner and answering a few questions that Rory had for Darren, he was now walking them out of the house.

"Thank you so much for answering all my dumb questions." Rory tells him.

"You asked no dumb questions, and I hope my answers sufficed."

"Defintiely. Bye." Rory and Lauren wave and walk to the Jeep.

"Yeah, thank you so much." Lorelai tells him. "It did a world of good for her."

"She's a very impressive young lady. Both of your daughters are. Lauren is very funny."

"I concur." Lorelai says, smiling towards her two daughters.

"You molded them well."

"Oh, I didn't. They just popped out that way."

"You're bring modest."

Lorelai chuckles. "You don't know me, do you?"

"So long." Darren says, walking back into the house.

"Bye." Lorelai follows her girls to the Jeep.

"What did he say?" Rory asks as soon as Lorelai approaches them.

"That's you're godlike."

"Is that all?"

"Oh, and that his brother Bruce Spingsteen would be happy to play at our next party."

"That would be swell of Bruce."

"I figured your and your sister's graduation party."

"We'll be very popular." Lauren jokes.

Back in town, the town meeting is going on.

"All in favor, say 'aye.'" Taylor says.

"Aye." Everyone repeats.

"Alright, let the record show that the funds have been approved to close the town bank account that holds the town funds in order to open a new town funds bank account at a different banking institution." Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren walk in waving. "Young ladies, in anticipation of your tardiness we saved three seats for you right there in the back."

"Thanks for thinking of us, Taylor." Lorelai says, while they begin walking towards the front clearly ignoring the empty chairs. "Wooo! Okay, raise your hand if you bathed in cologne." They walk into the second row of seats in front and sit downs.

"In the interest of getting home some time tonight, I'd like to bring up the final point of business and that is a certain citizen's desire to open an old-fashioned soda shop in town."

Luke stands up quickly dismissing Taylor's idea. "Whoa. Whoa."

"Who's the guy?" Babette asks.

"What other putz would want to open an old-fashioned soda shop?" Luke asks her as he points to Taylor.

"Dispense with the Yiddish." Taylor says.

"This is not a town matter, Taylor. This is a private matter between you and me which was settled when I said no."

"This is a town matter because when this town is in need of a particular business to provide necessary services it's up to the town to band together and lure it." Taylor explains.

"How does a stupid soda shop count as a necessary business?"

"Allow me to show you something that will make you wonder how we ever lived without it. Kirk, if you will." Kirk pushes a cart with a white blanket covering whatever is underneath, in front of the crowd. "Kirk, I told you to get something decorative to cover it."

"Well, my mom wouldn't let me use one of her nice tablecloths so I just grabbed a sheet from my hamper." Kirk tells him.

"Take it off." Taylor grumbles. Kirk takes the sheet off showing up a minature version of Stars Hollow where Luke's diner is and where the soda shop would be.

"What that, a toy?" Luke asks.

"It's awfully cute!" Patty says getting a closer look.

"That is a professionally manufactured diorama of the proposed business." Taylor explains.

"Wow. There's little people and everything." Lauren says.

"They look so real." Sookie adds.

Jackson gets excited when he sees himself in the front. "Hey, it's me, holding the tiny zucchini!"

"Look at the horse drawn carriage." Lorelai admires.

"My thought was to park it out front with the name of the business painted on the side." Taylor explains. "It's very 1800s."

"The horse is taller than the front door!" Babette tells him.

"What are you up to, Taylor?" Luke asks, not impressed at all. "Are you breeding giant horses?"

"It's slightly out of proportion."

"Slighty?" Babette exclaims. "That little guy could walk under the horse without ducking."

"You're missing the big picture here, townsfolk! Now, this wonderful business belongs in Stars Hollow whether Luke rents the space willingly or not."

"How would I not rent it willingly?" Luke asks.

"I'm talking about eminet domain, my friend. Check the town's bylaws. If a three-fourthss majority finds it necessary to use a space for a specific function, the landowner must concede."

"That's for turning houses into hospitals during a national emergency like the civil war. You wanna turn this place into a war hospital? Be my guest."

"Some would attest that the succor that my soda shop is going to offer is on the same level as the comfort of a hospital."

"You're gonna need a hospital!"

"Hit him!" Lorelai yells.

"Which one?" Rory asks, laughing.

"Either one." Lorelai shrugs.

"Come on, Luke." Taylor begs. "This shop is based on the original soda shop that was in town eighty years ago! Don't you see? You are preventing the town-"

"From moving backwards! Who here wants to do that?" Luke looks around at everyone, but no one is saying anything or even looking at him.

"We like ice cream." Lorelai says in a high pitched voice.

"Come on." Luke groans.

"A nice burger from Luke's and an ice cream soda. Yum!" Rory agrees.

"You want that thing?"

"With a cherry." Lauren adds.

"The stiped awning and the giant horse?" Lorelai and her girls nod as everyone quietly agrees. Luke turns and glares at Taylor. "Be ready to pay through the nose."

"We'll talk terms." Taylor says, smiling. "We have our soda shop, everybody!" Everyone starts applauding much to Luke's dismay. "Meeting dismissed!"

Lorelai and her girls walk over to Luke. "Hey, you get to be Taylor's landlord. That's kind of cool."

Luke looks at her with disappointment. "Thanks for your lack of help." He nudges Lauren a little. "And you're suppose to be on my side."

"Hey, I like ice cream." Lauren argues as Luke turns away and leaves.

"Grump." Lorelai mutters.

As they are walking outside Lane runs up to them. "So, how was lunch with Harvard guy?" She asks.

"Great. He answered all my questions." Rory tells her.

"He makes a killer chicken, he sticks a lemon up its butt." Lauren says.

"Nice." Lane says, trying to look impressed.

"He gave me great tips on how to write my essay. We're very impressed with him." Rory continues.

"He passes the test." Lorelai agrees.

A guy walks up to Lane. "Excuse me, Lane?"

"That's me." She says.

"Okay, great, I'm Dave Rygalski."

"Right. Hi. You're the guitarist!"

"Yeah."

"But how did you know I was me?" Lane asks, confused.

The Dead Kennedy's shirt was a hint."

"Good thinking. Isn't it a drag that Jello Biafra isn't singing for them anymore?"

"Yeah, now their front man is that kid from TV."

"Yeah, what's next? Urkel joining the Wu-Tang Clan? So, what's your band like?"

"We do a lot of cool covers." Dave tells her. "Uh, The Clash, The Kinks, et certera. Statistically, it's like thirty eight of the forty three bands you listed."

"Nice percentage."

"I could play a song we demoed using a drum machine."

"Great." Lane smiles as she watches him take out a bunch of stuff he records on. He was definitely very impressive and knew his stuff.

They watch Lane and Dave walk away. "I think a love song's in their future." Rory grins.

"With lots of lyrics about snogging." Lorelai says.

"About what?" Lauren asks, confused.

Suddenly Holden runs up and quickly kisses Lauren right on her mouth, very hard, scaring her a little, and definitely surprising Lorelai and Rory as they watch. "I'm sorry." He says, as he pulls away and looks as Lauren's pale face staring back at him. He runs away and Lauren stands there not knowing how to react.

"That's snogging." Lorelai tells her.

"Oh my gosh." Rory laughs. "That must be the guy."

Lauren starts running after Holden looking very angry. "Uh-oh." Lorelai says, smiling.

"Think she'll catch up with him?"

"Not a chance. I seen him dash through one of the buildings." Lorelai says.

At the house, on a different day, the phone rings.

"Oh-no. Not another band phone call." Lorelai complains.

Rory walks out of her room to answers the phone. "You never gave Lane a cut off time."

"Let the machine get it. I cannot talk to another seventeen year old whose every other word is 'uh.'" She says, walking into the living room.

"Not even a word." Lauren tells her from the couch.

"Exactly." '_Hello, Gilmores, this is Darren Springsteen. How are ya? I just wanted to tell you that I have gone over Rory's records and no shock, they're perfect. Rory, you are tailor-made for Harvard. They're lucky to have you. As far as I'm concerned, you should pack your bags. I'm gonna tell all this to the people in admissions and I'll call your headmaster. So, take care. We'll talk again. Bye-bye.'_ Lorelai smiles proudly at her daughter. "That's fantastic, honey."

"Yeah?"

"You're in." Lauren tells her.

"Not officially. "

"He said, 'Pack your bags.'" Lorelai tells her.

"Yeah. Cool." Rory says, not all that excited.

"So, what are you up to today? You have newspaper stuff to do, right?"

"Yeah, a ton, and you were going to catch up with some stuff at the inn?" Rory asks.

"Payroll. A lot of check signing to do."

"Are people waiting for their checks?"

"Kind of."

"Right."

Lauren could see the uneasiness about this Harvard thing going on in her mom and sister's faces. She was thinking about it as well. Rory was going to be off to college soon and not a lot of hanging out was going to be done. Hey, why don't you just wait to do the newspaper stuff on Monday?" Lauren asks her big sister.

Rory and Lorelai's faces light up. "Yeah, I could do that." Rory says.

"Really? I could sign the checks tomorrow." Lorelai says.

"You sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Great." Lauren says, getting excited. She sits up on the couch. "What do you guys want to do?"

"I don't know." Lorelai says, thinking.

"Let's just hang." Lauren suggests.

"That sounds great." Rory smiles.

They are walking passed Luke's in town where they see Luke and Taylor arguing.

"You've had to have ordered that sign weeks ago!" Luke yells. "You were that sure I'd cave in."

"You did, didn't you?" Taylor asks.

"When did it become 'Taylor's?' It said 'Stars Hollow' on the model, and I don't like the extra 'P' and 'E' at the end of shop. Get rid of it!"

"No."

"I'm your landlord, Taylor."

"And as a tenant, I have rights. Talk to my lawyer if you disagree!"

The girls wrap their arms around eachother just enjoying the arguments and the town's characters. Something they were all going to miss one day when they weren't all together.

_Thanks for reading and reviewing guys! No worries. Lorelai will approach the whole Holden and Lauren thing in the next chapter! (:_


	45. Gotta Be Somebody's Blues

At Luke's, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are having dinner at their usual table.

"So, I think I'm in touch with the other side." Lorelai tells them.

"The other side of?" Rory questions.

"The other side." Lorelai repeats more dramatically.

"With Rupublicans?" Lauren asks.

"No, lately, I've been having these dark premonitions."

"About what?"

Luke walks over and sets three plates down. "Dead cow. Dead cow. Dead cow." He says as he walks away.

Lorelai gasps at her food while her daughters start eating. "That's weird."

"He's always weird." Rory says.

"No, I mean, my premonitions have been about death. About my death."

Lauren and Rory both grimace. "I don't want to hear this." Lauren tells her.

"And the thing is, they're all silly." Lorelai continues.

"What do you mean 'silly?'" Rory asks.

"For one, I slip on a banana peel and fall into a giant vat of whipped cream."

"Silly and fattening."

"In another, a turtle eats me."

"A turtle? How?"

"Very slowly. There's lots of chewing."

Lauren throws her fries down. "Ugh. I think I lost my appetite."

"And you didn't run away from what is perhaps the slowest land animal on the earth?" Rory asks, curiously.

"His first bite injects me with immobilizing poison." Lorelai explains.

"Well, you left that part out."

"Now, this last on'es more gory. I'm out hunting."

"A favorite Lorelai Gilmore pastime." Rory jokes making Lauren chuckle. Their mom was not outdoorsy.

"...And my shotgun backfires. My whole face spins around a bunch of times and winds up in the back of my head like Daffy Duck."

"That's the silliest one yet."

"Now, if that's how I go, promise to move my face back to the front of my head like Daffy did with his beak."

"We should be writing this down." Lauren tells her sister.

"You can remember to move my face to the front of my head."

Lauren shrugs. "It depends on what I have going on that week."

Lane runs into the diner. "Hello, Stars Hollow! Are you ready to rock!?"

"Let me guess, band practice tonight?" Lorelai asks.

Lane walks over to them. "Yes, we're going to learn our fourth song. That's practically a set." She says very excited as she sits next to Lauren.

"I'm impressed."

Lane takes Lauren's burger and starts taking bites. "And once we have a set, we'll get a gig and once we get a gig, a record deal."

Lorelai smiles. "Swallow." She tells her before she chokes.

"And then after we get a record deal we'll get really famous and give all of these interviews about how horrible fame is and how all we care about is the music and fame is gonna tear us apart. It will be great."

Lauren looks sadly at Lorelai. "Mommy, Lane took my burger."

Lane puts the burger back quickly. "Is rehearsing in the music shop working out?" Lorelai asks Lane.

"Perfectly. It's totally a time efficient. Being a thirty second commute from my house, we practice for two hours. I'm home in time to watch reruns of Johnny Yune's talk show with my mom who thinks I'm hooked up with you guys, which I did, so I'm not even lying."

"Well, you're kinda lying." Lauren tells her.

"I'm fibbing, but a fib is not a lie."

Lorelai points to her daughters very sternly. "Don't remember that." She jokes.

"Okay, it's not a lie, and I can always tell cause the few times I've lied to my mother I get this feeling in my gut like a wild animal is burrowing into it."

"Wild animals burrowing into my stomach." Lorelai says, freaked. "Another one of my premonitions."

"I gotta go. I'm single handedly improving the reputation of dummers everywhere by being on time for every rehearsal." Lane takes Lauren's burger. "Thanks for the food." She says, running out of the diner.

Lauren reaches over and takes her mom's burger. "Uh, excuse me."

"Lane took mine."

"This band thing is not working out for me." Lorelai hands Lauren her napkin. "Let's go. See you, Luke." The girls get up and begin walking to the door.

"See you!" Luke says just as the door opens and Jess' girlfriend comes through.

"Turn sideways." Lorelai tells them as Shane walks through not even paying any mind to them as she walks over to Jess. "That girl's a freak." She says while they watch Jess and Shane make out.

At the house, Rory is sitting in her bed listening to music and studying when the phone starts to ring.

"Hello?" She answers.

"Hi, Rory?" A woman on the other end says.

"Yes."

"This is Debbie Fincher, Kathy's mom from Stars Hollow High. I have a son in your sister's grade also."

"Oh, hi, Mrs. Fincher."

"Hi right back to you. Now, we miss you since you started that fancy school of yours. Is it fun?"

"It's hard, but I like it."

"Oh, well, super. Listen, is your mom home?"

"Oh, sure, just a second. Say hi to Kathy for me."

"I will."

"Hold on." Rory gets up and walks out of her room into the kitchen where Lorelai is helping Lauren with her homework at the table. "Phone. It's Debbie Fincher."

Lorelai looks up at Rory very confused. "Who?"

"From Stars Hollow High. Kathy Fincher's mom." Rory tells her.

"Oh, yeah, her son is in my class." Lauren says.

Lorelai was still confused, though. "You met Debbie many times, had many conversations with her, at bake sales, school plays, the PTA."

"Not ringing a bell." Lorelai tells her.

"I used to go swimming at her house all the time. You and Debbie had long chats when you dropped me off."

"No. No." Lorelai says, trying to remember.

"Blonde hair, medium height, drove a Range Rover." Lauren tries to help.

"Does she also breathe and have toes?"

"What?"

"Well, narrow it down to less than 8,000 possibilities."

"I did with the swimming." Rory says.

"I remember the water."

"Ugh. Come on, blonde hair, medium height."

"See? Even you can't think of another way to describe her."

"You have no memory of this woman?"

"All those moms looked alike except for Lane's mom, and that one with the freaky glass eye that never moved."

"Take the phone." Rory says, handing her mom the phone.

Lorelai sighs. "Hi, Debbie, how are you?"

"Great, Lorelai. And yourself?" Debbie asks.

"Just fine, thanks."

"The gang and I have missed you so much at school events. You were always such a kick."

Rory sits down next to her sister as they watch their mom, eavesdropping on their conversation. "Oh, well, I really missed you and the gang." Lorelai replies looking at her kids and shrugging because she still had no idea who Debbie and the gang were.

"Listen, I have a proposition for you. The PTA likes to ask prominent locals in business if they could talk to the students about how they got to where they are. You know, the hard work, success stories, and we thought about you."

"To suggest people I know who have success stories?"

Debbie laughs. "No, silly, we'd like for you to address the class. It'll actually be at the middle school. Lauren's class."

Lorelai smiles at Lauren who is just looking confused.. "Me? Really?" She asks.

"Well, yes. You're a young woman and you run that beautiful inn. It's a huge responsibility, and you do it with such style."

"Oh, wow, that's really sweet. It's always nice to be well thought of. Oh, Debbie, before we go any further, I'm dying to know how's Kathy? What's she up to?"

"She is just terrific. She's applied to a couple of schools in California so she's really excited..." Lorelai covers the phone and looks back at her daughters while Debbie continues talking about her daughter. Lorelai knew that would get her going. "So, she wants me to speak to your class about my business success." Lorelai tells Lauren.

"Really? That's great." Rory says, impressed.

"What are you doing with the phone?" Lauren asks.

"Oh, she's blabbing about her kid. We probably got thirty seconds."

"You're awful." Rory scolds.

"No, I'm a kick." She repeats what Debbie told her. "Should I do it?"

"Yeah. Sure." Lauren says, not caring.

"Toot your own horn a little." Rory laughs.

"I'm a success." Lorelai says, proud of herself. "Who'd have thought?"

"I suspected you had it in you."

"From rags to riches." Lorelai shrugs. "I wonder why Larry King hasn't called."

"Hey, that just means we have a break in class and my mom is going to be there which means I head home early." Lauren says, smirking.

Lorelai high fives her daughter. "Uh, Mom.." Rory says, interrupting the two. "Debbie, please?"

Lorelai sighs and puts the phone back up to her ear where Debbie is still talking, of course. "..which is a nice bonus for Bill and me, you know?"

"Oh, sure, yeah. Be sure to say hi to her and to Bill. And by the way, yes, I'd be happy to talk to Lauren's class."

"Terrific! The gang will be so thrilled! Now, there'll probably be a second speaker with you. You mind?"

"Oh, that's fine. Who's it going to be?"

"Well, we have some suggestions, but do you know anyone?"

"Well, you know, my friend the Sultan of Brunei is so hard to pin down." Lorelai jokes.

"Oh, there's that sense of humor." Debbie laughs. "Well, we were considering Luke Danes, but he usually turns these things down."

"I could talk to him."

"That would be just terrific. The two of you together would be a kick."

"Well, then I'll just kick him till he agrees to do it. How does that sound?"

"Okay, Thursday at 1 p.m. Is that okay?"

"I'll be there, Deb."

"Well, thank you, Lorelai, and I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay, bye!" Lorelai hangs up.

Rory stands up and pinches her mom's cheek. "I'm so proud of my little success." She laughs as she walks towards her room.

At the Inn, on a different day, Lorelai is standing behind the front desk going over her speech that she is doing for Lauren's class.

"Your speech for Lauren's class?" Michel asks.

"Just some talking points."

"And this speech is about your success in business, yes?"

"Pretty much."

"You must feel very fortunate to live in a tiny town where people make very little money. It elevates you by comparison. I wonder who their last speaker was, the fellow in short pants that walks up and down the square with a metal detector?"

"I wouldn't know."

"And if they find someone who drives a car that is less than eight years old, what'll they do, crown him king of successful people?"

"Unless it's a woman. Then they'll crown her queen."

"And if they-"

"Go away." Lorelai interrupts him just as the phones rings. "Independence Inn. Lorelai speaking." She answers.

"I'm backing out." Luke says on the other end.

"Too late. Sorry."

"I'm not speaking to that stupid class."

"You agreed."

"I'm out. Case closed. No debate."

"Great, fine, do you what you want. I guess I'm just out the $1,000 deposit."

"What deposit?" Luke asks, confused.

"For the room." Lorelai makes up.

"What room?"

"For the afterwards thing."

"Oh, wait. You're talking crazy talk, to confuse me, aren't you?"

"Aren't you?"

"What?"

"Who?"

"Stop!"

"Bye!" Lorelai tries to hang up but Luke stops her.

"Hold on a second! I agreed to this under coercion."

"You said yes on your own."

"I said yes because when I said no you talked baby talk loudly in front of all my customers until I got so sick of it, I agreed just to shut you up."

"I'm incorrigible."

"It's not a binding agreement. It's coercion."

"Well, you gave in just in time because I was about to transition out of baby talk and into my Louis Armstrong voice and that, my friend, is a lot worse than baby talk."

"I hate that building."

"What, the school?"

"Three years of going there, I have no good memories."

"Luke, it's a middle school, you must have some."

"None. Kids were as dumb then as they are now."

"I think you'll enjoy this. Lauren is really excited to have you there. And if you cancel this whole town will know and when you walk down the stree people will whisper: 'There goes that Luke. He's a real talk-canceller guy.'"

"Ouch." Luke says, sarcastically.

"Plus, I promised the PTA, so my fragile reputation is on the line. Come on, Luke, do it for Lauren. You like her." Luke lets out a heavy sigh. "See you tomorrow at two!"

At the middle school, Lauren is walking down the hallway to her next class. The class that her mom and Luke are going to be speaking to. She was super excited to hear them speak, and it was even better that she knew them because he was out of that hell hole as soon as Luke's speech was finished. The kids are running passed her and few stop to tell her how excited they were that her mom was going to be there. Everyone loved Lorelai and thought that she was the coolest mom ever. Holden runs up to Lauren.

"Hey, Lauren." Lauren sighs and doesn't make contact with Holden. She just continues walking. "Come on, Lauren." He begs. "I'm really sorry about the other night. If it helps any, I have a huge bruise on my arm from where you punched him. You've got a really good arm. Ever tried out for softball?"

Lauren stops and looks Holden with an angry look. "Holden, what do you want from me!? What are you not understanding about leave me alone. I know you just moved here, but you have friends. You have many friends. Many friends that won't leave me alone because I talk to you, even though, it's you talking to me. So, please, leave me alone!" Lauren yells and runs to her class leaving Holden there looking very confused.

At the diner, Lorelai walks in to get Luke so that they can walk to the school together.

"Lucas!" She calls out. Luke walks in from the back, carrying two cans of something, and still in his dirty apron.

"Hey."

"Hey, did you lose track of time?" Lorelai asks.

"What? Why?" He asks as he starts setting the cans down.

"It's one."

"I know."

"We're supposed to be at school like now."

"I know."

"But you're not ready."

"What?" Lorelai looks down at the apron that Luke finally notices. "Oh, right, sorry." He says, taking it off. "Okay, I'm ready."

Lorelai chuckles. "You are so not ready."

"What are you talking about?"

"The grunge look is out."

"Hey, I'm not dressing up for this."

"You need better than that." Lorelai argues.

"The whole point of this stupid talk was for us to talk about our work and success. This flannel shirt is my most successful outfit. I've closed many deals in this outfit. It's my power outfit."

Lorelai just stands there glaring at him. "Come on." She says pulling him towards the stairs.

"Let go! You're pinching me!"

"Go!"

Upstairs they are walking to the apartment. "I don't want to change."

"I'll buy you a toy afterward. You want a toy?" Lorelai jokes as they walk in where Jess is sitting down reading a book. "Sorry to barge in." Lorelai says, smugly, as she and Luke walk towards Luke's closet.

"What was that about a toy?" Jess asks.

"Luke is getting one if he's a good boy."

"Can we make this more demeaning?" Luke asks them as Lorelai begins looking through his closet. "Hey, how about you go downstairs and help out Caesar."

"I think my education comes first, don't you?" Jess asks, sarcastically.

Lorelai takes out a shirt that looks very hawaiian. "Oh my god! Jimmy Buffet?"

"Put that back."

"You like Jimmy Buffet? He's so mellow."

"I've just been to a few shows. That's all."

"A few shows?" Lorelai asks, surprised. "My god, you're Buffet-head." She jokes.

"Is that the one you want me to wear?"

"Sing Margaritaville."

"That attitude's gonna lose you that toy." Jess yells.

"Stay out of this." Luke says, sternly.

Lorelai takes out a plain blue shirt. "We've got ourselves a winner."

"Fine. Come on." Luke grabs the shirt and walks towards the bathroom.

"Just change in here."

"I'll be more comfortable in here." Luke says, going in.

"I've seen you swimming at the lake, so I've seen you with your shirt off." Lorelai reminds him.

"Lately?" Jess asks her. "'Cause he's really let himself go."

"I'll be one second." Luke yells from inside the bathroom.

"Lose the baseball cap, too." She tells him.

"You run the risk of his head falling off without it." Jess jokes.

"I think he'll be okay." Lorelai says, smiling. She really didn't Jess speaking to her. He was annoying always having some sarcastic to say. Plus, he hurt her daughter. Lorelai is standing there awkwardly just waiting for Luke.

"Something wrong?"

"No. No, I just..no."

Luke walks out of the bathroom dressed in the blue shirt. "Happy?"

"Thrilled. Now, a tie with that would be just great."

Luke grabs his coat from behind Jess. "We're leaving. And it's gotta be something I don't have to put together."

"What?"

"My toy." Luke says, as they walk out of the apartment.

"Talk good." Jess yells.

"Wow, we're late." Lorelai says, once Luke closes the door behind them. "Oh, and by the way, Jess had a girl in the closet."

"What?"

"Come on." Lorelai walks away.

"Who?" Luke says, confused as he follows her. "What was that? What about the closet?"

At the middle school, Lorelai and Luke are walking down the hallway with Debbie.

"It's so good for you both to do this." Debbie tells them.

"We're happy to be here. Right?" Lorelai asks a very unethused Luke.

"Yeap. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah."

"Oh, Luke, it must be fun to be back in your old middle school." Debbie asks.

"Oh, yeah, I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy here."

"Don't let him fool you." Lorelai tells her. "He told me he was so excited about today, he couldn't sleep last night."

"Well, we're all excited, too. It's been so long since we saw you, Lorelai. We had some laughs with this one, let me tell you."

"Yeah, she's a funny one." Luke says.

"The book fair in 2000. What you said to that one rude customer. Priceless how you put him in his place."

"Yeah, I put that man in his place all right." Lorelai agrees.

"What you said to him. How could anyone forget." Debbie laughs.

Lorelai laughs as well even thought she had no idea what Debbie was talking about. "Yeah."

"'Hey, old man. Stick a crowbar in your wallet and cough up some dough, cause this is for our kids!"' Debbie says and Lorelai tries to repeat, too. "You do remember!"

"Well, it's emblazoned up here, all those good times."

"Definitely. Now, everyone's gathered. The vice principal will finish up and then we'll call you in. Lorelai, you want to go first?"

"Yeah, sure. Is that okay?" Lorelai asks Luke.

"It's okay by me."

"Great. See you in a minute." Debbie walks away.

"I could pick that woman out of a lineup if my life depended on it." Lorelai says. She shakes her head at Luke who made himself comfortable on a bench by the class. "Will you lighten up?"

"No, I won't lighten up." He says, nervously. "I hate this place. Still smells the same. Old, repressive." Lorelai sits down next to him.

"Being back here doesn't make you nostalgic at all." Lorelai takes out her note cards with her speech on it.

"I liked the final bell. That's about it. What are those?"

"They're my notes for the talk."

"You put thought into this?"

"Yeah. Don't you have notes?"

"I run a diner. What are my notes? People come in, they order food, I cook the food, I serve the food, they eat it. Then there's a terrific action sequence where I refill coffee and water. Oh, my big finale is a description of the whole end of the vening, mopping up ceremony."

Lorelai stands up, laughing. "Hey, you're sure you don't mind me going first?"

"You kidding, there's a good chance you'll yak so much they won't even get to me."

"Look, my daughter is in that classroom. I just want to make a good impression for her."

"Lauren knows how hard you work. She's proud of you. Who cares what these other kids think?"

"Yeah, I know Lauren is proud of me. But I just want her know how hard I had to work to actually get to where I am. She knows what I went through when it was just me and Rory, and it was even harder when she came in the picture, but I want her to be sitting there, smiling, and looking at me and just happy to be able to call me mom, you know?"

"Yeah." Luke says, smiling at her. "I know."

Debbie opens the door. "Okay, we're all ready for you guys."

Lorelai smiles, excitingly. "Great. Excellent."

They walk into the classroom. "Okay, Luke, you can have a seat here while Lorelai's talking, okay?"

"Okay. Everyone, we're ready to begin." Debbie tells the class. Lauren looks up and gives her mom a big smile and a wave which Lorelai happily does back. Lauren sits up straighter and kicks the person in front of her who is leaning back. She wanted everyone to pay attention to what her mom had to say. Lorelai was thrilled to do this and Lauren wanted her class to respect her mom. "We have two local luminaries here to talk to us today. You probably all recognize Luke Danes from his fabulous diner..." Everyone turns around to look at Luke. He gives them a small awkward wave. "...but we're really excited to begin with Lauren's mom, Lorelai Gilmore." Debbie and the class start clapping.

"Oh, no, save it for when I wow you with my brilliance." Lorelai jokes. "I'm really happy to be here with you all today. I recognize a lot of you from over the years and you're all getting taller and older. High school is just around the corner. Anyhow, as some of you know, I run the Independence Inn. Sounds simple, running an inn. Well, the sentence is simple. The job is not. Like most jobs, mine involves many other people, people it is my job to hire, to train, and to inspire because when you have good employees, it makes you look good." One girl in the back raises her hand. "Oh, questions already? Are questions okay?" Lorelai asks Debbie.

"They're encouraged."

"Yes?"

"Didn't you get pregnant when you were sixteen?"

Lorelai laughs, nervously. "Um, sixteen." She says, looking at her daughter who was looking very confused. This was not about her mom having herself and her sister. Why were her classmates so stupid? "It was around that age. That sounds right. Okay. Different people working for you will have different needs." Lorelai continues with her speech. She stops when she sees another hand raised. "Yeah?" She asks, scared of what was going to come out of this boy's mouth.

"What about school?" He asks.

"School? I'm sorry.."

"Did you drop out when you got pregnant with Rory?"

Lauren gasps. "No, technically, I didn't drop out. I kept going as long as I could, which I would recommend to any girl. Not the 'getting pregnant' part, obviously. Although, if that happens..." Luke looks around at the kids and at Lauren who he knew was getting really mad at her friends. "..it shouldn't." Lorelai says, quickly. "I mean, itcould, but you should try to avoid it. Anyway, I got my GED. Yeah."

"Lorelai? Why don't we move this along?" Debbie asks.

"Yes, moving it along. Okay."

"Are you sorry you got pregnant?" Another student asks.

"No. It brought me Rory. But timing is everything. I mean, I could have..Sixteen. You guys are just thirteen, right?" Lorelai scoffs. "And is that clock right?" She asks, quickly changing the subject when she sees her youngest glaring at her.

"Well, if you had waited and had a baby with another man then you wouldn't have Lauren." Another student tells her.

"You know what's fun? Late check out."

"But it was good you got pregnant because you got Rory."

"Look, you guys, this is a very important subject and I promise in another time I would love to take you all for coffee and talk about it you should even be allowed to drink coffee because coffee is for older..." Lorelai sighs. "Luke Danes, everybody!" The kids ignore her though and continue asking her questions about being pregnant. Lauren slams her books shut and storms out of the classroom.

After the class is over, Lorelai finds Lauren outside the school sitting down on the bench. Lorelai could tell she had cried, but was holding it back in now and was now just looking really mad.

"Hey." Lorelai says, slowly, sitting down next to her daughter. "I'm really sorry."

Lauren shakes her head. "It's not your fault."

Lorelai is surprised to hear that. She was expecting Lauren to scream or yell, or storm away, but she didn't. "Did I hear that correctly?" Lorelai jokes.

Lauren smirks. "Yeah, you did. It's not your fault that you had me and Rory. I mean, you were young. I can't blame you for something that just happened. You were a kid. I just for once wanted my classmates to see you not only a really cool mom, but that you are smart and can totally handle a business and take care of me and Rory at the same time."

Lorelai gently strokes her hand across Lauren's cheek and smiles. "People are going to see what they want to see, kid. And as much as we try and want to change their minds, we can't. Believe me, I've tried."

"But you shouldn't always be remembered as the one who got pregnant at sixteen." Lauren says, looking very serious which made Lorelai chuckle. Lauren was always so determined. She was definitely her kid.

Lorelai nods her head, agreeing with her daughter. "You're right. I shouldn't be, but I am, and you know what, I'm okay with that."

"You are?"

"I am. We know who we are, right?" Lauren nods her head, smiling at her mom. "It's the three of us against the world and that's all that matters. I love you and your sister so much and I have no regrets."

"Really?" Lauren laughs not believing her.

"I swear. Sure, I should have been more careful, but hey I have you and Rory and I'm glad I did what I did. And I'm really upset that I couldn't finish my speech. I had a really good one."

Lauren shrugs. "You can read it to me tonight, if you want?"

"I'd love to!" Lorelai scoots in closer to Lauren and wraps her arm around her daughter, lovingly, as they just sat there enjoying one another's company and enjoying the little peace they had as they watched the town square.

After Luke was finished, Lauren went home without her mom because Lorelai needed coffee and Lauren just wanted to be alone. Lorelai and Luke are walking to the diner and Luke couldn't stop laughing about what happened in the classroom.

Lorelai slaps him softly in the stomach and glaring at him to stop. "Don't." She says, sternly.

"I'm trying not to." Luke says, still laughing. "I swear. I'm not trying hard. I'll grant you that."

"What was with those kids, so curious, so full of questions?" Lorelai asks still disappointed that she couldn't finish her speech. "Shouldn't their brains be completely fried on TV and video games by now?" Luke starts laughing again. "It wasn't funny."

"Not from your angle. From mine, it was An Evening at the Improv."

"I'm not gonna be allowed within a mile of the school ever again. I'm going to have to drop Lauren off on the other street."

"On the positive side, you did me a favor. Now I have a pleasant memory from there. You being nailed like a two-by-four by a group of thirteen year olds." Lorelai stops Luke from walking when she sees the mothers from the middle school, in group, walking towards her on the sidewalk.

"Oh, no. What's this?"

"Looks like high noon in Stars Hollow."

"They're not carrying tar and feathers, are they?" Lorelai asks, a little scared. When they walk closer Lorelai puts on a big smile. "Oh, hi, everybody! Wow. It's the whole gang! What's up?"

"Oh, I felt obligated to tell the other moms about your little performance at school before they heard about it elsewhere." Debbie explains in a rude tone.

"Really? Cause, usually, I like to meet up at Sardi's after a performance." Lorelai jokes. "Wait for the reviews. I hope the Times liked me." The mother just stare at her with angry looks. "Nothing, huh?"

"So you're preaching to our daughters that it's okay to get pregnant at sixteen." Another moher says. "Am I getting that right?"

"No, not at all. I was answering their questions."

"Well, it's your answers we didn't like."

"Hey, I was talking about my job, like I was suppose to, but your kids kept asking about my pregnancies. What could I do?"

"Fend them off!" Debbie scoffs. "Change the subject!"

"I tried, Debbie, but they kept coming at me, like I was Poland and they were Nazis. Remember the old days when I used to make you laugh?"

"There's nothing funny about this." Another mother tells her.

"Their questions just threw me off."

"Sounds like you just flaunted your mistakes." Another tells her.

"Now, hold on." Lorelai says, getting angry herself because these women were calling her children mistakes. "You have no right to judge me. All I said was that for my particular circumstances things worked out okay. I advocated nothing to them. You're all acting like I walked into the room tossing condroms."

"Might as well have."

"Fine, next time, I'll bring a banana, and we'll have a little show and tell! How about that?"

"What kind of mother are you?"

"The kind that doesn't gloss over things just because they're a little uncomfortable."

"This whole incident was awkward and unnecessary." Debbie says.

"No, Debbie, that what's awkward and unnecessary is that you all seem to go to the same lousy hairdresser." Lorelai says because every single one of them had short and blonde bobs going on. "How about mixing it up a little, girls?"

"I gotta get going." Luke says, awkwardly. "You good here?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

Luke walks away. "You don't have to take that tone." Debbie says.

"You ambush me, and you're offended by my tone?"

At the house, Lauren is sitting on the couch reading when the phone rings. She reaches on the table and answers it.

"Hello?"

"Lauren, please don't hang up." Holden says quickly.

Lauren sighs. "Why not?"

"Because I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for bothering you so much. I just figured if I became your friend then things wouldn't be so horrible for you at school."

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard around school that your best friend for eight years moved last year and I noticed that you don't really hang around anyone. You just sit outside and read or write most of the time and you don't speak to anyone."

"Okay, how is this any of your business?" Lauren asks, getting a little annoyed with how much Holden has been watching her. It was actually pretty creepy.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? Jessica, the one that keeps bothering you, she was one of the first people I met when I got here and now she thinks she owns me. But I told her to back off."

"Gee, thanks." Lauren says, rolling her eyes.

"And I won't bother you again, okay? Oh, and your mom is really cool. I see where you get it from." Lauren smiles at this. "Bye." Holden says, hanging up. Lauren slowlys puts the phone down herself and thinks about what Holden said. She didn't want to not like him. He was actually really sweet, but she couldn't handle a relationship right now. Not after everything that has happened. Lauren looks back down at her book and finally lets the tears she has been holding in fall right onto the pages.


	46. The Middle

In the square, Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren are walking down the sidewalk while Lorelai is telling them a story. She couldn't stop laughing at herself.

"And then the rabbit says, 'How about that schnitzel?'" Lorelai looks at her daughters who were not finding it amusing at all. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Rory asks. "There's no punch line."

"That is the punch line."

"'How about that schnitzel?' That's the punch line?"

"Well, no, not when you say it like that."

"How else am I supposed to say it?"

"Like a punch line."

"'How about that schnitzel?'" Rory repeats in a more dramatic voice.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Forget it." She looks at Lauren who looked like she was in another place and just following them around. "Hey, what's with the face?"

Lauren looks up looking confused. "Huh?"

"The face." Lorelai repeats again. "What's wrong?"

"Just tired." Lauren lies.

"Aw, come on. You girls are ruining my joke."

"Uh, no, the punch line ruined your joke." Rory tells her.

"Ha! You admit it's a punch line."

"Oh, my god." Rory grimaces.

"I'm vindicated. 'How about that schnitzel?' is officially declared a punch line." Lorelai laughs. She puts her arm around Lauren as they continue walking towards Luke. "Come on. Let's get some coffee in you and then when you wake up you might laugh at my joke!"

"Not likely." Lauren tells her as they walk into the packed diner.

"Man, it's packed it here."

"I guess we counter it." Rory says.

"I guess we do." They walk to the counter and sit.

Luke glares at them. "What?"

"What do you know? Your face really can freeze that way. Are you okay?"

"Are you okay?" Lauren asks him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm great. It's big, fat, happy sunshine day for me." He says, more grumpy than usual.

"Business looks good." Lorelai says, looking around at the very packed diner once more.

"Yeah, the place is packed." Rory says, while Luke fills up their coffee mugs.

"Sure." Luke points behind them where there is three women with babies. "It's taken over by the J. Crew catalog."

"Look, babies!" Rory says with excitement.

Lorelai turns to her daughter. "I never want to hear that again." She says, sternly, but playfully.

The parents are in the back of them arguing about the babies things getting Luke even more annoyed that they were in his diner. "Every weekend, the same stupid group comes here, takes all my tables and every chair they get their sticky hands on. And they do that. They sit, they stand." Lorelai and the girls are finding this amusing. "One person holds a kid, another person holds a kid. This guy runs in and out and back and forth. The other guy never takes his head out of that bag. The women can't figure out which kid is which. And they do it all morning long and then order two iced teas to go. And that is it."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating."

"I am not exaggerating." One of the babies are starting to cry. "Oh, now, this is good. You see, choo-choo Joe will not be working."

"How'd you know that?" Lauren asks him.

"Joe has not been working for the last six months. Personally, I don't think he's broken. I think he killed himself to get away from that family."

"Oh, no, that kid's a major drooler." Lorelai says, looking behind them.

"It's like a fountain." Rory says, getting grossed out.

"Okay, that's it. They have to go." Luke says.

"Oh, come on. It's just spit." Lorelai tells him. "Pretend you're at a baseball game."

"No, I had enough. Let them go and not spend money at Al's. I'm through." One of the women begin unbuttoning their shirts to breast feed. Luke walks back over to the girls. "Is that woman doing what I think she's doing?"

"Oh, well, I can't be 100% sure, but yeah, that's lunch."

"Why do they do this? This is a public place. People are eating here."

"They sure are." Rory chuckles.

"This cannot be sanitary."

"I agree. You don't know where that thing's been." Lorelai jokes.

"Since when is it acceptable? In the old days, a woman would never do that in public. They'd go find a barn or a cave or something. It's indecent. This is a diner, not a peep show."

"Consider making it a combo. You could charge more for your cheeseburgers. Of course, no one would ever feel the same ordering a glass of milk again."

"I have to do something. I just can't stand here and let the lactating continue."

Lauren covers her eyes in disgust. "Gross!" She yells at Luke.

"Ew, Luke." Lorelai says, slapping him on the arm.

"I'm gross?" Luke asks, surprised. "I'm not the one exposing myself for the entire world to see. That's it." Luke tries to walk over to them, but he can't. "You go make her stop." Luke begs Lorelai.

"I'm not going over there." Lorelai laughs.

"Why not? You're a woman."

"So what?"

"So you have the same parts."

"What?"

"You shouldn't be scared of it."

"Scared of it? You know, you're gonna be a bachelor for a really long time." Lauren and Rory start laughing.

"I'm being taken advantage of here, and I don't like being taken advantage of." Luke tells her. "I hate this."

Jess comes downstairs and is instantly hit with the picture of the mom breastfeeding her baby. "Oh, geez!" He grimaces, and covering his eyes as he runs back upstairs making them laugh even harder.

"Okay, that was kind of fun." Luke admits.

At the Inn, Michel is walking in with pillows at his side and Lorelai following behind him.

"Oh, is it your nap time?" She teases him, knowing it would annoy Michel.

"The Tylers in 12 asked to have their toxic pillows removed." Michel tells her.

They walk behind the counter. "Are pillows aren't toxic." Lorelai says, taking major offense to that.

"According to the travel magazine that we put in their room down pillows carry airborne diseases and mold."

"Unbelievable. I didn't think anybody read those magazines."

"I think she had to. There was a picture of a roast chicken on the cover."

"Michel."

"She is large. And her husband is ugly."

Lorelai gasps. "Michel, hey!"

"They threw pillows at me!"

The phone rings and Lorelai picks it up. "Independence Inn."

"You should identify yourself when you answer the phone." Emily tells her.

"Sorry." Lorelai smiles. "Independence Inn. Major Disappointment speaking. Better?"

"Yes, thank you. I want to talk to you about something."

"Shoot."

"I'm in charge of the Society Matrons League's annual antique auction next Tuesday and I thought maybe you'd like to come."

"Society Matrons League. That's quite a name."

"And what is wrong with that name?"

"Nothing. It just sounds so serious. Brings to mind a roomful of old ladies wearing black dresses and cameos, pushing spoonfuls of cod liver oil on the kids."

"That's a flattering portrait of my friends you're painting."

"I didn't mean your friends, I meant the other old ladies in the league. The ones who don't like you cause you guys are so young."

"Kindly wrap this up soon, Lorelai."

"Consider it wrapped."

"Thank you. As I was saying, all the proceeds from the auction go to the children's hospital and we're going to be offering some lovely pieces which I think would look very nice in your inn."

"What sort of pieces?"

"Basically a lot of canes and shawls, a couple of walkers. I believe we finally talked old Lady Rollins into giving up her teeth." Emily jokes.

Lorelai smirks. "What sort of pieces, Mom?"

"We have a couple of wonderful writing desks, some French end tables, rocking chairs, picture frames, lamps, davenports. The worst that can happen is you won't find anything you like and you wasted a few hours. And who knows, you know might find something you love. Plus, I will be too budy to sit with you, if that is of concern."

"That is not a concern." Lorelai chuckles. "Define 'Way too busy.'"

"Are you interested or not?"

"When is this auction?"

"Tuesday at one."

"I'll think about it."

"I'll see you Tuesday."

"Bye." Lorelai hangs up the phone.

"I'm sorry. Did I hear you metion something about an auction?" Michel asks, looking very interested.

"Oh, my mother's women's group is having one next week."

"Oh, well, you know, I love a good auction: the drama, the strategy."

"Strategy?" Lorelai questions.

"Oh, yes. First, you mustn't be too eager, because that drives the price way up."

"Don't be too eager. Got it."

"And you must always be extremely careful of your paddle movement."

"Well, that certainly calls for a 'dirty.'" Lorelai jokes.

"How's your arm raise? Good."

"Pretty good."

"I have an excellent arm raise."

"That's what it says on the bathroom wall."

"Yes. If you need some tips..."

"I'll give you a call." Lorelai promises.

"Good." Lorelai walks away, but not seconds later Michel is running behind her, surprising her a little by his eagerness. "Take me to the auction! I insist you take me."

"You don't even know if it'll be good. It's just society women."

"If your mother's involved, it will be impeccable. And I haven't been to an impeccable auction in over a year."

"Well, I don't know." Lorelai says, pretending to think about it.

"What do you want?"

"Michel, I don't want anything."

"Stop playing coy with me. I want into that auction. You name your price."

"Okay. You have to work weekends the rest of this month."

"Done."

"And answer the phone when it rings."

"Done."

"And you have to answer it in English unless the person is actually foreign."

"Done."

"And you have to oversee the nature hikers next week."

"No."

"Michel, if you want to go to this auction you have to be in the lobby at six Friday morning. You have to hand out towels and water bottles. You have to show them the hiking trails and let them give you a nature name."

"Fine." Michel says, looking very unpleased which is exactly what Lorelai wanted. "I will let them give me a nature name."

"Alright." Lorelai laughs. "Then you can come."

"Thank you." Michel says, happily.

"Buttercup." She whispers.

"You cannot give them suggestions!"

Lorelai pulls up the front and she and Lauren get out of the Jeep.

"I cann't believe you got into a fight with Pete." Lauren says, disapproving.

Lorelai grabs the pizza from the back seat. "You do not suddently decide that garlic is an extra topping. Not after five years, not after all we've been through." She says, as they begin walking towards the house. "We single-handedly helped Pete pay for his new delivery truck and he needed a reminder of that fact."

"Very loudly."

"No, not that loudly."

"Dog started barking."

"Because they heard of the garlic incident. No one likes getting screwed, Lauren. Pete's a swindler. He takes advantage of single mothers and their innocent children, and for that, he must pay." Lauren looks into the bag that she is holding and looks up at her mom. "What?"

"He gave us free cheesy bread."

"He did?" Lorelai says in awe as she looks into the bag.

"Yeah."

"I love cheesy bread."

"I know you do."

"It's all hot, too."

"Now, doesn't someone feel a little silly?" Lauren asks her mother.

"Me?" Lorelai points to herself.

"Should we call Pete tonight?"

"OKay. After cheesy bread."

"Fine. After cheesy bread."

"Okay, I'm gonna go get the mail. Go inside." Lorelai says, handing her daughter the pizza box.

"Okay. I'm going to go melt some more cheese on the pizza."

"Melt away." Lorelai smiles at her daughter who runs inside. Lorelai walks to the mailbox but is distracted with a man walking into her yard.

"Hello there neightbor!" He says walking over to her.

"Uh, hi, are we neighbors?" She asks, looking confused.

"Yes, we are. I just moved in across the way."

"Oh!" Lorelai says, remembering. "Yeah. Beenie Morrison's old place."

"That's right. Beenie Morrison's old place. I live in Beenie Morrison's old place." He repeats over and over again. "Isn't that great!?"

"Only if Beenie Morrison didn't want to live there anymore."

"Oh, no. I paid him a very good price. Overpaid, actually. But it was worth it. I've been dreaming about a place like Beenie Morrison's old place for a long time." He laughs. "And then I found it. I'm sorry. I'm just really excited."

"That's okay. It's nice."

"It's a great neighborhood."

"Yes, it is."

"Everyone's so friendly. Babbette. Do you know Babbette?"

"Everybody knows Babbette."

"She's a great lady. Anyhow, I'm Dwight." He says, reaching over to shake her hand.

"I'm Lorelai. And if you see two teens walking around with halos, those are my daughters, Rory and Lauren."

"Very nice to meet you, Lorelai."

"Nice to meet you, too, Dwight. Welcome to the neighborhood. If there's anything I can do to help out, let me know." She says, walking over to her mailbox and grabing the mail.

"Really?" Dwight asks.

"Sure."

"That's great. Actually, I have this little favor I'd love to ask."

Lorelai stumbled a little. She didn't think he'd need something from her this soon. "Right now?"

"This week. I just got this beautiful lawn put in, really amazing shade of green. And the guy who put it in for me to told me that I have to keep each blade of grass very moist for the first few days while the roots take but I have to go on a business trip for a few days. Last minute." Dwight explains. "And believe me, I tried to get out of it, but my boss said: 'Dwight, get off your keister and go make us some money,' so I gotta go."

"Well, sure, when the word 'keister' is being thrown around ,what are you gonna do?"

"Exactly. So I was wondering if, maybe, you could water my lawn."

"Oh."

"Only for a few days, you know, a little in the morning, a little in the late afternoon or evening, depending on your schedule. It would be a really big favor."

"Uh, well, I guess I could water your lawn. Sure."

"Boy. That is something. If I would have asked somebody back where I used to live to water my lawn, I would have gotten a much more 'HBO' kind of answer. I love it here!" He laughs. "So can you come on over now?"

"Excuse me?"

"So I can show you where the on-off nozzle is. It'll only take you a second."

"Oh, my daughters are waiting inside for me."

"We can do it tomorrow before I leave."

"Great. What time are you leaving?"

"Six a.m."

"Now sounds fine!"

"That's so terrific. Uh, follow me."

"Okay." Lorelai sighs and follows him across her backyard and at his house.

"Welcome to The Oasis!" He smiles with excitement. "That's what I named this place. The Oasis, my oasis. A little slice of Heaven right here on Earth. Gosh, I swear I still can't believe I'm here. I was in a terrible marriage, you know."

"Actually, I didn't." Lorelai says. This whole thing was getting really awkward now.

"Yeah, horrible. Like a punishment out of Greek mythology. The woman had five heads, suffering, agony. You know I used to be taller?"

"She shrunk you?" Lorelai asks, very confused.

"I used to have more hair, too. And higher arches."

"Wow."

"But through all the screaming and the name calling the berating and the humiliation, somewhere in the back of my mind I knew someday I would have it: my oasis." He says very proudly as they look around his yard. "That's what got me through. It kept me from sticking my head through a plate glass window every night when I got home."

"Well, that's a really nice story, Dwight. It's very inspiring and..." Lorelai notices sprinkler behind Dwight. "Oh, hey, this looks like it does something." She says hoping to get Dwight to the point of why they went there so that she could get back home.

"Oh, yeah. This is the on-off spigot." Dwight starts demonstrating how to use it. "You just turn it to the right for on and the left for off."

"Seems simple."

"It's very simple."

"Okay, so twice a day."

"Yeah, for a good fifteen minute soaking."

"I will soak my best."

"I appreciate it."

"Okay, you have a good trip." Lorelai reaches out and shakes Dwight's hand.

"I owe you." Lorelai gives him a polite laugh and quickly walks back home where Rory and Lauren are searching frantically around the porch until Rory spots her mom running up.

"Where have you been!?" Rory asks in a panic.

"Get in the house!"

"I thought you were getting the mail. What are you doing?" Lauren asks as Lorelai grabs her daughters and rushes them towards the front door. Lauren starts looking behind them.

"Don't look around." Lorelai orders her. She puts both her hand on Lauren's head to keep her from turning. "Stare straight ahead. No more talking to people ever." They run into the house and slam the door behind them and Lorelai makes sure to lock every door in the house.

"You have officially wigged out." Rory tells her.

"The neighbor across the street wants me to water his lawn so he was showing what I had to do and he would not stop talking during the process." Lorelai explains.

"Well, the pizza is getting cold." Rory says as they all finally settle on the couch each grabbing a slice of pizza as the movie starts.

"Oh, Mom, can I hang out with my friend tomorrow?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai looks at Rory who simple shrugs her shoulders. "She got a call when you were gone." Rory informs their mom.

"Her name is Sasha. She is really nice and please please please!" Lauren begs.

"Why am I just hearing about Sasha?" Lorelai asks. She had never heard Lauren speak of any new friend and she and Rory were usually the first ones to know.

Lauren shrugs. "Because I just heard of her a few days ago. Can I please hang out with her?"

"Sure, Lauren. Just don't get into any trouble."

"I won't. Thanks!" Lauren says with a big smile and focuses back on the tv.

Lorelai and Rory exchange worried glances. This was the first time they had seen Lauren happy about something in months. "Should we be worried?" Lorelai whispers so only Rory can hear her. Rory just shrugs again. She really wanted to have faith that her sister was doing something good and was just hanging out with her new friend. Lauren deserved to be happy. Afterall, she is just a thirteen year old kid.

At the auction, Michel and Lorelai are sitting in the crowd.

"Next up, we have an occasional table from a distinguished family owned company in Vermont, circa 1912." The auctioneer tells them. "We shall start the bidding at $250." A few people begin raising their hands.

"Wow. Lots of garbage at these things." Lorelai says to Michel as she is looking over the booklet.

"Always." He agrees. "You've got to be patient and wait for what you want to appear, then pounce."

"True at an auction, true at a singles bar."

"To put it crudely, yes."

"Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap that makes the previous two items not seem like crap."

"Could you keep your crap commentaries to yourself?"

"$400. We have $400." The auctioneer says. "$400 going once, going twice, sold to bidder numer 65."

"Oh, wow, that was a great table." Lorelai says, looking disappointed.

"It was a good table, not great." Michel tells her.

"We should've gone for it."

"Too expensive and too many scratches."

"We could've buffed the scratches out."

"Look, if you want it that bad, it's obvious that the buyer's children will be selling it at his probate in the near future." Michel says looking back at the old man who bought it.

"You're awful."

"And he's old. Now be quiet."

Emily sneaks over. "Lorelai." She greets them.

Lorelai smiles up at her mom. "Mom. You remember Michel."

Michel stands up and shakes Emily's hand very kindly and kisses it. "Yes, from the Inn." Emily says, smiling at him.

"Hello, Mrs. Gilmore." Michel sits back down and focuses back on the auction.

"Didn't you see me waving at you before?" Emily asks her daughter. "You didn't wave back."

"Well, it's dangerous to wave at an auction." Lorelai tells her. "You didn't see before, but, when you waved, you bought a motorcycle and a sidecar."

"I did not."

"Circa 1912. Now, would you drive it or would you sit in the sidecar?"

A lady runs up to them. "There she is. The cobra."

"Now, Natalie." Emily says, embarrassed.

"That what?" Lorelai asks.

"This woman gets her way or she squeezes till you comply." Natalie explains.

"Like a superhero."

"Ignore her." Emily tells Lorelai. "Natalie is just being Natalie. My daughter, Lorelai."

"Nice to meet you." Lorelai smiles.

"Your mother's got such spunk. You must love her." Natalie says.

"I think she'd squeeze me to death if I didn't." Lorelai jokes.

"Natalie, you're embarrassing me." Emily says.

"Hush, Emily. Listen to this. Our auctioneer calls in sick this morning. They are such flakes. And what is an auction without an auctioneer?" Natalie asks Lorelai.

Lorelai shrugs. "Just a bunch of nuts with paddles surrounded by mismatched furniture."

"Exactly. But your mother got on the horn with that lazy Charlie and she squeezed and squeezed till voila, he suddenly felt better. The cobra."

"The cobra."

"Now, stop it." Emily tells them both.

"You're humble. Don't be." Natalie insist. "Nice to meet you."

"Same here." Lorelai says, kindly.

"Edna's group wants to give you kudos, too, Emily. Make sure to swing by."

"I will." Emily assures her. "I should make the rounds. Say goodbye before you leave."

"Hmm, I will, cobra."

"Stop it!"

"Goes with the motorcycle thing, too." Lorelai laughs as she sits back down and Emily walks away. "Oh, is this our end table!?"

"Sh!" Michel hushes her so he could listen.

"Moving on to $350." The auctioneer announces. Michel raises his paddle. "$350. Do we have $400?"

"Let me do the paddle." Lorelai begs.

"No."

"I just wanna hold it. It's still yours."

"I'm losing my concentration."

"Fine. I'm gonna go get a drink."

"Please." Lorelai gets up and walks to the back.

When she gets to the bar a guy walks up. "Can I get a merlot, please?" He asks the bartender.

"That sounds great." Lorelai says. "Make it two."

"Got just enough for one." The bartender says. "And this is the last of the red." Lorelai smiles at the guy beside her but then looks at the bartender with a very serious look. "I'll give you $2 for it."

"They're free."

"Which makes $2 a great offer, and this is an auction, right?"

"Yes."

Lorelai begins digging in her purse. "$3." The guy says, surprising the bartender and Lorelai.

"What?" The bartender asks.

"I'll give you $3 for it."

"$4." Lorelai says.

"$5."

"6.50."

"Ooh, losing steam."

"Weighing cost versus benefit." He tells her.

"You gotta think about these things."

"How about this? Can I get an empty glass?" He asks the bartender.

"Yes, sir." The guy pours half of his merlot into the empty glass making Lorelai smile.

"Aw, you're the Solomon of wine."

"Everybody's got to be something." They start staring at eachother, not really knowing what else to say. "I got a few things coming up that I'm bidding on."

"Oh. Great. Bartender and I are the only ones in the building who don't get to hold a paddle."

"Why don't you put a bid on one of the paddles?" He jokes.

"What would I use to bid on it?"

"I'm Solomon, not Einstein."

Lorelai laughs as he walks away. "Bye, Solomon."

At the house, Lorelai is on the phone. She couldn't stop thinking about the man she met and was determined to find out his name.

"Hi, yes, I was at your auction yesterday. I was wondering if you could help me. Um, I met a man there, and I would like to contact him but I didn't get his name. Could you look it up for me? He was paddle number 17. Oh, right. Confidential. Got it." Rory peeks in at her mom from inside her room. "You know, actually, I misspoke earlier because this isn't a complete stranger I'm trying to contact. He's an old friend from school. Good question. I don't know his name because I only knew him by his nickname. Uhh, Shamu. We called him Shamu." Rory starts laughing. "He was kind of a big guy in high school, but he slimmed down quite a bit. No, see, I don't have tim to contact the high school alumni committee because time is of the essence. See, Shamu and I went to a liquor store after the auction and we bought a lottery ticket together and we tore it and I took half and he took half, and I'll be damned if the thing didn't win! $14 million dollars! Really." Rory rolls her eyes at her mom's dramatic story. Not even she would believe. "But, see, we have to claim it by four p.m. today or we forfeit. Ah, yes. Okay. But there's one more thing that I forgot to tell you. See, my blood type is O-negative and he's O-negative..." Rory walks out of her room, listening to her mom, and walks slowly to the table and sits down next to her. "...and I have a medical condiction that.. Alright then. Thank you, anyway. Bye." Lorelai hangs up.

"So." Rory begins.

"Yes?" Lorelai asks, dreading whatever Rory was about to say.

"You ran into your old friend Shamu?"

"MHM!"

"And you won millions of dollars? And you need a transfusion?"

"I'm just trying to get the name of this guy I met at the auction, but they won't give it to me."

"Wow. That's a lot of effort. Must be cute."

"And witty. You don't meet that everyday." Lorelai grins.

"You know who'll have his name?"

"Who?"

"Grandma."

Lorelai grimaces. She did not want to have to go to her mother for this. "No, she only knows the biddies, not the young ones."

"She knows everyone at these things. You know Grandma."

"I cannot ask her for this."

"Then kiss Shamu goodbye."

"But maybe you could ask her."

"What?"

"Come on, ask her. Do me a favor."

"You want me to ask Grandma about someone I didn't meet at a function that I didn't attend?" Rory questions her 'insane' mother.

"I'll share my lottery winnings with you."

"Ridiculously transparent."

"$14 million."

"You're sharing half with him." Rory reminds her mother even though this is made up money they were talking about. "And taxes will takes a huge chunk. And, oh, yeah, you didn't win the lottery. Ask her yourself."

"You're mean!"

Lauren runs into the side door of the kitchen looking very flushed from running. "I'm here. I'm sorry I'm late."

Lorelai looks at clock on stove. "Yeah, like two hours late."

Rory covers her nose. "Oh my gosh, Lauren, what have you been doing?"

Lauren starts smelling herself and so does Lorelai who ends up making the same face Rory is. "What? I've just been hanging out with Sasha." Lauren tells her.

"Where? At a bar?" Lorelai asks half serious and half joking because well it's her kid.

"No. Not at a bar."

"Well, go get dressed really quickly and spray some of my perfume on yourself. We'll be in the car waiting. Move it!"

"Moving!" Lauren yells and runs to the stairs.

"Hey, did you call information and ask for paddle 17's listing?" Rory jokes as they walk to the front door.

At the Gilmore's, the girls and Richard are sitting around the table, in their respectful spots, eating dinner.

"What do you think of the pork? Lauren?" Emily asks with a strange face.

"It's good." Lauren tells her.

"I'm not sure. Richard?"

"It's fine." He tells her.

"I'm not sure." She says again.

"It's really good, Mom." Lorelai assures her.

"Yes. Well, I'm not sure."

"Pork is bred leaner these days." Richard says. "It has a different taste. Less fat equals less flavor. Yet another example of the great advances man has made: flavorless pork. Hurrah for the opposable thumbs."

"Alright, enough talk about pork. Someone please change the subject."

Rory looks up and smiles towards her mom remembering their conversation earlier. "Mom had a really good time at the auction the other day."

Lorelai glares up at her oldest. "Did you?" Emily says, very happily.

"Yes, I did." Lorelai mumbles.

"Well, I'm glad. Did you see anything you liked?"

"Yeah, Mom. Anything look good to you there?" Rory smiles, encouraging her mom to ask about the guy.

"Yes, actually, I bought a couple of end tables for the inn." Lorelai tells them.

"I must say, I was very impressed with the selection this year." Emily says. "I even wound up purchasing a couple of pieces for myself."

Richard smiles sarcastically at his wife. "Yes. How nice to have yet another chair you can't sit in."

"It's 100 years old."

"Wonderful. We'll put it next to the 200 year old footstool you can't put your foot on."

"Oh, Richard, please."

"I'm only teasing, Emily. It's a great pleasure of my life to be able to surround you with a house full of useless objects." Emily doesn't look amused at all which makes Richard chuckle. "I'm happiest when we're standing in the corner staring at our furniture." He jokes.

"Eat your pork, please."

"You know, there was something at the auction that Mom wanted..." Lorelai couldn't believe her daughter right now. "..but she didn't get. Isn't that right?" Rory asks Lorelai.

"Really? What was that?"

"I think it was the steamer trunk for Rory to take with her to military school, wasn't it?" Lorelai asks her very nosey daughter.

"I don't remember a steamer trunk. But I'll check if you like."

"That's not necessary, Mom." Lorelai looks at Rory who is mouthing for her to ask already. "So, uh, Mom, it was a very nice bunch of people you had at that auction."

"Yes, very nice."

"I was surprised at how many young people were there. I mean, you know, younger people. In fact, like, for instance, this guy that I talked to for quite a while. He was younger."

Lauren looks around the table, looking very confused. Her mom and sister obviously had something going on. "Am I missing something here?" Lauren whispers to her sister.

"What man was that?" Emily asks.

"Oh, I didn't get his name, but he was nice looking guy. He had a gray suit, and he was paddle number 17. He likes merlot."

"Are you talking about Peyton Sanders?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Wait one second." Emily says, getting up from the table. "I'll look it up."

"No, Mom. You don't have to... She's looking it up." Lorelai sighs.

Richard sniffs the air and leans slightly closer to Lauren. "Lauren, is that the smell of Jules I smell."

"Huh?" Lauren asks, a little surprised that her smell was still lingering in the room.

"That smell. It smells like cigars."

Lauren gently pats her grandfather on the shoulder. "Oh, Grandpa, I'm thirteen. Where would I get a cigar smell from?" She laughs nervously just as Emily walks back with a piece of paper in her hands.

"Paddle number 17. Peyton Sanders." Emily reads outloud.

"Oh, great." Lorelai says, nervously. "That's great that it's Peyton Sanders, because that's great." Rory gives her mom a stern look to continue. "How well do you know this Peyton Sanders?"

"Why do you want to know how well I know Peyton Sanders?"

"I don't know what to know." Lorelai scoffs. "I was just mentioning that he was, you know, seemed.."

"Young." Emily finishes for her.

"Yes, young." Emily continues smiling at her daughter knowing good and well that was not why Lorelai wanted to know who he was. "Okay, Mom, Peyton and I kind of hit it off and I wondered if you possibly had his number. Okay, there, I said it. Pass the flavorless pork."

"You're asking me for his number."

"If it's not a big deal, yes."

"Well, well, well." Emily says as she and Richard exchange devious smiles at one another. "Richard, Lorelai's asking me for a man's number."

"So I heard." He says.

"But it it's a big deal, forget it." Lorelai tells them with a wave of her hand.

"It's not a big deal at all." Emily tells her. "I don't have his number."

"Okay, then, nevermind."

"I can get his number. Would you like that?"

"Um, it's up to you."

"It can't be up to me. I didn't ask for his number, you asked for his number. Therefore, its up to you as to whether or not I get his number."

"Okay, Mom." Lorelai says, getting annoyed.

"Would you like me to get his number?"

"Yes, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Lorelai turns back to Rory. "I wasn't kidding about that military school."

The next morning, Lorelai runs down the stairs.

"Okay, the clock is right!" She yells. "Hurry, we have tim to hit Luke's for breakfast. What'd I forget?"

Rory and Lauren both run out from the kitchen holding their bags. "Pants." Lauren jokes.

Lorelai looks down at herself and sees that she indeed has pants on. "Don't do that. Come on, let's go." She pushes her girls towards the door.

"I can't." Rory tells them.

"You can't have breakfast!? You must have breakfast."

"The clock is wrong, I'll miss my bus. You and Lauren are on your own."

"What? Forget the bus. I'll drive you to school."

"You will?"

"Yes. Oh, shoot! Dwight's lawn." Lorelai remembers.

"Aw, there goes the breakfast sandwich." Rory says, sadly.

"I'm going meet Sasha, Mom." Lauren says quickly putting on her coat.

"No, Lauren." Lorelai whines. "We can hurry and still do Luke's!"

"Sorry! Can't. Sasha is waiting for me now. I gotta go." Lauren quickly kisses her mom on the cheek and runs out the front door.

"Lauren!" Lorelai yells. "Ugh. Come on. Let's go!"

"Moom!" Rory complains. "My shoes!"

"You don't need shoes." Rory grabs her shoes by the door. "We used to walk 20 miles in the snow just to get to our shoes back in my day."

"Come on."

They run out to door and over to Dwight's yard. "Okay, come on. Sprinkle." Lorelai turns the sprinklers on. "There. Drink up, boys. We got a breakfast to get to." Rory runs up to the front door and finds a letter.

"Mom."

"What?"

Rory walks back with an envelope in her hands. "I think this is for you."

"Lorelai? No, it must be someone else." She jokes as Rory opens the letter. "Hey, don't read that. No good can come from you reading that."

"'Dear Lorelai-'"

"She's reading it."

"'just a couple of things that came to mind after we talked. First of all, thank you for this very kind favor you're doing me. I still can't believe that anyone'd be so kind to someone they just met."'

"Yeah, apparently Dwight's last home was Oz and not as in The Wizard of."

"'Second, since you're already coming to take care of my lawn I was hoping you wouldn't mind stopping inside and watering my African violets."' Rory reads, laughing, at Lorelai shocked expression. "'I have written the directions on a separate piece of paper. There's a key in the planter by the door. Please go in. Make yourself at home. I have food in the fridge, satellite TV and a great collection of board games. My oasis is your oasis.""

"I'm not going in that house." Rory turns around and walks towards the porch. "Rory, do not pick up that key."

Rory grabs the key from the plant. "But we have to water the violets."

"I didn't agree to violets. He threw it in after he had rooked me into watering his lawn."

"Don't you at least wanna see what his house looks like?"

"Absolutely not." Rory dangles the keys in front of her mom's face to tempt her which was working. "Key please." Lorelai grabs the key and goes up to the door. "Let me just say if we walk in there and his dead mother is sitting in a rocking chair, not a bit surprised." They walk in and Dwight's house is set up like beach house. It has decorations everywhere with beach furniture and fish tanks. "Oh, yeah, Dwight." Lorelai says, sarcastically.

"This place is great." Rory says in amazement. "Which should have definitely made Lauren stay with us. She would love this."

"Someone took the whole lounge crazy very seriously."

They walk by a cabinet full of board games. "Oh, my!"

"He wasn't kidding."

"I've never seen this many board games. He's got Monopoly from every country in the world."

"Hey, when you finally meet him, remember he owns Twister. There's a great visual awaiting you."

"Got it." Rory says, looking creeped out. They turn around and start loking around the house some more. "Hey, how come we don't have a tiki bar?"

"We are not three wild and crazy guys."

"You like pina coladas."

"And getting lost in the rain."

"I love it here. I am defintley taking Lauren back here so that she can not mock it with me."

"It's quite a statement. I'll give him that."

"Hey, African violets." Rory remembers and starts getting the stuff together to water it.

"Yeah, right." Lorelai says just as her phone starts ringing. "Hello? Hi, Peyton. Thanks for calling me back. Well, I hope it was a good surprise." Rory walks back over with the plants so that she can listen in. "It was a good surprise." Lorelai whispers to Rory. "You just flew back on your jet? From Maui? Sounds great. Yes, I would love to get together with you. Um, I'm pretty flexible next week. What did you have in mind? David Bowie?" Lorelai repeats not believing it. Rory is equality surprised.

"What?" Rory asks.

"I love David Bowie." Lorelai tells Peyton. "I would love to go. Well, yeah, it is a ways away, but.. No, I think that sounds just crazy enough." Lorelai says, smiling.

"What sounds crazy enough?" Rory asks.

"That sounds great, Peyton. It's a plan. I'll see you then. OKay, bye." Lorelai hangs up. "We're having dinner tomorrow."

"You were talking about David Bowie."

"Well, first he asked me to the David Bowie concert."

"You're so lucky."

"I know. And once that was set, he said that a week was a long time to wait."

"He did not." Rory says with jealousy.

"So we're having dinner tomorrow."

"And Bowie next week?"

"And Bowie next week." Lorelai confirms.

"Two dates in one phone call. Talk about not wasting any time."

"He sounds very cool, and not because he owns a jet."

"Well, remember tell him that the way to get to you is through your daughters, especially your oldest, who desperately wants to go to Amsterdam."

"I will remember."

Rory walks over to the fireplace to take down some more plants. "I think this place is lucky."

"I think you may be right." The clock above Rory starts going off with a song and a little guy pops out freaking Rory. "Course, 'creepy' is the other word that comes to mind."

At Sasha's, Lauren walks into her new friend's home. She looks around and sees no one around. There's empty beer bottles around and it stunk really bad.

"Sasha?" Lauren yells.

"In here!" Sasha yells from the other room. Lauren walks into the other room to find Sasha smoking a cigarette as she does her hair. "Hey!" She says, smiling at Lauren through the mirror. Sasha is a very skinny girl, with short black hair, and so pretty even Lauren was jealous of her.

"Hey." Lauren says, a little surprised to find Sasha smoking all out in the open for anyone to catch her. "You're not afraid to getting caught by your parents?"

Sasha takes the cigarette out of her mouth and sets it in tray. "No." She laughs. "My parents don't care."

"Oh." Lauren says, looking around at the dirty room. Clothes were thrown every sort of way.

"Take a hit, if you want. School is going to be a drag anyway. Might as well get a high while you can."

Lauren shakes her head. "No, thanks. Maybe later." Sasha shrugs her shoulders and continues to get dress as Lauren finds a spot that is clear for her sit ."So, my mom and sister, oh, and my grandpa noticed the smell the other day when I came home."

"Oh, really? Maybe I should have hid it better." Sasha tells her. "Next time, you'll just sleep over so you don't have to face them right away. It'll get rid of the smell before you get home. And then you can try it."

"Oh, I don't know. I've never smoked before." Lauren laughs, nervously.

"It's nothing." Sasha promises. "A bunch of us started doing it back in California because it's legal there and everything. It doesn't take long to get use to. Trust me."

"Okay, yeah." Lauren says. She knew her mom and sister would kill her if they found out she was trying marijuana, but she wanted to fit in. She couldn't get what Holden told her out of her head about being a loner. Well, not in those words, per say, but he did say she doesn't hang around anyone. Not since Elizabeth left anyway. Sasha was the only one who seemed a little decent at Stars Hollow Middle School. "I still can't believe your parents don't care about what you do. My mom is cool, but she isn't that cool."

"They are barely home anyway." Sasha tells her. "I pretty much have been taking care of myself since I was born. I just go where they go, but I can do whatever I want."

"That's so cool. My friend Elizabeth's mom was barely home either, but she still would get into trouble if she found out Elizabeth was doing any of this."

"That's lame. Look, I won't pressure you into anything that you don't want to do, but this is me."

"I get it." Lauren assures her. She looks at her watch and sees that they are going to be late if they don't leave now. "We better get to school. That's one thing I cannot be late for."

Sasha grabs her bag and sprays some fragrance on her body. "Let's go!"

The next day, Lorelai is getting ready for her date with Peyton. Rory and Lauren are sitting on their mom's bed trying to help her decide on what to wear.

"The red skirt is not working!" Lorelai yells from inside her closet.

"Try the blue." Rory tells her.

"Blue let me down ten minutes ago. It's conspiring with the red."

"I wish you wore the dress we picked out this morning."

"Well, you know just as well as I do, the morning butt and evening butt are completely different butts."

"Well, whatever butt you've got tonight had better hurry because he'll be here soon."

"Rats. Fine, okay, striped skirt, burgundy sweater, that's it." Lorelai walks out and shows her girls. "What do you girls think? I can't spend another second deciding what to wear so the answer has to be, 'you look fantastic.'"

"You look fantastic!" Lauren yells with head smashed against the covers.

"You didn't even look." Rory tells her.

Lorelai gasps. "Pink and black!" She says, grabbing the shirt from the bed.

"With the flippy skirt."

"Grab a necklace." Rory gets up and searches through her mom's jewelry box. "Okay, here's my concern."

"Voice it."

"Well, I only saw this guy once for, like, ten minutes and the lighting was only so-so, and I hadn't eaten anything. And like, what if I'm remembering him a lot cuter than he was."

"I'm sure you're not."

"But what if I am? You know how these things are. You get bored, you need a diversion so you superimpose a really cute guy's face over a really scary looking guy."

"Well, then you'll just have to strike up a conversation with him and find out what kind of man he is beneath the surface."

"On a first date? What will he think of me?"

"Just order an extra dessert." Lauren tells her as she sits up in bed.

Lorelai walks out dressed in a different outfit and Rory hands her the necklace. "Okay, fine. Well?"

"I liked the brown." Lauren tells her as she stands next to her sister.

"Come her a sec." Lorelai moves closer to her youngest. "You've got some dirt on your forehead. I'm sorry. It's just the sign of the devil. My mistake."

Lauren rolls her eyes and smiles at her mom. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you." They hear a car pull up outside. "That's him." Rory and Lauren look out of the window and Lorelai takes a peek from above them. "The care sure is pretty."

"Come on." Rory and Lauren run out the room with Lorelai squealing with excitement behind them.

"Okay, now, for some reason he turns out to have like a horn on his forehead you'll call me in an hour with a high fever." Lorelai tells her daughter as they walk downstairs.

"Deal."

"God, I'm nervous. Why am I nervous?"

"Because you're crazy." Lauren reminds her.

"Yes. Good. Thank you."

Lorelai opens the door and Peyton is already standing there. "Hi." He tells her.

Lorelai smiles and turns back to her daughters. "You're feeling just fine. Hey, Peyton."

"Am I early?" He asks.

"No, you're right on time. I want you to meet my daughters, Rory and Lauren."

"It's a pleasure."

"Hi." They both say.

"Okay, so, don't wait up." Lorelai tells them. "And remember only two or three crackheads at the most. They eat all the good cereal."

"Deal. Have fun." Rory tells them.

"Nice meeting you girls." Peyton says, kindly. "You look wonderful." He says, looking down at Lorelai.

"So do you, Peyton. So do you." Lorelai turns back and smiles at her girls as she slowly closes the door behind them.

Lauren turns around and smiles at her sister. "Can I please please go over to Sasha's?"

Rory looks confused. "Why do you need to go to Sasha's? It's eight at night."

"I know, but just this once. Please, Rory!" Lauren begs.

Rory sighs knowing that her sister will not leave her alone until she does. "Fine. But only for an hour because Mom won't be gone for long."

"Thank you! Thank you!" Lauren grabs her coat and runs out of the house quickly.

Late that night, Rory is laying in bed when Lorelai walks up to her door.

"Are you up?" Lorelai asks, coming into her room.

Rory starts moving around. "What time is it?" She asks as Lorelai walks closer and sits down on the bed.

"10:15."

"Geez."

"Yeap." Lorelai says, sadly.

"What happened? He was hornless."

"No, he had no horns. He also had no personality."

"Yikes."

"And no sense of humor, and no idea how boring he was."

"I'm sorry."

"That's okay. The evening started well until we got to the car, a Jaguar XJ8 convertible with a 290-horsepower engine in case you were wondering. You weren't? Funny. Neither was I. However, he told me anyhow. He told me a lot of other things about the car also. Like, did you know how many inches the pistons are? I do. I also know the correct oil to use, how to treat the leather interior and how to load it onto a flatbread truck in case of a flat."

"Geez. Did he talk about anything but the car?"

"Not until we got to the restaurant and the wine list."

"Oh, no! He's a winey?"

"Yes. He sniffed, swirled, swished and did every pretentious and borderline disgusting thing that you can do with a glass of wine in a public place and he did it all while describing to me the vintage discrepancies and the wood they use for the barrels in Palermo and the grap crop projections for the following year. And I, in turn, chimed in with my story about getting sick on Andre Cold Duck in back of Peter Cutler's car in ninth grade. He didn't find that quite as charming."

"I can't believe that. That is one of your best anecdotes."

"I know. So I stopped talking. He continued talking, and I sat there, thinking about Peter Cutler. How was Peter Cutler? Where was Peter Cutler? Was there any chance that he would appear and kill the man sitting across from me, talking about torque?"

"Was the food good at least?"

Lorelai grimaces. "Tiny portions, weirds sauces."

"I'm sorry."

"That's okay. You don't know until you try, right? Anyhow, I am going to go to bed now and dream of Peter Cutler. Hopefully, it will be dirty. Hey, how was tonight? What did you and Lauren do?"

Rory sighs. "Well, when you left Lauren wouldn't stop buggin me about going to Sasha's so I let her go for an hour and when she got home she went right upstairs without saying even one word to me. I haven't heard from her since. I am not so sure about this Sasha girl."

Lorelai sighs. "Man, I was really hoping she had a good friend. I'll talk to her."

"Okay." Lorelai kisses her daughter and starts walking to the door. "Hey, what about Bowie?" Rory asks, remembering the concert Peyton had invited her to.

"Nuh uh. I'm not sharing Peter Cutler with Bowie."

Rory rolls her eyes, playfully. "Are you still going?"

"No. There's no way I could stand this guy for another night." Lorelai says, looking very disappointed. "I'll catch Bowie the next time he does a farewell tour."

"Bummer."

"I know."

"Goodnight, Mom."

"Goodnight, babe. Oh, and hey, tomorrow, I'll fill you in on how many hours you have to clock to get your pilot's license."

"I cannot wait." Rory says sarcastically.

Upstairs, Lorelai walks into Lauren's room. Lauren is laying in bed with her earphones still in her ears, but the music has stopped, and a book laying across her chest. Lorelai smiles and takes the earphones and book, and puts them on Lauren's nightstand. She bends down and kisses Lauren gently on her head, but then stops and starts sniffing her daughter's hair. It smelled like smoke. Lorelai looks at her daughter with confusion. She starts sniffing her all around and makes a metal note to talk to her daughter tomorrow.

The next day, Lauren was out of the door before Lorelai could even get to talk to her daughter. That right there showed Lorelai that Lauren was definitely up to something and didn't want her knowing about it. At the inn, Lorelai walks behind the counter where Michel is.

"The quilting convention is sitting down to tea." Lorelai informs him.

"Ugh. I'm doing internal cartwheels." Michel says, sarcastically.

"Any messages?"

"Your mother called. The aucton people dropped the lamp we bought at her place and dropped hers off here." Michel points to he ugly lamp on the right of him. "She's desperate to have ti for some soiree at her house this evening."

"Oh, swell. I guess I can take it to her when I do my other errands. I can pick up Rory, too. This is cool." Lorelai grabs the lamp and some bowl looking type that was right beside it.

"Yes, it was a personal purchase."

"I want it. What is it?" Lorelai asks, looking at it.

"An 18th centruy bleeding bowl."

"A bleeding bowl?" Lorelai drops it back onto the desk.

"When doctors bled patients, the blood had to go somewhere, no?"

"Okay, pick up Lauren, drop off lamp, pick up Rory, boil right hand." Lorelai says, disgusted.

At the middle school, Lauren is surprised when she sees her mom waiting outside the school for her. Sasha walks up beside her and looks at where Lauren is looking.

"Is that your mom?" Sasha asks her. Lauren nods her head. "Can I meet her?"

"Not yet." Lauren says, quickly. "I'll call you later." Lauren runs up to her mom and quickly gets into the front seat of the jeep. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't pick up my daughter from school?" Lorelai asks, faking hurt.

"Yeah, but, I mean, you never do. That's why I'm asking."

"Was that Sasha?" Lorelai asks, looking at the girl who is walking down the sidewalk.

"Yeap."

"Why didn't you introduce me to her?"

"Because we obviously have somewhere to be." Lauren says with an attitude.

Lorelai gives Lauren a weird look. "What is with the sudden attitude lately? Ever since you've been hanging around this Sasha girl, your mood has changed. What gives?"

"I have not." Lauren argues as Lorelai drives off.

"Yes, you have, Lauren. What happened to my sweet and fun Lauren, huh?" Lauren sighs and looks out the window not wanting to discuss this with her mom anymore. But she couldn't answer her even if she wanted to. Lauren wasn't sure what was going on with her either. Lauren just wasn't as happy as she used to be and it wasn't going unnoticed.

At the Gilmore's, Emily opens the door where Lorelai is standing holding the lamp.

"Mom, I think this is your's." Lorelai tells her.

"Ah, yes it is." Emily says, smiling, taking the lamp out of Lorelai's hands. She walks over and sets it on one of the shelves. "And I believe this is your's." She grabs the other lamp and brings it to Lorelai.

"Yes, it is."

"That auction house is usually so good with deliveries. I'm surprised at the mix-up."

"Well, Gilmore and Gilmore. There's kind of a connection there."

"Yes, I suppose there is." Emily looks behind Lorelai and sees Lauren in the front seat of the Jeep. "Oh, Lauren's with you."

"Yes, she is." Lorelai says, hoping her mother didn't start asking her questions she knew she couldn't answer.

"'Well, why doesn't she get down to say hello?"

"She's just being a teenager right now, Mom. I have to pick up Rory in a while, so we'll see you Friday."

"Well, why don't you girls just come in, have some coffee."

"Oh, I don't want to leave Rory standing there."

Emily looks at her watch. "Rory doesn't get out for another half an hour. You've got a little time.

Lorelai sighs. She knew she had no choice now. "I guess we can stay a minute."

"Wonderful. Lauren!" Emily calls out. Lauren turns her head and looks at her mom and grandmother waving for her to come inside. Lorelai gives her a stern look which meant don't argue and just get your butt inside so we can leave.

Lauren climbs out the jeep and walks slowly inside. "Hey, Grandma." Lauren says, putting on a smile.

"Well, hello, dear."

"Grandma just wants us to visit for a little bit." Lorelai tells her daughter.

"Okay." Lauren says, hoping she just had to sit there and not answer any questions.

Emily closes the door and they walk towards the living room "I'll get you a stopwatch so you can keep exact time." Emily teases.

"That won't be necessary, Mom."

"So, how is everything?"

"Everything's fine."

"And Lauren how is everything with you?"

"Everything is fine, Grandma." Lauren answers while they sit.

"How's everything with Rory?"

"Everything with Rory's fine." Lorelai answers.

"And how's everything at the inn?"

"Everything at the inn is fine."

"And how was your date?" Emily asks taking Lorelai by surprise.

"My what?"

"Your date with Peyton."

"My date was, shockingly enough, fine." Lorelai lies. "How did you know?"

"His mother told me." Emily tells her. Lauren snorts with laughter and getting a glare from her mother.

"You know his mother?"

"A little." Emily smirks.

"Well, good."

"Tell me, what did you do?"

"When?"

"On your date."

"Oh, well, we just went to dinner, that's all."

"I heard you went driving afterward."

"Uh, sure, we drove in the direction of my house. You could call that driving around."

"I heard he had a lovely time."

"Did he? That's nice. I'm glad." Lorelai taps Lauren on her leg signalling her to stand up with her. "We should really get going, Mom."

"Oh, you have a little more time." Lorelai and Lauren sigh and sit back down. "I want to hear about your date."

"Well, it was just a date, nothing special, two people eating and talking, one talking more than the other."

"Has he called you since?"

"No, but-"

"Oh, well, only last night. There's time." Emily assures her. "I just think this is so exciting!"

"I wouldn't get too excited, Grandma." Lauren says.

Emily looks confused. "Why not?"

"We didn't really hit it off that well." Lorelai tells her.

Emily's face drops. "What?"

"No one's fault. He's just not my type."

"What do you mean?"

"We just don't have the same interests and didn't find a lot to talk about. You know, basically the date was kind of a dud."

"That's too bad." Emily says, looking very sad.

"Yeah."

"Well, you'll just have to try harder on the next date."

"Excuse me?"

"Aren't you going to a concert together next week?"

"Oh, that Peyton's a real Mama's boy, isn't he?"

"Just because he shares his life with his mother doesn't make him a Mama's boy, Lorelai."

"I'm not gonna go to the concert."

"I thought you had a plan."

"We did, before we went spent any time together and realized we can't spend time together."

"You're not gonna cancel on him, are you?"

"Believe me, he won't be surprised. He didn't have that great a time, either."

"You have to go to the concert. You made a commitment, Lorelai. You have to honor it."

"Mom, this is my business, okay?"

Emily rolls her eyes. "This is so like you!"

"What is so like me?"

"You spend five seconds with a person, they say one wrong thing you turn on them, and never give them a second chance. You are extremely judgemental, Lorelai."

"I'm not extremely judgemental of the pot calling the kettle black. I was with a man who talked about nothing but himself, his place, his car."

"He's proud of his accomplishments." Emily says, defending Peyton.

"He didn't end world hunger, Mom. He made the grueling decision to spring for the bigger tires."

"Lorelai."

"I have to go." Lorelai says standing up.

"We're not finished discussing this."

Lorelai waves her hand at Lauren for her to get up, too. "There's nothing to discuss. Rory's waiting. I'll see you Friday."

"Bye, Grandma." Lauren waves and she and her mom walk out of the house.

After picking up Rory, Lorelai pulls up at the diner.

"I'm going to Sasha's." Lauren tells them as they get out of the jeep.

"Oh, no, you're not." Lorelai laughs.

"What?" Lauren asks, getting mad.

"You are coming have dinner with your sister and I. If you want to hang out with Sasha again then I have to meet her."

"You're kidding me, right?" Lauren just stares at her mom's serious face. "Oh my gosh, you're serious." She says, in a huff.

"Lauren, you've been coming home smelling like cigarette smoke. I don't want you around people who do that or live like that. It's not healthy and I don't want anything to happen to you."

Lauren walks passed her mom and Rory without saying anything. She didn't feel like arguing so she was gonna suck it up and hang out with them if that's what her mom really wanted her to do. "Wow. No fighting?" Rory asks, surprised.

"Great. Now I feel like my mother." Lorelai says, sadly, as they follow Lauren into the diner. As they are eating their food Lorelai's phone rings. "Hello?" Lorelai answers. "Dwight. Hi. It's nice to hear from you, too. Hey, how did you get my cell phone number?" Lorelai asks, remembering she never gave it to him. "Oh, yeah, got to love that Babbette. The lawn's fine. Okay. Okay. Sure, Dwight. You have a safe trip." Lorelai hangs up. "It seems that Dwight has been checking the weather reports and Stars Hollow is gonna be extra-sunny for the next few days. So he told me instead of watering the lawn twice for 15 minutes we could water it three times for ten minutes."

"He should really get a dog."

"Only the dog shouldn't mind using the bathroom at the gas station cause that lawn is definitely off limits. So, I have to get back to the Inn. Could you water for me?"

"It was your idea."

"I can't. I have a china shipment coming in."

"Do it tonight."

"Dwight says it needs it now, and if we let that lawn die, he'll vibe us for the rest of our lives."

"Not me. I'm going off to college next year." Rory says, smugly.

"You'll be home for holidays."

"Not now."

"You would stay away from me on holidays because Dwight?" Lorelai asks, very shocked and hurt.

"Hey, nobody wants vibings on the holidays."

"Rory, please." Lorelai begs. "I'll be seriously late if I have to go all the way home."

"Fine."

"Thanks." Lorelai gets up and kisses Rory and then Lauren on her cheek. "I love you!" She says, dramatically making Lauren just roll her eyes in annoyance. As Lorelai is walking out of the diner her phone starts ringing. "Dwight, please! You're on a business trip. Get a hooker." She says before answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Lorelai." Richard says on the other end. "Good. I'm glad I got you. I just wanted you to know that I'm playing golf with Peyton's father, Brennon, on Sunday."

"Okay." Lorelai says, unsure of why her father was telling her this. "Wear sunscreen."

"I will call you afterward and can evaluate how to proceed."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I'm not sure how much damage is done, so I need time with the man to assess whether or not a simple apology will work."

"Apology from who?"

"From you."

"For what?"

"For the way you treated Peyton." Richard tells her.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious."

"Dad, this is none of your business."

"It certainly is my business."

"No, who I date or do not date is absolutely none of your business."

"Peyton's mother is in the DAR with your mother."

"I know that."

"She's also on the opera sommittee with your mother, the hospital board and the horticultural society with your mother."

"I get it. They hang. What's the point?"

"This woman is a very important person in our social circle." Richard explains. "She may have taken what you did the wrong way which could affect her relationship with your mother."

"Dad, all I did was not go on a second date with her fully grown son. There's no way she's gonna be mad at Mom for that."

"Lorelai, you obviously do not understand the way things work in your mother's world." Richard stresses. "There is a certain protocol that must be followed, social rules that dictate proper bahavior and these rules must be very strictly adhered to."

"Dad, I'm not going out with Peyton again. Period."

"Lorelai, let me tell you a little story. Now, two years ago, Sally Wallington's check for the winter formal bounced."

"So?"

"It took her two weeks to replace the check."

"So?"

"When Sally attended the next DAR meeting she was served the last cup of tea."

"So!?" Lorelai whines.

"Before this unfortunate incident Sally Wallington always received the first cup of tea. When she was suddenly demoted your mother moved up to the prime tea spot and she's held that spot ever since. Now, she's very proud of that spot and now she's afraid this little incident may jeopardize it."

"Dad, I explained this to Mom, and I'll explain it to you. I'm not sixteen. I don't live with you anymore. I've been making my own decisions romantic and otherwise, for years. And you can play all the golf you want but let the subject be letting chicks into the golf club because my love life is officially off-limits."

"Didn't you just hear what I said?"

"About the tea. Yes, I heard it, and I'm sorry, but it sounds insane."

"Of course it sounds insance! It is insane! That is not the point!"

"Okay, what's the point?"

"The point is your mother is upset, and I don't want her to be upset. Now, you may not understand her world, I may not understand her world, but it is her world, and in her world it is very important that she have the first cup of tea. And I don't care about your independence or what you told your mother or anything else you say. If my wife wants the first cup of tea, she's going to have the first cup of tea! That's it! Now, I will call you after I play golf." Richard hangs up the phone and Lorelai sighs. If it wasn't one thing it was another. Why did she have to stress so much before about Peyton?

At Dwights, Rory and Lauren are walking down his driveway.

"I still don't understand why I had to come with you." Lauren says, looking upset.

"Because Mom doesn't want you running off and hanging out with Sasha, so I have to keep a close eye on you." Rory explains as she turns the sprinklers on.

"So, I can't have any friends. Is that it?"

"No, that's not it." Rory says, rolling her eyes at her sister's childish act. "Lauren, do you realize you come home everyday smelling like you've dived into a big wave of smoke? It stinks."

"I can't help it if Sasha's parents smoke. It's not like they do it when we're at the house."

"So, what? They are like Elizabeth's parents and are never home?" Rory questions.

"No. We're just never home when they're home." Lauren says, smiling.

"Same thing."

"I don't have any friends, Rory. The one friend I do make, you and Mom don't like her even though you don't even know her."

"Well, it's not like you've tried to introduce her to us. And what about Holden? I thought you were two were friends."

Lauren flinched after hearing that name. "No." She says, quietly, not wanting to get on the subject of him.

"He seemed really nice."

"So what?" Lauren says, getting annoyed while she follows her sister into the house. "Whoa." Lauren steps back a little staring at the house. "Are we in Florida?"

Rory laughs. "Feels like it, huh? It's pretty cool."

Lauren sees the cabinet filled with board games. "Who is this guy?"

Rory begins watering the other plants when the phone rings and the answering machine picks it up. _'Dwight? Hi, it's Doris. Doris, your wife! Remember me?' _She screams frightening the girls. _'The woman who was asleep in bed when you snuck out the window like a spineless worm!' _Lauren looks at her sister. She was getting nervous and scared and so was Rory. _'How dare you sneak out, you sniveling pond-scum sample! I should call Erin Brockovich to bring a lawsuit against your parents, you steaming lump of toxic waste! You really thought you could get away from me?' _Rory and Lauren slowly walk closer to the answering machine. _'I would've found you sooner if I'd bothered to look, but now I have. I've found you. And all I can say is this: I want my board games back! I want them back and I want them back now!' _Rory grabs her sister by the shoulder and they quickly walk out of the house away from Dwight's screaming wife.

"Wow." Was all Lauren could say when they got back outside.

"That was scary." Rory says while she tries to turn off the sprinklers. "Whoa!" She yells. The sprinklers turn on a lot more than she wanted to spraying water on them both.

"Turn it off, Rory!" Lauren yells.

Rory tries to turn it off, but can't. "I'm trying! It won't turn off!"

Lauren pushes her sister out of the way to try it instead while slipping into mud in the process. "Ugh! Gross!"

"You're not doing it right!" Rory takes the tool back and tries to turn it off herself. Jess walks by and sees them having trouble.

"Let me do it!" Jess yells, running through the water.

"What? Rory asks, confused. "You don't have to do this."

"Let him do it, Rory!" Lauren yells handing him the tool.

"I can just find someone else to do it!" Rory yells. Jess turns it off. "You made it look so easy."

"It was loose." He tells them. "You just had to press down and give it a good twist."

"Well, thank you." Rory says, sincerely.

"You're welcome."

Lauren looks down at her soaken clothes. "Ugh! I'm going shower." She runs behind Dwight's house and into her own yard.

"So, things are good?" Jess asks Rory, who was still standing there looking at him.

"Yeah. Really good." Rory lies.

Jess nods his head. "School?"

"Good."

"Still gonna do the Harvard thing?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

"Yeah, good." Rory agrees. She wasn't sure what to say back to him. They barely talked and now things were just awkward around them.

It's Friday night at the Gilmore's, Emily walks to the door to let her daughter and grand-daughters in.

"Hi, Mom." Lorelai smiles as they walk in.

"Hello, Lorelai."

"Hey, Grandma." Lauren and Rory both say while they take off their coats.

"Hello, girls."

They start walking to the living room. "So, I brought you something, Mom." Lorelai says, showing her mom the book.

"Really?"

"These are pictures from Sookie's wedding. There's a great one of you and Dad dancing. I put them in an album."

"That's very nice. Thank you." Emily says as she continues making the drinks.

"You want to see?"

"I'm making drinks, Lorelai."

"Right." Lorelai smiles. "Later it is."

"Here." Emily hands Lorelai her drink.

"Oh, I guess I'm having wine."

"You didn't want wine?"

"Wine's fine."

"Give it back. I'll get you something else."

"I'm good with wine."

"I can make you a martini. Would you like a martini?"

"No, you usually ask me what I want. Tonight you didn't ask what I wanted so I didn't have a chance to tell you how much I'd love wine."

"I bought some cheese to have before dinner." Emily tells the girls who had already made themselves comfortable on the couch.

"Great." Rory says. "We love cheese."

"It goes great with wine." Lorelai adds.

"I will be right back." Emily walks away and Lorelai sits down next to Lauren.

"Boy, it's cold in here."

"It's a lot colder where you're sitting." Lauren informs her.

"She's mad at me."

"Yeap." Rory agrees.

"Think she's gonna be mad at me all night?"

"Yeap."

"I guess I should go in there and talk to her."

"Yeap."

"You wouldn't want to talk to her for me?"

"Nope."

Lorelai sighs. "Good thing you don't get paid by the word."

"The sooner you get in there, the sooner you get cheese."

Lorelai walks into the kitchen where Emily is setting up the cheese onto a tray. "Need some help?" She asks.

"No, I'm fine, thank you." Emily says.

"Mom, I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry about the whole Peyton thing. When I asked you for his number I didn't think..."

"Think about what?"

"About what would happen if things didn't work out with us." Lorelai tells her. "I mean, I know his mom is your friend and I shouldn't have gotten mixed up in this thing if I wasn't prepared to remember that what I do will affect you. And to me, it's just a Bowie concert, but to you, it's not. I was thoughtless, and I'm sorry. But you have to understand that I was not lying when I said we had a bad time. We had a really, really bad time. I swear, it was one of the worst times I've ever had, it was awful. Do you remember skiing with the Danners and their Dobermans?"

Emily chuckles at the memory. "Oh, god, yes."

"This was worse. And by the way, not just for me. It was pretty bad for him, too. It wasn't like he was in love and I was miserable. We were both in pain. Deep pain. Marathon Man kind of pain." Lorelai takes a deep breath after explaining her dreadful date. "But despite all this horrible pain that we were both in and would be in again if we had to spend one more second together if you really want me to, I will go to the Bowie concert with him."

Emily smirks. She was couldn't believe Lorelai would even think about going on another bad date with Peyton just for her. "Your saying that means a lot. Thank you, Lorelai." Emily walks out of the kitchen and Lorelai knew she would have to go on another date with that man. She was waiting for a: 'oh, no, Lorelai. I wouldn't want you to go through that again.' But this was Emily Gilmore we were talking about.

Later that night, Lauren had snuck out of her room, through the window. She had to blow off some steam that she had been holding in all day since her mom and Rory wouldn't let out of their sight to hang out with Sasha. Both girls are sitting in the middle of Sasha's living room. Sasha has a joint in her hand and Lauren is sitting there nervously.

"It won't hurt you. It will actually chill you out and by the looks of it, you need it." Sasha says, smiling, and holding the joint out for Lauren to take. Lauren takes a deep breath and takes the joint from her new friend. Sasha was right. She did need to chill out.. a lot. Lauren knew if her mom ever found out she was doing this, she would be the big major disappointment from now on, but she already felt like she was. So, Lauren puts the joint up to her lips and starts sucking it. The smoke going into her throat making her cough. "You'll get use to it." Sasha takes the joint back and starts smoking it herself. Lauren sighs to herself. She did it. There was no turning back now.


	47. You Little Buzzkill

It is morning and Lorelai is in an organizing mood. She is in the kitchen going through stuff at the kitchen table when Rory walks out from her room.

"Morning." She greets her mom.

"Morning."

"Wow. Someone woke up in project mode today." Rory says, walking passed the mess on the table to get herself some coffee.

"I'm like the Army, babe. I get more done before nine in the morning than others get done all day." Lorelai says with excitement.

"Well, as long as you don't abandon it mid-project." Rory tells her remembering all the other projects that were left unfinished.

"I do not do that."

"Make your own seashell candles." Rory reminds her.

"Oh, not fair. Lauren and I were just experimenting."

"The place smelled like melted crayons for three weeks."

"This is different." Lorelai assures her as they both sit down at the table.

"Fine." Rory says, giving in. "What's the project?"

"This is a pile of every catalog we've received for the last three months." Lorelai explains.

"Okay."

"I've gathered them all together and I will now proceed to call all the companies sending us duplicates and tell them to stop."

"That's very environmental of you."

"It's getting ridiculous. We get like eight of some of these."

"You're kidding."

"Check this out." Lorelai picks up one of her piles. "This is a stack of identical catalogs mailed to Lorelai Gilmore, Rory Gilmore, Lauren Gilmore, Lorelai Rory Gilmore, Lorelai V. Gilmore, Lauren Lorelai Gilmore, Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, Lorelai Gilmo, Lorelai Gil, and Squeegy Beckinheim."

"How'd that get in there?" Rory laughs.

"I once told the store my name was Squeegy Beckinheim just to see how many catalogs they'd sell my name to. And apparently, my name is to catalog companies what Brooke Shields picture is to Chinese restaurants." Lauren makes her way into the kitchen, looking very sleepy in her pajamas. "Well, good morning, my young one." Lorelai says to her. Lauren just grunts. "You were up really late last night."

"Report." Lauren tells her while she fixes herself some coffee.

"Why were you up so late doing a report?" Rory asks her sister once she sits down.

"Because it's due tomorrow."

"What? Lauren, you are usually so good at being on time." Lorelai says, not understand what had gotten into her daughter. "Is it the teachers? Are they putting too much pressure on you again?"

Lauren shakes her head. "No, Mom, the teachers are actually fine. I think they found out that I'm thinking about going to Chilton so they have backed off on me a little. I've just been super tired lately."

Lorelai feels Lauren's forehead with her hand. "Have you been feeling okay?"

"Yeah. I feel fine." Lauren says, shooing her mom's hand away from her head.

Lorelai didn't want to believe that Lauren was hanging out with Sasha because she remembered telling her to not to unless she met her. "Have you been hanging out with Sasha?"

Lauren looks up, glaring at her mom. "No. You told me I couldn't." Lauren says, very matter-of-factly.

Lorelai smirks at her daughter. "Good. I'm surprised you actually listened to me." Lorelai jokes and goes back to her organizing. Rory looks at her sister and could sense something was up, but she didn't dare bring it up in front of Lorelai. Not just yet anyway.

Lauren starts looking at the catalogs. "Who is Tookie Clothespin?" She asks, looking very confused.

Lorelai chuckles. "Oh, I forgot my code name at the second store I tested. So, I told them it was Tookie Clothespin."

"Which means we get even more catalogs." Rory tells her.

"It was unintentional."

"When you start a forest fire unintentionally, it's still your fault."

"You're putting calling myself Squeegy and Tookie on a level with starting a forest fire?" Lorelai questions her daughter.

"It's killing trees." Lauren chimes in totally getting where her sister is coming from.

Lorelai sighs. "You are both depressing me now."

Rory grabs the phone and hands it to her mother. "Well, get on the phone and stop the madness. That'll cheer you up."

"Eh, I need coffee." Lorelai gets up from the table.

"There's more coffee." Rory says, getting frustrated.

"I should get ready, too."

"You're stopping mid-project." Rory complains.

"I'm bored."

"Then don't start these projects."

"I promise I'll finish. I just want to check on the seashells."

"These catalogs will be here forever." Rory groans looking back at the piles.

"No, they won't." Lorelai assures her. "They're biodegradable."

"Come on. I'll call half, and you call half. Okay?"

Lorelai knew she couldn't argue with that. Rory and Lauren were very tough girls when they wanted to get their way. "Okay." Lorelai gives up and walks back to the table. Lorelai pushes the phone back to Rory, changing her mind. "You do yours first, then I'll do mine."

"Hey!"

Lorelai gets up again. "We only have one phone." She shrugs. "You're young. You'll dial faster." Lorelai walks quickly out of the kitchen.

"Squeegy!" Rory yells. Rory turns back around and eyes her sister.

Lauren shakes her head and stands up. "Nope. I won't do it either!" She yells following her mom. Rory signs and slams the phone back onto the table.

Later that night, the town meeting is going on and everyone, of course, is there.

"The bottom line is that too many birds are landing atop the streetlights." Taylor complains. "And relieving themselves on helpless passersby. And I daresay some of these birds seem to be doing it on purpose."

"You get dumped on, Taylor?" Babbette asks.

"It's not just me." Taylor groans.

"If anybody has a picture of Taylor getting dumped on, I'll pay top dollar." Luke announces.

"I'll check the internet." Kirk tells him.

"Taylor, all animals have to... you know." Patty says. "How are you gonna stop birds from doing that?"

"Easy. You put them sharp metal spikes on top of the fixtures." Taylor tells her. "Then, when they land, they're shish kebab."

Lauren gasps. "You can't do that!" She yells at him.

"I'd rather have bird crap fall on my head." Andrew says.

"There it is, our new town slogan." Lorelai says

"I like it." Rory laughs.

"I see coffee mugs, T-shirts."

"Don't forget the stuffed shish-kebab birds."

Lauren looks sadly at her sister. "Rory." She whines.

Lorelai laughs and closes her youngest ears. "That moan when you squeeze them."

Lauren glares at her mom. "I heard that." She says, taking her mom's hands away from her.

Suddenly, a strange guy comes into the studio and everyone turns to him. "Uh, excuse me." He says to the crowd.

"May I help you, sir?" Taylor asks.

"Yes, I was looking for.." The guy turns around and sees Patty. "Ah, there she is. Patricia." He says with an accent.

Lorelai mocks him. "Patricia! Well, well, well!"

"Now, stop it." Patty says, embarrassed.

"Are you ready?" He asks her.

"I'm right in the middle of something, Jesus, but I'll be right out. Patience." She says, waving him away with a smile.

"Okay." He backs out of the studio and closes the door.

"Who's the fox, Patty?" Babbette asks.

"Excuse me." Taylor says, obviously wanting to move on with the town meeting.

"I met him at a funeral." Patty tells them. "Great guy, good dancer. Latin." She whispers the last part.

Everyone ooohs and ahhs. "People, order, please!" Taylor yells over the noise.

"He better treat you right, this guy." Lorelai tells her.

"How well do you know him?" Babbette asks.

"I just met him." Patty says.

"I could look him up on the internet." Kirk offers.

"Please, please." Taylor yells, getting more annoyed by the second. "Now, due to the lack of response, we'll hold off on the bird spikes."

"Good!" Lauren yells.

"Let Miss Patty's date begin!" Lorelai tells everyone. They all applause and start leaving the studio.

"Hold it!" Taylor yells. Everyone sighs and sits down again. "There's one more issue that must be addressed before we can adjourn. Alright. Now, that weird, taciturn fellow who's always walking around with his backpack has put in an absurd request to stage a protest in the town square."

"The town loner?" Lorelai asks.

"That guy still lives around here?" Luke asks her.

"Somewhere in the hills, right?" Babbette asks.

"I thought he was long gone."

"He came to the bookstore a few times and never said a word." Andrew tells them.

"He's a bit creepy." Patty says.

"Very creepy." Taylor agrees.

"But he's our Boo Radley, and we don't have a Boo Radley." Lorelai says with slight panic. "Unless you count the troubadour or the pizza guy or the guy who talks to mailboxes."

"I think the point is that every town needs as many Boo Radleys as they can get." Rory tells him.

"Yes, that's my point."

Luke chuckles at this. It would be the Gilmore girls to want keep this guy around. "What's he protesting, Taylor?" Patty asks, curiously.

"Well, that's not indicated here, but it doesn't matter because protesting is not allowed in the town square, period. It's un-American."

"Like the Revolutionary War?" Lauren asks.

"And Rosa Parks?" Babbette adds.

"That's different." Taylor tells them. "They were against the British and buses. No one likes the British or buses. So as town selectman I am refusing the town loner's request to protest and I am adjourning this meeting." Taylor hits his gavel onto the potium and everyone begins getting up and leaving once again.

"We got nothing of substance from this meeting." Luke tells them.

"And the tradition stands." Lorelai celebrates. "Hey, what do you know about this town loner guy?" Lorelai asks Luke as they walk out of the studio.

"Same as everyone. Kind of sulks around with that backpack. Never smiles."

"Does he also make cheeseburgers and secretly harbor a desire to wear a backwards baseball cap?"

"What?"

"They're cousins." Lorelai sings. "Identical cousins."

"Stop." Luke says, unamused.

They all look forward when they see Jess drive by in an old car. "Well, look who's back behind the wheel. Lovely."

"Mom, I'm gonna get going. I've got some studying to do." Rory tells her.

"Okay, babe. We'll catch up with you." Rory walks away leaving Luke, Lorelai, and Lauren still standing there. "When did Jess get a car?"

"Oh, uh, recently." Luke says.

"Where'd he get it?"

"From a guy around here at a place."

"A guy at a place?"

"Yeah."

"You had no idea he had a car, did you?"

"Not in the least."

"Ugh. Way to have a handle on things." She says, as they begin to walk.

"He doesn't share a lot with me, and he's got a license. What can I do?"

"Stop him before he kills."

"He's not gonna kill anyone."

"He's got a bad track record with cars." Lorelai reminds him.

"I know. I'm not exactly thrilled with this either."

"Okay, I'm sorry. It's your thing. I'll just butt out now."

"Where'd he get the money for the car?" Luke wonders.

"I don't know. Working at the diner?" Lorelai guesses.

"I can barely afford a car on the money I get working at the diner." Luke argues.

"Maybe it was a gift from someone who doesn't know it's gone yet."

"Thanks."

"I'm helpful, aren't I?"

"Bye."

"Bye."

Lauren stops when she sees Sasha standing in the corner by the gazebo. "Hey, Mom." Lauren says, grabbing her mom's hand. "Sasha's right over there. Do you want to meet her?"

Lorelai looks up and indeed sees the girl from the other day standing at the corner of the square listening to music on her ipod. "Uhh.." Lorelai stutters. She didn't know if she wanted to or not.

"Please." Lauren begs and making herself pout. "I really want to start hanging out with her again." Lauren knew she couldn't actually hide herself from hanging out with Sasha anymore, so she had to let her mom meet her.

Lorelai sighs. She wasn't really ready to meet who her daughter was hanging out with and possibly doing bad things with. "Uh, yeah, sure. Let's go."

Lauren jumps up with excitement and drags her mom across the street and over to Sasha. "Sasha!" Lauren yells.

Sasha looks up and smiles at her new friend. She takes her earphones out of her ears. "Hey."

"Hey, this my mom Lorelai. Mom, this is Sasha. She is who I been hanging around with."

"Nice to meet you." Sasha says, smiling up at the tall woman that looked so much like her friend.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you, too." Lorelai says, putting on a fake smile. She looked the girl over and, of course, she looked decent enough to hang out with her daughter. She was little taller than Lauren just like Elizabeth was and had the perfect little smile that Lorelai could easily see through. She once had that smile when she was that age. That smile that you have to trick any parent, but, no, not Lorelai. Lorelai then remembers that Lauren had been giving her that exact smile starting not too long ago and now she was scared.

"So, you met her. Can we hang out now?" Lauren pleads.

Lorelai looks down at her daughter's face. She really wanted to trust her little girl. Lauren needed friends. Ever since Elizabeth left she had been kind of holding back from people, especially since the incident with Alex. Lorelai sighs. She knew she wasn't going to win this one. "Yeah." Lorelai agrees. Lauren and Sasha jump up and down and hug eachother. "But.."

Lauren sighs. "Oh, no." She says, her face dropping.

"I have to know where you are at all times. And Sasha, I think you should hang out at the house so we can get to know you."

"Sure. No problem. I'd love to." Sasha says with a smile.

"Is that a deal?" Lorelai asks Lauren.

Lauren quickly flashes a big smile. "Deal." She says, shaking her mom's hand. "Now, can I go hang out with her now?"

"We're just going to go hang out at the music store, Miss. Gilmore." Sasha tells her.

Lorelai chuckles. "Call me Lorelai, and that's no problem." Lorelai looks at her watch. "It's seven so be home for nine, please."

"Thank you! Thank you!" Lauren hugs her mom tightly, then runs off to the direction of the music store with Sasha.

Lorelai wanted to be happy for her daughter seeing as though she had a smile back on her face and seemed truely happy again, but she couldn't shake the bad feeling she had for Sasha.

At the diner, Luke walks up to Jess who is messing with the front end of his car, trying to get the hood open.

"Hey."

"Hey." Jess says back.

"So, you got a car."

"Motor Trend's not gonna be giving it any awards but it'll get me from point A to point B."

"Yeah, I guess it'll get you around." Luke says, looking at the very old car in front of him that looked like it barely runs. "So, where'd you get the money for it?"

"Mugged an old lady." Jess says, sarcastically.

"Jess."

"It didn't cost that much."

"What's not much?"

"Less than a lot."

"Jess, where did you get the money?" Luke asks again. He did not want to play Jess' games. He needed to make sure he didn't steal it or something.

"You know that hash you sling at the diner, I scrape it off the plates. Remember, I work for you?"

"Yeah, I know you do." Luke says, not believing it. Luke follows Jess to the back of the car where Jess is opens the trunk. "I also know I don't pay you enough to buy the car."

"I saved up my pennies, and I bought the car from Gypsy. She gave me a good deal. That's how I got the car."

"Okay, so you bought a car. Now, the price of the car is just one small thing. It's just the beginning."

"Yeah?" Jess asks, acting interested. He slams the trunk closed and looks at Luke.

"Did you take the additional expenses into account?" Luke asks.

"Like?"

"Insurance."

"I'm in good hands."

"Liability, uninsured motorist?"

"All the paperwork's in the glove compartment. Check it out."

"Money for gas?"

"You mean this thing didn't come with a never emptying magical tank?"

"Jess."

"I factored that in." Jess tells him.

"You're gonna have repairs."

"I can fix most of them myself and save up for the rest. Plus, I'm gonna replace the oil every couple of months."

"I bet you didn't think of the oil. That costs money."

"I'm the one that brought it up." Jess reminds him. "You didn't think of it."

"No, but..." Luke stutters.

Jess grabs a piece of paper from his front seat and hands it to Luke. "Sign this."

"Registration?" Luke reads.

"I'm still a minor."

"I don't have pen." Jess grabs one from his pocket. Luke glares at his nephew because he obviously did think of everything and Luke couldn't get him on anything. He signs the paper. "It's okay if someone else's name is crossed out on it and that yours is written in?"

"Yeah."

"Just checking." Luke hands him back the paper.

"Thanks. Glad we had this talk."

"Yeah. Same here." Luke says, as Jess walks away.

Lorelai walks into her house where Rory is sitting in the living room studying.

"Hello." Lorelai calls out.

"I'm in here." Rory tells her.

"Wow. You beat me home by two minutes and your nose is already in the books." Lorelai jokes as she walks in, looking through the mail.

"I can go from zero to studying in less than sixty seconds."

"Very impressive. Mail call."

Lorelai hands Rory an envelope. "What's this?"

"Mortgage payment. You mind picking it up this month, sweetie baby cookie honey?" Lorelai jokes.

"No, not at all."

"Just something addressed to you." Lorelai tells her.

Rory opens it and is surprised by what she finds. "It's an invitation."

"An invitation to what?" Lorelai asks, curiously. "Oh, it's the White House again? Those boys never give up."

"It's to Sherry's baby shower."

"Who?"

"Sherry Tinsdale, Dad's Sherry." Rory says, grimacing at the invitation in her hands. This was all too weird for her. "It's for me and Lauren."

"You're kidding?"

"It's at her and Dad's house on Sunday."

"Wow. That is very weird." Lorelai says as she walks over to Rory to get a better look at the invitation. "We haven't had contact with Christopher in months. She must know we're on the outs with him, right?"

"Yeah, but she may not know how on the outs."

Lorelai takes the invitation from her daughter. "Zero contact is maximum on the outs."

"Yeah. Althought there may have been some." Rory says, quietly.

"Some what?"

"Some contact."

Lorelai sits down, surprised that her daughter had been speaking to her dad. Her dad. Her own dad. Why was she surprised by this? "You've been in contact with Christopher?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize. You've always been totally free to talk to him whenever you want. I've told you and Lauren that. I mean, he's you girls dad, right? So don't apologize. Has Lauren talked to him?" She asks, wondering.

Rory shakes her head. "No. She refuses."

"It's good you've been talking to him. It is a little weird you didn't tell me, though."

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing." Lorelai says, getting annoyed.

"Even when I feel I should apologize, I can't?"

"Yeah. It's a little annoying."

"Sorry." Rory jokes.

"Rory."

"I'm trying to lighten the mood."

"The mood is light. I just hate that you thought you had to hide that from me."

"I just flet like I was betraying you, or something."

"Well, you weren't." Lorelai says, feeling bad that she made her daughter think that.

"I know that now."

"How much contact have you had with him?"

"Not tons. He emailed me a month ago. I emailed him back, and now we occasionally talk on the phone."

"Does he ever ask about me?"

"What answer will freak you out the least?"

"The honest one."

"Yes, he asks about you because Dad will always care for you very much. You know that. Do you want me to say hello for you next time we talk?"

"No."

"Fine. What should I do about this?" Rory asks, showing her mom the invitation.

"It's your call, and Lauren's. Even though we both know what that answer will be."

"I guess being in Dad's world automatically means being in Sherry's." Rory says, sadly.

"And it is your little half-brother or sister she's carrying." Lorelai reminds her.

"I know, it's weird."

"A good reason to make some connection with her."

"Yeah, but it's gonna be one of those brunchy,quichey things where I don't know anyone, and it's all the way in Boston."

"I'll drive you there if you want." Lorelai says, putting on a brave smile.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'll do some Boston shopping while you quiche it."

"And we can set up some kind of SOS signal I can page you with if I want to bail early."

"Sure."

"Cool. What'll the SOS signal be?"

"How about 'SOS?'"

"Perfect." Rory laughs.

"So you're going?"

"I guess I'm going."

'I think you've made the right decision."

"So do I."

"Now, we just have to see what Lauren thinks about it and go from there."

Rory looks around the room realizing she didn't even see her sister walk in. "Where is she?" She asks.

Lorelai puts on a fake smile. "With Sasha."

Rory's eyes widen. "Really? I thought you weren't letting them two hang out?"

"I met her tonight, when you left. She actually gave me no reason to not let Lauren hang out with her even though my gut was screaming for me not to."

"Wow. You always listen to your gut." Rory says, amazed that her mom ignored this one.

Lorelai shrugs. "She's just been so in and out of it lately. When she's with Sasha she's the Lauren I knew before. So, until they give me a reason not to let them hang out together then they'll hang out. But I did tell Sasha to come around here so I can get to know her."

"Good thinking." Rory looks back down at the invitation then back up at her mom. "I shouldn't have hid that I'm talking to Dad. I am really-" Lorelai squeezes her daughter's leg, stopping Rory from apologizing once again. "Starving." Rory grins.

"I'll get some ice cream." Lorelai gets up and gently brushes Rory's hair with her hand as she walks by.

At Sasha's, Lauren is sitting in Sasha's room looking through a magazine.

"My dad's girlfriend's stupid baby shower it tomorrow." Lauren says, getting annoyed. She hadn't spoke to her dad since Sookie and Jackson's wedding so she was still trying to decide if she should go.

"Sounds cool." Sasha tells her.

"Cool? How does that sound cool?"

"Well, it's going to be your half-brother or sister, right?"

Lauren thinks about it for a second. "So?"

"It's cool. You're going to have another sibling."

"I have Rory." Lauren tells her. Rory was all she needed.

"Well, I think it's cool. You're the big sister now." Sasha lights up a cigarette and walks over to Lauren with it. "Here? Do you want this to chill out?"

Lauren sighs. She couldn't keep doing this. "No. I can't. I have to meet my mom and Rory to go get a present. Plus, I told you I can't keep doing that. My mom is going to find out one way or another."

Sasha walks back to the chair she was sitting in. "Fine. It's your lost. This bad boy is all mine now."

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Enjoy." She sprays some fragrance one her body and starts walking to the door. "I'll call you later."

"Okay. Bye big-sis." Sasha laughs. Lauren just rolls her eyes and walks out.

In Boston, the Gilmore girls pull up in front of the apartment building that Chris and Sherry live in. There are balloons out front.

"This must be the place." Lorelai tells them.

"I think the balloons confirm it." Lauren says, resting her head on her mom's seat.

"No pink, no blue."

"All green." Rory says.

"Aren't baby shower balloons supposed to reflect the sex of the baby?" Lauren asks their mom.

"Blue for boys, pink for girls? Yes." Lorelai tells her.

"What's green for?" Lauren asks, looking back at the apartment. "Aliens?"

Rory laughs. "I'll ask when I go in."

"We're all set, right? Anytime you want out, just send up a flare."

"Got it."

"Even if I'm half naked in a changing room, I'll grab everything and rush out."

"You making a half naked entrance would be funny."

Suddenly Sherry jumps by the window out of nowhere making them all jump back. "Hi!" Sherry says, happily.

"Whoa." Lauren says, a little frightened.

"I'm sorry. I totally snuck up on you."

"It's okay." Rory laughs. "Hi."

"Hi, Rory. Hi, Lauren. Lorelai, I'm so excited you came."

"We're just dropping Rory off." Lorelai tells her.

"Don't go. Stay."

"What?" Lorelai and Lauren both say.

"Come to the party, please."

"Oh, I don't know." Lorelai says, shaking her head. Rory turns to her mom looking really confused.

"I know that you weren't invited but it's cause my friends didn't think you'd be comfortable." Sherry explains.

"Thanks, but I'm not dressed for a party."

"Oh, please, we're not formal here. You look fine. Plus, I would really like for Lauren to stay, too." Sherry says, smiling towards the youngest Gilmore.

Lauren smiles back but turn to Lorelai pleading with her eyes for her mom not to agree. "Well.." Lorelai says, looking at Rory for her to help.

"Mom and Lauren kind of have plans." Rory tells Sherry.

"Yeah, I got a couple of credit cards burning a hole in my wallet." Lorelai jokes.

"Oh, go shopping some other time and come play with us. Please? There are people in there that Rory doesn't know and having you here would make her comfortable."

"I don't mind not knowing anyone, really." Rory assures Sherry.

"That's nice, honey, but very unconvincing. Lorelai, I meant to extend the invitation to the three of you. I just wasn't sure if you'd... you know, there's a lots of food and booze for the lucky non-pregnant ones and cake." Sherry says trying to lure them in. "It'll be fun.

"Well.." Lorelai says looking at her girls.

"I'll block your car with my stomach."

"No, don't do that." Lorelai laughs.

"Please. It would mean so much."

"Okay. Sure."

"Really?"

"Really?" Lauren asks.

Lorelai looks at her youngest. "Yeah, let's have a party."

"Yaay!"

Lauren glares at her mom. She didn't believe her own mom was actually making her go to this party. Lorelai grabs Lauren's face. "I'm going to be with you." Lorelai reminds her.

Lauren sighs and gets out the car following them into the apartment. "Come in. Come in." Sherry says, opening the door for them.

"Nice place." Lorelai says, politely.

"Very nice." Rory agrees.

"Well, it's a work in progress. It was so bachelor pad before. Rock posters, modular furniture, magazines everywhere. I would pick up a TV Guide and it would be three months old." They walk into the living room where Sherry's friends are gathered. "So here's the gang!"

"Hi!" All of the women say when they see the Gilmore's.

"You've got Gail, Jody, Maureen, Linda, Susan, and Alice." Sherry introduces.

"Hi." Lorelai smiles.

"Hey." Rory says, shyly, while Lauren waves.

"These are Christopher's daughters, Rory and Lauren." Sherry tells her friends. "And I did a little arm-twisting and go their mother, Lorelai, to come, too."

"Oh, the more the merrier." Susan says, happy to have them there.

"Mojito?" Maureen offers.

"Oh, that you don't need to twist my arm for." Lorelai jokes.

Sherry puts her arms around Rory and Lauren. "Rory, Lauren, and I will be the only ones not imbibing. Oh, and G.G." She says, rubbing her stomach.

"Who?" Lauren asks.

"G.G." Sherry repeats. "Short for Georgia. The Two Gs."

"That's cute." Rory chuckles.

"So, it's a girl." Lorelai says.

"Yeah, Christopher would have been happily with either but I really wanted a ballerina."

Lauren looks up at Lorelai who looks down at her. She could see the hurt in her daughter's face and she wasn't going to lie. She was kinda hurt, too. Christopher already had two daughters that he barely seen and now he was going to have a daughter he would be able to see everyday. G.G. would have a dad whereas her girls just had her.

Maureen walks over and clips something on Lorelai's shirt, frightening Lorelai a little. "Oh, ah, what's this?"

"It's a game. Everyone gets a diaper pin, and if you say the word 'baby' the person catching you saying it keeps your pin." Maureen explains while she puts the diaper pins on Rory and Lauren also.

"Maureen's the instigator of this soiree. She has a publicity firm in New York." Sherry tells them.

Lorelai looks over and sees Christopher's old cd collection stacked nicely on a shelf. "Oh, look at this." She says, walking closer to it. "The famous CD collection. In alphabetical order, too."

"And not stacked up like coasters." Rory says, impressed.

"I had to put an end to that." Sherry laughs. "Finding something was impossible. I would look for my Wang Chung or Billy Joel, and I would have to give up. So, now everything is at your fingertips. See? Wang Chung." Sherry points easily to the cd.

"Wang Chung." Lorelai repeats.

"Hey, no subgroups, Sherry. Get over here." Maureen calls out. They walk into the living room and sit down with the group. "Don't you hate how she looks?"

"Who? Sherry?" Lorelai asks.

"She only looks pregnant in profile." Maureen says, disappointed that her best friend wasn't fat like she should be. "Nothing in the face or from behind."

"Yeah, Sherry, you look amazing." Rory says, nicely.

Sherry laughs. "I do not."

"You do." Lorelai agrees. "When I was pregnant with Rory, doorways had to be widened. Lauren, on the other hand, gave me no problems at all."

Lauren smirks at her sister. "Good daughter." She says, pointing to herself.

"It's good you're here, Lorelai." Sherry tells her. "You're the only one who can give a motherly perspective."

"Oh." Lorelai says a bit surprised. "I'm the only mother here? None of you have kids?"

"Who's got the time?" Maureen asks.

"Or the guy?" Susan laughs.

"There aren't that many Christophers in the world." Alice says.

"That's true." Lorelai says.

"You have to give me a list of books." Sherry tells her.

"Books?"

"The ones you read when you had Rory and Lauren."

"Oh, I see. I think I was ready Deenie at the time with Rory." Lorelai tries to think.

"No parenting books?"

"No parenting books."

"Then where'd you get information on child raising, your mom?"

"No. For Keeps." Everyone looks around, confused. "Molly Ringwald, Randall Batinkoff. Really underrated little post John Hughes flick. She went to the prom fat. I found it really inspirational."

No one knew really what to say back to that and things were getting kinda awkward. "Hey, what are we all sitting around here for?" Susan asks them. "Let the games begin!"

"Games?" Lauren asks. She, Lorelai, and Rory were not very excited for this. "Am I sick yet?" Lauren whispers to Lorelai.

"Help me move the couch."

"They're moving the couch." Lorelai says to her girls.

"Bless you for being here." Rory says, looking scared.

After the dreadful games of 'feeding the baby' a.k.a feeding eggs to a box, karaoke singing with the word baby in it that no one could even sing so it was weird, and weird diaper smelling that was disgusting everyone out. Lorelai even gave one of her pins to Maureen just so she can say baby crap. And, now, Sherry is opening her gifts.

"You all should have chipped in and bought me one thing." Sherry says, kindly. "AW, it's a mobile. I love it, Gail."

"It's green." Lauren points out. "Isn't it supposed to be pink, pink for girl?"

"Oh, pink's out." Gail tells her.

"It's last week." Linda agrees.

"It's in the magazines." Maureen tells them. "Green's the new pink."

"We did not know that." Lorelai says.

"Hey, Sherry, let me ask you, how are you gonna finish that spring campaign you're working on?"

"Oh, just barely." Sherry tells her. "I have the final presentation on the 17th at noon which gives me plenty of time to do G.G. at five."

"To do G.G.?" Rory asks, looking confused.

"My caesarean. I scheduled it months ago. Didn't you schedule yours?" She asks Lorelai.

"Not quite. A half-hour before I had Lauren me and Rory were eating pizza and watching TV."

"Oh, yeah." Rory remembers. "You were almost named Quincy." She tells Lauren.

"Gee, thanks for refraining." Lauren says.

"Scheduling it like this was bayong necessary." Sherry tells them. "I would die without organization. I mean, which is why I was thrown off in the beginning."

"What do you mean?" Lorelai asks.

"Oh, Christopher and I didn't exactly plan for this to happen. I thought I had the flu. When I finally found out, the doctor had to pick me up off the floor."

"I'm drunk, which is why I'm telling you that we were very shocked when you told us because you are so not a baby person." Maureen laughs.

"I'm still not. I mean, she's mine when she's got legs to dance. Christopher's the baby person."

"She's going to be beautiful." Gail assures her.

Rory, Lorelai, and Lauren look at eachother. Christopher the baby person? Where was he when Lorelai changed all the diapers? "You and Christopher are like a poster for Aryan breeding." Linda laughs.

"Well, I can only hope that G.G.'s as beautiful as Rory and Lauren, and half as smart, too. Rory's going to Harvard, you know." Sherry tells her friends.

"I'm not in yet. I've just applied." Rory says.

"But she's as good as in. And I'm not just saying that." Lorelai tells them. "I can also sign it, mime it, Morse-code it, and do an interpretive dance to it. It's gonna be Harvard." Lorelai says surely.

"I hope so. It's minutes from here. Did you know that?" Sherry asks.

"Minutes? Really?"

"I've already clocked it. 2.7 miles. That's nothing. I've already checked the best route for her to take to come over after classes." Lorelai couldn't help but think about Rory hanging out at her dad's when she had free time and not with her.

"To come over here?" Rory asks.

"Your little sister is going to demand it. You can even sleep over."

"I'll have a dorm room."

"I know, but dorm rooms are awfule. You can even spend the weekends, too."

"Right. The ones she's not visiting me on." Lorelai says.

"And visiting her LITTLE sister." Lauren reminds her. Rory had a little sister. It was her and she only wanted it to be her.

"Oh, that's a given. Really, anytime. We've got a key for you." Sherry says.

"Well, thank you. I'll definitely visit." Rory promises.

"You, too, Lauren. G.G. is going to need her other big sister, too. And, Lorelai, you're sort of G.G.'s aunt."

"Uh, I guess I kind am." Lorelai says, awkwardly. "I'm gonna get some more potato salad." Lorelai excuses herself and Lauren scoots closer to HER sister.

"You know, that sounds good. I think I'm going to get some, too." Sherry gets up and follows Lorelai to the back while the girls continue playing with the games. "I can't believe my appetite. It's so weird what a baby does to you."

"Well, you have lifetime to get back at them." Lorelai jokes.

"I'm glad you're here."

"Good."

"Chris would be happy you're here, too."

"Great."

"I have to tell you, he has been so amazing the past few months. So involved with the baby."

"Good. Good." Lorelai says, trying not to sound too jealous.

"He talks to it every night."

"Who?"

"Christopher, to the baby. He sings, too."

"That's nice."

"He has a terrible voice, but it's sweet. And he's so protective. If he was here now, he would insist that I lie down. I kid him that he's gonna come home with one of those sofas with the pole and four men to carry me around."

"Well, if you turn it down, feel free to send it to my house."

"You know, when I first found out I was pregnant I wasn't so sure how Christopher would handle it. But, I just never expected he would be like this. He's been unbelievable."

"That's great, Sherry, really." Lorelai says, trying to sound sincere, but deep down she really was very jealous and mad that Christopher never tried being that man with her when she was pregnant with his other daughters.

"Yeah, well, I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Yeah, it's all because of you."

"What?"

"Yeah, I been wanting to tell you, actually. Chris and I had a rocky stretch. I thought he was out the door. I mean, he was so distant and hardly ever talked. I wasn't even sure if I was gonna tell him about it. I thought I was either gonna go at it alone, or not go through with it at all. I mean, I was in the same position as you when you were pregnant. Do you know what I mean?"

Lorelai just stood there staring at Sherry. Same position? Sherry didn't look sixteen or twenty to her. "I guess."

"I decided I would tell him before I made any decisions. That was the weekend he was with you and the girls. Remember? There was a wedding or something."

"Yes, I remember."

"Well, I don't know what happened or what you said but whatever it was, it worked. He came back a changed man. All of a sudden, he was so attentive and devoted and so willing to make it work. He said that he had missed out before, and he didn't want to miss it again. And I just credit a good portion of that to you."

"Yes, well, I can be very persuasive." Lorelai was looking really upset.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just one hell of a mojito." Lorelai lies. "Can you direct me to the bathroom?"

"Oh, sure." Sherry points to the hallways.. "Just through there and to the right."

"Thanks." Lorelai walks off and Rory and Lauren watch their mom and could tell something was wrong. Lorelai walks into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She starts being nosey and opens the mirror cabinet. She was so mad she wanted to mess up Sherry's organizing. And as she was doing that there is a knock on the door. "Uh, just a minute."

"It's us." Rory says.

"Come in." Lorelai says. Rory and Lauren walk in. "Hi, there."

"Are you okay?" Lauren asks.

"I've been better."

Rory looks at the stuff in her mom's hand and the mirror cabinet. "You rearranged her medicine cabinet?" Rory asks.

"Yes, and it's going to rock her world."

"Are you having a meltdown?" Lauren asks, feeling bad for her mom.

"Pretty much."

"From something that Sherry said?" Rory asks.

"Everything she said."

"About my visiting her?"

"We'll start there. As if you're gonna have free time to pal around with her. You'll be in classes."

"She was just asking."

"And what are you doing agreeing to come over all the time?"

"I was just being polite."

"By agreeing to be here when you're not with me or Lauren?"

"I did not agree to that."

"You're staying with me on weekends." Lorelai demands.

"Why is she having a girl?" Lauren asks, jumping into the ranting. "We are dad's daughters, not this G.G. and I'm your little sister!" Lauren hits a painting and makes it crooked. "She's copying mom."

Rory chuckles. "She can't control the sex of her baby."

"If she can control what time she gives birth then I think she can."

Rory watches their mom throw some towels on the floor. "Mom."

"'All I want is a ballerina."' Lorelai mocks. "Poor thing's gonna pop out and land in a tutu."

"And what is with that name? G.G.?" Lauren grimaces.

"It's a cute name." Rory shrugs.

"It is cause she's copying me there, too." Lorelai tells them "Rory, G.G. They're identical."

"They're not identical."

"Two syllables, repeating consonants. Rory. G.G."

"Lau-ren. Lau-ren." Lauren repeats to herself. "Hey, so is my name! She is so copying you, Mom."

"See!" Lorelai says, looking a little crazy. "Her music. God, that music."

"Yeah, I'm with you on that." Rory tells her. "It's driving me crazy, too."

"I mean, they've been playing the same nondescript soft, generic jazz for two straight hours. Who is playing that stupid saxophone like that?"

"It's music you eat brunch to."

"Thank you for finally being on our side."

"I'm always on your sides."

"Oh, she probably makes Christopher listen to it. Then there's the whole thing or rearranging his CD's. I mean, to her, they're just identical, little metal discs full of annoying sounds you alphabetize like files in a office."

"I'm with you on that..." Rory grabs her sister's hand before she can throw down the rest of the towels. "..but you both have got to calm down."

Lauren sighs and jumps up on the sink sitting between her mom and Rory. "I didn't even want to come here in the first place. You can't be a big sister to someone else. I don't care who she is or where she came from. You have to come home."

Lorelai and Rory look at Lauren who was almost on the verge of tears. "Honey.." Lorelai soothes.

"Lauren, I will be going home every chance I can get. Trust me. Nothing is going to keep me away from you and Mom, no matter how crazy you both are."

"Promise?" Lauren asks, putting her pinky up.

"I promise." Rory laughs, hooking her pinky with Lauren's. "But, remember, you are a big sister, too."

Lauren rolls her eyes. "It doesn't matter. We don't see Dad. Why would we see G.G.?"

Lorelai and Rory weren't sure what to say on that one. "Oh, and all that stuff about me and thanking me-"

"What?" Rory and Lauren both ask, looking confused.

"Nothing." Lorelai sighs. "I know you're always on my side." Lorelai tells Rory.

"It's okay."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. We should probably get back, though."

"Yeah. Probably. Come on." Lorelai puts her hand out for Lauren to take, which she does, and jumps down from the sink. "We can pout together."

On their way home, Lorelai was still upset about everything Sherry had said. She hadn't really said a word since they went back in from the bathroom and after another hour Lauren faked sick to get them to leave.

Rory looks at her mom. "You're okay to drive, right?"

"I barely drank a thing."

"I'm talking about your mood."

"My mood is fine."

"You're still mad at Sherry."

"No. I'm fine. And I'm fine to drive. Although sometimes, when I've driving and it's dark like this I get the sudden urge to turn the wheel into oncoming traffic."

"No!" Lauren yells from the back. "Do not do Duane from Annie Hall."

"I can see the flames and smell smoke."

"I hate this bit." Rory complains also.

"I'm creeping me out, too. Move those things." Lorelai says, looking at the tupperware of deviled eggs Sherry made her bring home. "They're not the most frangrant food."

"We shouldn't have taken them."

"We had no choice."

"She was insistent."

"'Take the deviled eggs!'" Lorelai mocks. "How many times did she say it? And then her drunken friends hear it and they all shout: 'Take the deviled eggs!'"

"Everyone of those ladies was slobbering drunk."

"Maureen and Susan coming to blows was worth it. How'd that happen anyway?"

"From what I could tell, Susan said.." Rory mumbles something no one could understand making them laugh. "..And Maureen took great offense."

"Well, yeah." Lorelai laughs.

"You know, we didn't have to stay that long."

Lauren starts laughing from the back. "Not according to Sherry."

"Yes, she made a very persuasive argument if we left at six then we would be sitting in traffic. By leaving at seven, we'd get home at the same time."

"Even with all my fake gagging, she still made us stay." Lauren shakes her head, not understand that woman one bit.

"She's very up on traffic flow and rush hour." Rory tells them.

'She's Rand McNally." Lorelai jokes.

"She should do traffic reports on the radio."

"'Hi, this is Sherry Tinsdale. Looks like there's a tie-up on the boulevard. They appear to be moving every building in Harvard University so now it's just 1.3 miles from my house. Nice job, guys.'"

"You're awful."

"'Oh, and lots of cars stopped at a blue light on Garvey Avenue.' Why a blue light? 'Well, cause blue's the new red.'"

"I like that you're feeling better."

"I'm not. I'm still...that medicine cabinet was not enough."

"Mom."

"It was tame. Any of those drunken yuppies could have messed it up."

"They wouldn't dare." Lauren tells her. "Plus, I caught Rory going back there to clean it up."

"Ugh, Rory." Lorelai says, disapproving.

"Let it go." Rory tells her.

"That was my catharsis."

"Let it go."

"No. That woman does something to me."

"You've gotta live and let live."

"Bringing up Christopher. She must know what she's doing."

"I'm not sure she did."

"I almost wish she was doing this on purpose. I would respect her."

"I just hope Dad's happy."

"Happy? With Sherry and G.G., the 5 o'clock ballerina? No way." Lauren says.

"And to think that I sent him back to her a new man?" Lorelai says, still not believing it.

"Hey, stop the car!" Lauren yells.

"What? Why?" Lorelai asks, pressing the brakes.

Rory looks at her sister who smiles at her then looks at Jess' car. Rory starts laughing knowing exactly what her sister was thinking. "You want catharsis?" Rory asks Lorelai.

"Yes."

"We know what'll do it for you." Lauren says, happily.

"What?"

"Jess' car."

"What?"

"We egg Jess' car. It's perfect." Rory tells her.

Lorelai looks surprised at both her daughters. "Are you both serious?"

"No one's around. It's just sitting there." Lauren says.

"Lauren, if rearranging Sherry's cabinet is immature, what's this?"

"Off the chart."

"We can't egg his car."

"Sure we can!" Rory tells her.

"Doose's is closed, and we don't have any eggs at home." Rory picks up the tupperware. "You want to devil-egg Jess' car?" Rory and Lauren nod their heads with sneaky smiles on their faces. "And how is that gonna make me feel better about Sherry?"

"Because it's active. It's aggressive." Rory explains. "It's destructive, but not too destructive. I don't know. Can you make something up?"

Lorelai looks at the car then back at her daughters. "Let's do it." They all jump out of the jeep and run towards Jess' car. "You girls have evil minds and I love it!" Rory opens the tupperware. "You first." Lorelai tells Rory. Rory throws it and it hits his window. "Wow. Nice."

"Made a good sound, too." Lauren says before throwing her own and before they knew it Jess' car was covered in eggs. "That's it?" Lauren asks, looking back at the empty tupperware.

"All out." Rory tells them.

"Damn that Sherry for not sending more." Lorelai groans.

"Don't lose your catharsis."

"Right. Wait."

"What? Is that a siren?"

"I don't hear anything." Lauren says, trying to listen.

"Neither do I!" Lorelai laughs. "It just seemed the cool thing to say."

"It was." Rory laughs.

"Hey, let's run back and speed off like we did something awful and the cops are after us!"

"Run!" Lauren yells. They all three start running to the car. Lorelai picks up Lauren around her waist so they can move faster.

"Be prepared. I'm gonna squeal out of here." Lorelai tells them as they all jump into the Jeep. Lorelai speeds off but nothing squeals.

"Try again!" Lorelai does it again but still nothing makes a noise.

"We'll just make the noise ourselves." Rory tells them.

"Good deal." Lorelai speeds off again and they all three make loud squealing noises.

The next day, the girls are walking through the square and walk passed Jess' deviled eggs car.

"I wonder if he's seen it yet." Rory says.

"Doesn't look like it." Lorelai tells her, considering it was still there and dirty. "Maybe we should've headed for the border."

"Which one?" Lauren asks, curiously.

"Probably the one between America and Sephoraland."

Luke walks over to them. "Hey, Luke." Rory greets him.

"I was just seeing what the mob scene is." Luke says.

They look over and see a group of people standing by the church. "The protest!" Lorelai tells them.

"We almost forgot." Rory tells them.

"Come on." Lorelai and her girls, with Luke following, go over to the group.

"There he is." Luke tells them. They all see a guy carrying something big in his hands and walking towards the entrance of the church.

"What's he carrying?" Rory asks.

"Something all rolled up." Babbette says.

"Probably a body." Taylor says, not surprised.

"It looks heavy, too." Lauren says.

"Bodies are heavy." Lorelai tells her.

Taylor glares at Lorelai. "That's not funny."

"Somebody should give him a hand." Rory says, looking worried.

"Here comes someone." A guy tries to help the man but he shoos him away.

"I guess he didn't want help."

"That's why his name isn't Town Gregarious Guy." Lorelai reminds them.

"Very true."

The guy walks into the church. "Well, this is a very nice protest so far." Patty says, smiling.

"Yeah, it's nice seeing everyone like this." Babbette tells them.

"We see eachother everyday." Luke says.

"Yeah, but we don't stand in a clump like this." Lorelai tells him.

The walks up to the very top of the window of the church. "There he is again." Lauren points.

"It's a banner." Rory tells them as they watch him try to open it.

"He's dropping it!"

"This is exciting." Lorelai says with enthusiasm. But the guy drops it and it's blank.

"It's the wrong side." Babbette says, looking confused.

"Turn it over!" Lorelai yells.

The guy tries to turn it over but it rips and falls to the ground making everyone sad. "Did anyone see what it said?" Andrew asks.

"Just a flash of a word." Kirk tells them. "It starts with an 'R.'"

"Okay, well, then all we have to do is think of everything that one can protest that starts with an 'R,' and we'll know." Lorelai says, making everyone think. They start naming R words but nothing makes sense. Suddenly, the guy starts yelling something.

"What did he say?" Lauren asks.

"His dictions' terrible." Kirk says.

"I heard something about Jell-O." Babbette says.

The guy yells again. "That was clear. He said, 'Stop the noodle scooz.'" Lorelai tells them.

"Stop the noodle scooz?" Rory questions.

"I heard, 'Drop the student schools.'" Luke says.

"That must be it." Andrew says.

Patty shakes her head. "But that doesn't make any sense, either."

The guy yells again, but, still, no one understands him. "Oh, we have to stop this." Taylor complains. "He could be saying horrible, blasphemous things."

"But how would you know?" Babbette asks.

"What's the harm if we can't understand?" Rory asks.

"Maybe that's his point." Lorelai says. "Like he's protesting man's inability to communicate by not communicating and getting us to talk about communication."

"Whoa." Lauren says. "You are blowing my mind here."

"Luke!" Jess yells. Luke turns around and sees an angry Jess standing by his deviled eggs car. Luke walks over and Lorelai, Rory, and Lauren try to hide their laughter. "You see this?" Jess asks Luke.

"See what? What happened?" Luke asks.

"Someone egged my car."

"Geez, it stinks."

"It's gonna take forever to clean this."

"These are cooked." Luke says, getting a closer look.

"What?"

"They're not raw eggs. They look like deviled eggs."

"Someone devil-egged my car?"

"That is paprika."

"Someone prepared deviled eggs to throw at my car?!"

Luke starts laughing. "Man, they must hate you a lot. Hey, maybe it was they guy in the garden department." Luke jokes. He just found out that Jess has actually been working at Wal-Mart and that's how he got the money for the car. He was still finding it hilarious.

"I'm gonna go get something to clean this up."

"Maybe it was the assistant night manager. You guys have words in the snack room?" Luke asks, laughing while Jess walks away.

"First protest, now vandalism. Makes you think about leaving this town." Taylor says.

"I never want to leave this town." Lauren says, shaking her head, proudly.

"Guess he's given up." Babbette says, after the man closes the window.

"Back to the hills, Town Loner, to protest another day." Lorelai says.

The guys walks back down and grabs his paper that fell. "He doesn't litter. That's nice." Patty says.

"He looks so sad." Rory tells them.

"He'll be fine." Lorelai assures her. "Mrs. Town Loner will cheer him up."

Babbette starts waving her hand. "Phew! Let's get upwind from Jess' car."

They all leave and Lorelai and her girls once again walk passed Jess' car with smiles. "Breakfast?"

"Anything but eggs." Rory laughs.


	48. Dance So Good

It was a week for the Gilmore Girls. Actually, it was a special week for Lorelai. The dance marathon that she attended every year was coming up and she was way too excited for it that her daughters could barely stand her. She was competetive and wanted to win. Kirk always seemed to win every year, but this year Lorelai is determined to get the trophy. The dance marathon is something that is 24 hours. You wake up and dance until the very next morning. You can't stop dancing or you get kicked out of the competition. Rory and Lauren usually went by later that morning to cheer their mom on and this year wasn't going to be any different. Rory decided to watch with Dean and since Lauren and Sasha were hanging out now, they were also going to pop in and out to cheer Lorelai on, too. Lauren was still really bummed about the whole Sherry and her dad having a baby thing, and since she found it was a girl it was bumming her out even more, but she didn't dare show it around Lorelai and Rory because she didn't want to give them an even bigger reason to worry about her.

The town is almost ready set up completely for the marathon. Most of them already had their dance partners and they were preparing, but leave it to Lorelai to always be late.

"How about that one?" Luke asks. They are in the diner and Lorelai and himself are looking out the window at the passerbys to find Lorelai a dance partner.

"Mmm. No."

"Why not?"

"Too pale."

"So what?"

"Pale means sickly."

"Or sunscreen."

"Or mad cow disease."

"Pale does not mean mad cow disease."

"Have you ever had mad cow disease?"

"Twice last week, and my coloring was wonderful." Luke says, sarcastically.

"I need a great dance partner this year someone strong, non-klutzy, with lots of stamina. Oh, how tall is that guy?"

"Mrs. Coulter is 6'2""

Lorelai sighs, remembering the last few years. "Four years in a row I've come this close to winning. Last year, I swear to God, I had it."

"I know the story."

"It was hour 23." Lorelai continues.

"I know the story." Luke tells her again.

"I'm dancing with Henry "Ho-Ho" McAfie III-"

"How many people heard my say I know the story?" Luke asks the other people in the diner.

A few of them raise their hands, but that wasn't stopping Lorelai. She was still so upset about what happened. "...and Ho-Ho is fading, so I'm trying to buck him up, saying: 'Come on, Ho-Ho. Stay with me, Ho-Ho.' And then all of a sudden he starts yelling: 'Stop calling me Ho-Ho. It's making me hungry.'"

"Oh, hey, look there goes Tommy Tune." Luke points out the window to distract Lorelai from finishing her story.

"And, out of nowhere, Kirk comes dancing by waving a McDonald's hot apple pie in the air." Lorelai continues clearly ignoring Luke. "And of course Ho-Ho lunges for the pie and drops my hand, and that was it. Kirk wins, I'm out. I'm going to get that Ho-Ho someday."

"I'll help you."

"I want to win." Lorelai tells him.

"I know you do."

"I need a partner." She says, smiling up at him.

"You'll get one. Keep looking." Lorelai continues staring up at him with a smile.

Luke turns Lorelai's head towards the window. "Out there."

"But-"

"Pancakes, right? Coming right up." Luke walks away just as Taylor walks in.

"Breathe in deep, folks. Smells like fall." Taylor announces.

"Get out, Taylor."

"Why?"

"Just a code I live by."

"Oh, you." Taylor chuckles. "Listen, I'd like to run something by you."

"I'm busy, Taylor."

"I was thinking how nice it would be if you could set up a coffee stand at the marathon."

"Coffee stand."

"Yes, these people have to try and stay up for 24 hours. What better to help you stay up than a cup of strong coffee? Huh, what do you say?"

"Sure."

Taylor is surprised. "Really?"

"For $1 a cup."

"Luke, this marathon is a charitable event."

"Taylor, we have been raising money to restore that stupid bridge for eight years."

"We're not raising money to restore the bridge."

"We're not?" Luke asks. He grabs Lorelai's pancakes and walks it over to her.

"No, we have that money." Taylor tells him. "The Tennessee Williams Look-alike Contest last month put us right over the top."

"Then what the hell is this dumb thing for?"

"A tarp."

"A what?"

"To cover the bridge."

"This is a first, Taylor. I actually need to sit down." Luke sits down on his stool.

"You know as well as I do that if we start renovations now heading right into the snow and rainy part of the season then everything we do will get ruined, and there we are, back at square one." Taylor explains. "If we're gonna do this right, we're going to need a tarp."

"Taylor, you are asking me to donate free coffee to hundreds of people so you can raise money to buy a tarp."

"How about 50 cents a cup?"

"How about I charge for cream?"

"You would kick Tiny Tim's crutch out from under him, wouldn't you?" Taylor asks, getting annoyed by Luke's stubborness.

"If he asked for a free cup of coffee, gimpy's going down."

Taylor huffs and storms out of the diner. Lorelai sits up suddenly interested. "Look at Taylor go. I wonder who he's dancing with." She says, staring Taylor down as he walks through town.

At the Gilmores on Friday, they are all sitting around the table eating.

"This is amazing chicken, Mom." Lorelai says, sincerely. "I mean it. Really great."

"Thank you, Lorelai." Emily says.

"It's, like, Super Chicken. I bet it could fly. Have you tried tossing it out the window?"

"Alright, what's going on?" Emily asks.

"What? I like the chicken."

"Nobody likes the chicken that much, Lorelai."

"I'm in a good mood." Lorelai says, defending herself.

"Why?"

"My god." Lorelai groans. "It's like my ninth grade homecoming dance all over again."

"Homecoming dance?" Lauren asks.

"In ninth grade I got asked to the dance. I was in a really good mood and Mom got so annoyed she made me to my room."

"Grandma?" Rory questions Emily.

"She was sitting at the table giving all the peas voices." Emily explains.

"With some encouragement I could've been the Senor Wences of the vegetable set." Lorelai says.

"Lorelai." Emily proceeds. She wanted an explanation on why her daughter was so happy.

"Okay, okay." Lorelai gives. "It'll come out soon enough. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I found a dance partner." She says, very excitingly.

"You did?" Rory asks, very happy for her mom.

"A good one."

"What are you talking about? A dance partner for what?" Emily asks, looking very confused.

"Our town is having a dance marathon this weekend." Lauren tells her.

"It lasts 24 hours. The last couple left standing get a trophy." Rory explains.

"A big trophy." Lorelai says, smiling as she thinks about the trophy.

"That sounds very nice." Emily tells them.

"All the proceeds go to charity." Rory says.

"Did I mention the trophy?" Lorelai asks.

"I believe you did."

"Because it's big."

"Charitable events are wonderful things to take part in." Emily tells them. "There's nothing more rewarding than devoting yourself to making someone else's life better."

"And whose life isn't better with a truly gigantic trophy around?"

"So, who'd you get?" Lauren asks their mother.

"Stanley Appleman."

"Who's Stanley Appleman?"

"Oh, he's brand new in town. Works at the hardware store. The best part is he used to be part of the touring company of Riverdance."

"Score!" Rory says, thrilled.

"I know!" Lorelai gleams. "I am completely jazzed. How about you, Mr. Potato?" She says, picking up her fork. "'I'm completely jazzed, too.'" She says, in a different voice.

Suddenly one of their cell phones start to ring. "What's that?" Emily asks, looking annoyed.

"I think that's me." Lorelai says, looking guilty.

"Lorelai, I've told you 100 times to turn that off when you come to dinner."

"I know, Mom. I'm sorry." Lorelai reaches over to grab it from her purse.

"Can't you let it go to voicemail?"

"See, I left Michel alone at the inn dealing with roofers. I told him to call me if there was any trouble." Lorelai answers her phone. "Hello. What? No. No. No. Don't tell me that." Lorelai begs. "Well, did you tell her how big the trophy is? I am really not exaggerating here. How did your wife get a picture of me, Stanley? That is crazy. I don't want to sleep with you! Did you tell her I don't want to sleep with you? Put her on the phone. I'll tell her. Well, somebody has to tell her I don't want to sleep with you." Emily is getting a little uncomfortable hearing her daughter talk about sleeping with someone. She looks at her grand-daughters who just look down at their food ignoring their grandmother's glares. "Why are you insulted all of a sudden? Stanley?" Lorelai hangs up and throws her phone back into her purse. She looked really angry and Rory and Lauren were almost scared to ask what happened.

"What happened?" Rory asks.

"Stanley bailed."

"No. Why?"

"Apparent, Miss Patty showed his wife a picture of me and she thinks I look like Elizabeth Taylor which makes her Debbie Reynolds and him Eddie Fisher."

"That's crazy." Lauren says, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Especially if you've seen Stanley. He is no Eddie Fisher. Fisher Stevens, maybe."

"Can't you talk to her?" Rory asks.

"Only at my own risk."

"Well, at least she thought you looked like Elizabeth Taylor." Emily says, trying to lighten the mood a little. "That was nice."

"I have no partner." Lorelai says, sadly.

"You'll find another one." Rory assures her.

"Elizabeth Taylor always did." Emily says.

"There's someone else out there." Lauren tells her.

"I guess." Lorelai sighs.

Emily grabs the plate of chicken and puts it next to Lorelai. "Here, have some more chicken."

"Thanks, Mom."

"And if you'd like, later on you can make my asparagus talk."

"Oh, maybe next week."

In the halls of Stars Hollow middle school, Lauren and Sasha are walking down the hallway. Lauren was still pretty upset about the last couple weeks and Sasha kept trying her best to make her feel better.

"Are you ever going to get out of this mood?" Sasha asks.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I'm not in a mood."

Sasha laughs. "Uh, yes, you are. Unless you're doing a really good Kristen Stewart impersonation."

"I guess I'm just still really annoyed with my dad. You know, he never called. I mean, we find out the sex of the baby at the baby shower and he doesn't call."

"Would you even talk to him?" Sasha asks already knowing that answer. Lauren had told her all about her relationship issues with her dad so Sasha knew the subject of Christopher was a sore one to bring up.

"Probably not, but still, he could call. He's having another girl."

"Are you more upset about him not calling or the fact that he is having another daughter?" Sasha asks already knowing that answer as well. Lauren wasn't that hard to figure out which confused her on why Lorelai and Rory could never see it.

"Sasha, can we please change the subject? I really don't want to talk about Christopher and his new family."

Sasha rolls her eyes at her dramatic friend. "Fine."

Lauren looks at her watch. "I have to go to soccer practice."

"But you haven't been in weeks."

"I know. Coach is probably wondering what is going on. I have to go. I'll call you when I get home."

"Okay, bye." Sasha walks off as Lauren runs the other way.

Out on the field, Lauren's teammates and her coach already had practice started. Lauren rans out from the locker room, dressed in her practice clothes, and runs over to the coach.

"I am so sorry I'm late, Coach." Lauren says, out of breath.

Coach looks at Lauren with a confused look. "What are you doing here, Gilmore?"

"Um, I'm here for practice. I know I haven't been here in a couple weeks, but some stuff has been happening at home and I just needed a break."

Coach glances up at her team. "Well, I'm sorry to hear about that, Lauren, but I thought someone would have told you by now."

"What?" Lauren asks, looking confused.

"You're off the team, Gilmore. You haven't been here in weeks and I need a reliable forward to play in my games. Sorry, kid."

"What!?" Lauren yells. "You can't do that!"

"I can, and I did." Coach says. She blows her whistle for the team to line up. "Alright team let's line up." Lauren was holding back her tears. She turns around and pushes the rack of soccer balls down on the ground. "Lauren!" Coach yells, but Lauren runs away, ignoring her.

Back at the house, Rory, Dean, and Lane are in the living room eating pizza while Lane is on the phone calling Dave from her band.

"Well?" Rory asks.

"Still ringing." Lane tells her. Lane hangs up. "He's home." She smiles.

"How'd he sound?"

"Homey."

"Nice."

"I know this is a stupid question, but why can't you just talk to him?" Dean asks.

"Because yesterday he called to say that they were still looking for a rehearsal space and that he'd call when he had more news." Lane explains. "So now I have to wait until he calls about the band. And in between I call and hang up on him. Pathetic."

"Not so pathetic. I used to hang up on Dean." Rory tells her.

"You did?" Dean asks, surprised.

"I remember that." Lane says.

"When did you hang up on me?"

"Right when we first met." Rory tells him.

"You should have said something."

"I couldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because then you would have known I was calling and that I liked you."

"Yes, but I liked you, too." Dean tells her still very confused, though.

"I know that now."

"You could have known that then."

"Please. This is a girl thing."

"Okay, tell me when I'm supposed to pay attention again." Dean turns back around and focuses on his pizza.

"I'm going to love him forever and he'll never know." Lane says.

"He would if you coughed."

"Dean." Rory scolds.

"Sorry."

"At least he's at home, not out with a girl." Lane says.

"Very true." Rory agrees.

"He could be home with a girl." Dean tells her.

Rory pushes Dean. "Dean."

"Sitting here, staring at my pizza."

"Think he's at home with a girl?" Lane asks, looking worried.

"No. No, I don't." Rory says, quickly. She didn't want Lane to start jumping to conclusions.

"I'm going to call again." Lane starts dialing the numbers again.

"Good idea. And pay attention to the background noise this time."

Lorelai walks into the living room. "Cool, pizza."

"SH!" Lane hushes her.

"She's calling Dave to see if she can hear a girl." Rory explains as Lorelai sits down next to her daughter.

"I voted that she actually say something." Dean whispers.

Lorelai grins. "You're a boy. You know nothing about this."

Lane hangs up and walks back over to them. "So, what'd you hear?" Rory asks her.

"Quadrophenia." Lane tells her.

"Classy, but not date-like."

"You think!?"

"Definitely."

"What is he met a girl who's a major Who fan?" Dean asks while getting mean stares from all the girls.

"Why are you causing trouble?"

"Can I talk to you in the kitchen?" Lorelai asks her daughter.

"Sure." Rory gets up and follows her mom. Lorelai has a big smile on her face as they sit at the kitchen table. "Okay, so what's on your mind?" Rory asks, finding her mom's expression very amusing.

"I think I figured out who can be my dance partner for the marathon."

"Great. Who?" Lorelai stares at Rory with a big smile which was received back with a frightened one. "Bye."

"Come on." Lorelai begs, stopping Rory from running away from her.

"Forget it."

"Just hear me out." Lorelai pleads. "First of all, you love me."

"Not right at this moment, I don't."

"You know how much this means to me. You'd never fall asleep or chase a pie."

"I do not dance."

"It'll be fun. We'll get all dressed up. And you're light. Easy to hold up when you get tired."

"Mom." Rory whines.

"Plus, we got the mother-daughter gimmick. The crowd will eat that up."

"I cannot dance with you."

"Why not?"

"Because this is Dean's first marathon. We were gonna go and watch it together and hang out. He's totally looking forward to it. I told him about how Andrew gets in a fight with his date and storms off the floor. I told him about Taylor getting punch-drunk at hour 15 and telling stories about how he always wanted to be a magician."

"Rory, please."

"Oh, and I told him about how when Kirk wins he likes to take his victory lap to the theme from Rocky. I was gonna show him all those things sitting down."

"He can still come and see all that. Except if you dance maybe that victory lap will be you and me instead of Kirk."

"Why can't you just dance with Lauren? She is easier to hold up than me. She could sleep on your shoulder while you continue to dance."

"Lauren is going to be the one helping us out when we need breaks. Plus, she has soccer practice early that morning and she can't miss it."

"Who schedules a practice on a dance marathon day?"

"Her Coach. Rory, please." Lorelai begs.

Rory sighs. "Okay, tell you what. I was supposed to work on the Franklin with Paris."

"But?" Lorelai asks, hopeful.

"I will ask her if we can rechedule. If she says yes, then I will dance with you."

Lorelai jumps up with excitement and hugs her daughter tightly. "Oh, I love you!"

"You should sell cars." Rory says, not looking excited at all.

"I should, shouldn't I?" Rory nods her head and walks away. "Hello, big fancy trophy."

At Sasha's Lauren doesn't even knock. She walks right into Sasha's room where Sasha is smoking a joint.

"Hey, Lauren." Sasha says. Lauren ignores her friend and just walks over grabbing the joint from Sasha's hand before taking a big hit of it herself. Sasha starts laughing. "Um okay."

Lauren hands it back to her and sits down on the floor. She was on the verge of tears and could barely hold them in much longer. "Everything is getting screwed up." Lauren tells her.

"Welcome to my world."

It's very early in the morning and the dance marathon was about to start. It took Lorelai awhile to get Rory out of bed and to fix her all up for the day, but she got them there and they were now walking to the studio to sign up. Well, Lorelai was dragging her daughter to the studio because Rory was still half asleep.

"I have to say for a couple of modern girls we have time warped with the best of them." Lorelai says, proudly. Rory just groans. "How you doing there, champ?"

"Early." Rory mumbles with her eyes still closed and resting her head on her mom's shoulder.

"Yes, it's a tad early."

"No sun."

"Well he's not up yet."

"I can't even open my eyes." Rory complains.

"That's okay. There's nothing to see. Kirk's in a Speedo, Taylor's in a skirt, Al's in assless chaps." Lorelai jokes.

Rory opens her eyes quickly. "Oh, my gosh. I'm never gonna be able to close my eyes again."

Lorelai laughs while they approach the sign up table. "Morning, Babette."

"Morning, sugar." Babette says. "You guys look terrific."

"Babette, can I lay down on the table while Mom signs in?" Rory asks.

"Not an early bird, huh?"

"I need to get her some coffee and we'll be fine." Lorelai says, as she signs their names. "Hey, I'm adding Lauren to the list for when we need breaks."

Babette looks behind them. "Where is she? I figured she'd be dragging along behind you."

"I let her sleep in. She has practice at nine so as soon as she's done with that she'll be here." Lorelai wraps her arm back around Rory to support her and Rory rests her head once again.

"Okay, you two, go get your physicals, bring your release forms inside and they'll get you a number."

"Thanks. Come on, snoozy." Lorelai and Rory begin walking again.

"Hey, wait up!" Sookie yells running to catch up with them.

"Oh, wow, look at you."

"Isn't it fabulous?"

"It is fabulous."

"Wait till you see Jackson's suit. It makes you want to ration sugar."

"Where is Jackson?"

"Oh, we already had our checkup, so he's going to sign us in and scope out a good spot on the floor." Sookie tells her.

"Oh, it's so cool to be married. You have your own spot scoper."

"I'm gonna go say hi to Lane." Rory interrupts.

"Okay. Hurry. The sooner we get inspected the sooner we get coffee." Rory walks up into the studio leaving Lorelai and Sookie behind.

"I have a problem." Sookie tells her friend.

"Sookie, it's 5:30 in the morning. How can you have a problem?"

"Because I'm a multitasker."

"Hit me."

"Last night, I made coq au vin for dinner, so the subject of children came up. All of a sudden, completely out of the blue, Jackson announces he wants four in four." Sookie says, with a scared look on her face.

"He wants what?"

"Four in four." Sookie repeats. "Four kids in four years."

Lorelai gasps. "Good Lord!"

"I know."

"Who's he gonna have these kids with?" Lorelai jokes.

"Me, apparently."

"What did you say?" Lorelai laughs.

"See, here's where the problem comes in."

"What?"

"I think I said yes."

"How is that possible?"

"Well, I was totally shocked when he announced it so I kind of said, "Okay" but I think he took it as 'Okay!' So now I have to get busy."

"Do you want four in four?"

"No. I mean, I want kids. You know I want kids."

Lorelai smiles and nods her head. "I know you want kids. I already offered you one of mine." She jokes.

"I thought maybe one. Two if the first one is really quiet."

"Well, honey, you have to tell Jackson that."

"I can't."

"Sookie, this is not like the fruit bowl his mother gave you. You can't stick four kids in the attic and pull them out at Christmas."

"I know, but Jackson and I have never had a fight. We're still newlyweds. We still sneak out of bed to brush out teeth and get back in bed and pretend we just woke up smelling like that."

"You don't have much of a marriage if you can't talk about the important things." Lorelai tells her.

"I know." Sookie says, sadly. "Do you think I'm crazy to not want four in four?"

"Four kids is a lot. And four years without a cocktail?"

"Wow. I hadn't thought about that."

"Glad to shed some much needed perspective on the situation."

"We'll take care of this today." Sookie says, confidently, as Lorelai pats her friend's shoulder supportively while they wait in line.

Out on the floor, Taylor is announcing the rules through a microphone while everyone gets themselves ready.

"Any couple without a number will be disqualified." Taylor says. "All couples must be touching at all times. All couples must remain moving at all times. The only time you may stop moving or stop touching is when you hear this horn." Taylor demonstrates the very loud horn. "That sound means you have ten minutes to get a drink, eat a snack, take a rest or whatever it is you can do in ten minutes. And in addition to the ten minute rest periods every person participating has been issued a yellow emergency card. In case of emergency, a contestant may hold up the card and leave the floor for ten minutes. If your partner remains on the floor and moving the entire time then the owner of the yellow card may rejoin them and the contest. First aid is available in Miss. Patty's. Please remember, if you feel yourself getting light-headed or having shooting pains or any other stroke like symptoms please move off to the side so your collapse will not get in the way of the other dancers. Alright, people. Lace your shoes, pin those curls because we only have three minutes left until we start."

"Well, I believe three minutes is plenty of time for some coffee." Lorelai says, dragging Rory to where Luke is. "We're dying. Load us up."

"It isn't ready yet." Luke says.

"What?"

"Mommy." Rory whines.

"What do you mean?" Lorelai asks, about to panic. "It's six in the morning. Nothing says coffee like six in the morning."

Luke looks around to make sure no one is watching before he bends down and grabs the hidden thermos he has under his cart. He hands it to Lorelai. "You did not get this from me."

Lorelai smiles, happily taking it. "Then who do we send our kisses of gratitude to?"

"The eternal question asked yet again."

"Thanks, Luke." Rory says, taking a smell of the coffee. "Strong."

"Yeah?" Lorelai asks before smelling it herself. "Hello."

"Alright, folks." Taylor begins again. "Everybody on the floor. We're two minutes away. I repeat, everybody on the floor. We are two minutes away."

Lorelai and Rory are in the middle of the floor drinking the coffee Luke gave them as fast as they can when Kirk and his partner walk up to them. "Lorelai." Kirk says.

Lorelai turns towards him. "Kirk." She says.

"Good luck to you."

"And to you." Kirk walks away. "He's going down." Lorelai says, glaring at him.

"I hate to bring this up but Kirk has very little in his life." Rory tells her.

"Uh-huh." Lorelai says, obviously not caring.

"He has no career, no girlfriend, no pet, no car. He lives with his mother. She won't even let him have his own key. The only thing he does have in his whole lonely, pathetic existence is this marathon. If we win, if we take him down, if we take away that last little piece of dignity then we leave him with nothing."

"I wonder if he'll cry." Lorelai says, smirking.

"My mother, the Howard Roark of Stars Hollow."

"Alright, everybody, grab your partners." Taylor announces. "Make sure your numbers are securely fastened and let the countdown begin." Everyone counts down from ten and Taylor blows the horn. "It's showtime!" The music starts to play and everyone starts to dance.

Six hours were down and a few couples were already tired and out, but Lorelai and Rory were still moving. Kirk and his partner dance over to them.

"Hey, Kirk, relax." Lorelai says to him. "Dancing's supposed to be fun."

"You know what will be fun, Lorelai?" Kirk asks her. "Jogging around your prostrate body with that shiny temple of silver importance hoisted in the air for all to see. That will be fun."

Kirk and his partner dance away. "Do you think the serious Kirk is more disturbing than the non-serious Kirk?"

"Actually, I think they're both about the same." Rory says.

Lorelai smiles when she sees Dean. "Come on. Follow me." She says, leading her daughter over to her boyfriend.

"Wow. You guys look great." Dean tells them.

"Hey, you came." Rory says, very happy to see her boyfriend.

"You're standing." He laughs.

"Hey, we had coffee." Lorelai tells him.

"I can tell. So how's it going?"

"It's been pretty quiet so far. However, I do believe..." Rory starts smiling when she hears Andrew and his partner arguing right on time.

"Right on time!" Lorelai says.

"See? Fun."

"And no one's even thrown up yet."

"Okay, well, uh.." Dean turns around and sees empty spots on the bleachers. "I'm just gonna sit over there and watch for a while. Maybe I'll get lucky."

"Great!" Rory smiles.

They dance back into the middle of the floor. "Well, that's sweet. Spectator Ken." Lorelai teases.

"Just keep dancing."

Kirk dances by them, flipping his partner. "Flip all you want, Kirk. This ain't the Olympics. It's who's left standing at the end that matters not how fancy you are getting there." Kirk glares at his opponent before dancing off. "Let me flip you."

"No way. You are not flipping me."

"Fine." Lorelai sighs. "You flip me."

"No. You've already flipped."

"One cartwheel." Lorelai argues.

"Silence."

Jess and his girlfriend walk through the middle of the dance floor. "Unauthorized persons on the dance floor." Taylor announces on the mic. "Unauthorized persons on the dance floor. Security!"

Jess and Shane walk passed Lorelai and Rory and sit on the bleachers. "Well, look who's suddenly interested in dance." Lorelai says as they look at the couple.

"Yeah, he's a regular Martha Graham." Rory says, rolling her eyes. Rory and Jess stare at eachother while Jess purposely tries making Rory jealous by putting his arm around Shane and scooting her closer to her him and then kisses her. This actually did hurt Rory but she didn't want to show it.

Fourteen hours went by and forty five couples were still on the dance floor. Rory was getting really tired again and was now resting her head on her mom's shoulder while Lorelai moved them from side to side.

"Kirk!" Lorelai pulls Rory up and starts dancing while Kirk and his partner pass by. Rory looks up and sees Jess staring at her. This didn't go unnoticed by Dean who was sitting on the back side of Jess and could see everything.

"How much longer?" Rory asks her mom.

"Chin up, soldier. We should be getting a break pretty soon."

"I hope so." Rory says, dramatically, laying her head back down on Lorelai.

Sookie and Jackson come up to them dancing. "Oh, good. There she is." Jackson says rudely.

"Jackson, please." Sookie begs.

"Hey, guys." Lorelai says, smiling at her friends.

"Well, hey, to you, too." Jackson says. "Listen, I wanted to ask you, what do you think of my hair?"

"What?"

"My hair. How's it look to you? Any opinion?"

"It looks fine." Lorelai shrugs.

"Jackson, you're overreacting." Sookie tells him.

"You think?" Jackson asks. "How about you, Lorelai, you think I'm overreacting?"

"Jackson, what?" The horn blows scaring them all and Jackson quickly walks off the dance floor. "My God."

"What?" Rory asks quickly.

The music starts playing faster. "The runaround." Lorelai groans.

"The runaround? That doesn't sound good."

Everyone starts running to the side. "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm so so sorry."

"Ladies and gentlemen, on your marks, get set, and go!" Lorelai grabs her daughter's hand and they all start running. "Round and round they go, but when the song stops nobody knows." Taylor yells. "But the last five couples who finish behind the red line are automatically out, so hold on to your partner and move, move, move!"

"You're getting too much pleasuer out of this, Taylor." Patty says with disgust.

Jackson and Sookie catch up to Lorelai and Rory. "Lorelai, just wondering. How's my running?" Jackson asks. "You got an opinion on that?"

"Jackson, what's going on?" Lorelai asks.

"Nothing." Sookie answers. "He's mad at me and he's taking it out on you."

"No, I'm not mad." Jackson says. "I just didn't realize that when I married Sookie I also married you. I didn't realize I was a Mormon. My mistake."

"I need to interject for one second." Rory interrupts them. "..to tell you that I hate you."

"Thanks, honey." Lorelai says, as she continues dragging Rory around.

"Quit trying to drag Lorelai into this." Sookie tells Jackson very sternly.

"Fine. I will." Jackson runs out of the group.

"Jackson, wait!" Sookie yells, following him off the dance floor.

"I think I'm going to die." Rory yells, out of breath.

"Me first."

"How much longer?"

"I don't know. I just know that every year I block this part out." Lorelai tells her.

"From now on I'm going to remind you of it."

Lorelai looks behind them at Kirk trailing very close behind Rory. "Kirk, what are you doing?"

"I'm drafting you." He tells her.

"Well, stop it!"

"You can't tell me where to run."

"Kirk, I swear, don't make me come back there."

The horn blows letting everyone know it was okay to stop. "One ten minute break, everyone." Taylor announces.

Lorelai and Rory quickly fall onto the floor just like everyone else. They were all so exhausted. Rory picks up her leg and is kicking it in the air. "What are you doing?" Lorelai asks her.

"I'm trying to kick you, but I can't reach."

"I would help you, but I can't move."

"Can I owe you one?"

"Yeah. No problem. Okay. Okay, heart returning to normal. I have to go find Jackson and Sookie."

"I'll get us a couple of sandwiches." Rory tells her as they both start to stand back up.

"Good idea." Lorelai says, kindly. She looks around the dance floor. "This is fun, huh?"

"Uh-huh. Big fun." Rory says, sarcastically.

Lauren runs over to them. "Hey, I'm sorry I'm late."

Lorelai looks at the time. "Where have you been? You are more than just a little late!"

"I'm sorry. I got hung up."

"At practice?" Lorelai asks.

"Yeah. Sure." Lauren says, not ready to tell her mom the truth. "Are you guys having fun?" She asks looking over at a very tired looking Rory.

"Tons." Rory says, glaring at her little sister.

"Well, I'll just go sit over there and watch." Lauren smiles at her mom and sister and walks over to the bleachers.

Holden walks over and sits down next to her. "Hey, Lauren."

Lauren wasn't in the mood to fight with Holden. "Hey, Holden."

"Wow. She speaks instead of yelling at me." Holden says, surprised.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "I'm done fighting with you." She tells him. "It's obviously getting me no where because you still come around." Holden scoots in closer to her as he sniffs her. Lauren moves slightly away. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Please tell me you didn't get close to your mom and sister."

Lauren sniffs her jacket. "I stink?" She asks, with slight panic in her voice.

"Oh, yeah." Holden says. "Sasha is bad news, Lauren. I don't know why you hang out with her."

"She's my friend, Holden. And weren't you the one who told me I should hang around some people. I mean, afterall, you did pretty much call me a loner."

"I didn't call you a loner. I said you look lonely."

Lauren shrugs. "Same thing."

"I didn't mean go hang out with someone who is going to cause trouble for you."

"Sasha is not causing trouble for me. She is actually a really good friend."

"Lauren, I know I haven't known you long, but what I do know is that you are not this person. From what I hear you are at straight A student, so much fun, and you are hilarious, and you are a good person. And I have a feeling if your mom found out what you have been doing with your new friend she wouldn't be too happy about it."

"You don't know me, Holden, and you don't know my mom."

"Maybe not. But I know you're better than what you are trying to be. I think you like me and I think you know I like you, too. That's why you keep pushing me away."

Lauren shakes her head. "I'm pushing you away because ever since the first day of school you haven't left me alone."

"I heard what happened yesterday on the soccer field." Holden says, ignoring what Lauren just said. Lauren just looks away. She didn't want to talk about yesterday. "If Sasha is a really good friend like you say she is then you wouldn't have got kicked out of soccer." Lauren glares at Holden who just smiles. "I'll see you." He gets up and walks away. Lauren sighs and takes her jacket off and throws it on the floor. She couldn't get caught smelling like she did with everyone she knew in the room. But little did she know, Dean was sitting not too far away and heard everything Lauren and Holden had said.

At Patty's, Dean caught up with Rory and went follow her to get sandwiches. When they walk in they see Jess grabbing a sandwich from Lane's table.

"The sandwiches are for the dancers." She informs Jess.

"I'm dancing on the inside." He says, sarcastically.

"What are you doing here?"

"I live here."

"You have nothing else to do than sit in the gymnasium all day staring at a dance marathon?" Rory asks.

"I don't know." Jess looks at Dean who he noticed had been doing the same thing. "Do you have nothing else to do than sit in a gymnasium all day staring at a dance marathon?"

"I wouldn't direct any comment toward me if I were you." Dean tells him.

"I'm just trying to support my town."

"Then go back to New York." Rory says, bitterly.

"Oh, I've been snapped!"

"You think you're bugging me staring like that?"

"You think you're bugging me staring like that?" Jess asks the same question.

"I'm not staring at you." Rory argues.

"How do you know I'm staring at you?"

"I'm dancing. I can't control where my glance goes. And the few moments I can, my glance goes to Dean, not you."

"So you can't control looking at me but you force yourself to look at him?" Jess laughs. "Sorry, man, that's cold."

Dean is still standing there look very unhappy to even be standing near Jess and having his girlfriend speak to him. "My former comment still stands."

"Go home." Rory tells Jess.

"No thanks." Jess says.

"Then get out of my way."

"Didn't realize I was in your way." Jess moves over. "There you go. It's all yours. God help you."

Shane walks up to them. "Where did you go?" She asks Jess. "I've been sitting there for twenty minutes." She exaggerates.

"Break's only for ten."

"It's just a saying." She shrugs looking towards Rory and Dean.

"Came to get food."

"Good. I've starved."

"The food is for the dancers." Rory informs her.

"Who are you, Bobby Brady? Get a life."

"Rory's feeling a little territorial today." Jess tells Shane as he continues to stare at Rory.

"Whatever." Shane grabs Jess' sandwich. "What is this thing?"

Jess doesn't answer but instead puts his arm around Shane. Rory puts her arm around Dean's waist, but Dean knew what was going on. He pushes Rory away. "Rory, get your stuff. Let's go."

"Ooh." Jess says. "That was good. Now say, 'Then get in there and make me supper.'"

"I got them." Rory grabs the sandwiches and she and Dean walk out of the studio.

Lorelai walks up to Luke who is handing out coffee.

"Have you seen Sookie and Jackson?" She asks.

"No."

"I've looked everywhere."

"How about the insane asylum where everybody in the this room is supposed to be?"

Jackson walks up to Lorelai. "Okay. I need to say something here."

"I've been looking all over for you." Lorelai tells him.

Sookie runs up to them. "I wish you'd just drop this." She begs her husband.

"Contrary to your belief, there are some things in life that you do not have the right to have an opinion on." He tells Lorelai, smugly.

"What?" Lorelai asks, still confused on what was going on.

"The rate at which I have kids and the amount of kids I wish to have falls directly under that category."

"Sooke, what did you tell him?"

"Okay, you see, once again, my communication skills, not so good." She hestitates.

"Jackson, I didn't mean to get involved in any of this."

"No? Telling Sookie she needs to immediately inform me that four in four is crazy?" Jackson asks.

"Aw, Sookie."

"Yeah, it did come out something like that." Sookie grimaces.

"Aw, man."

"What's four in four?" Luke asks.

"Four kids in four years."

"That is crazy."

"Good. Yes, let's open this up to even more discussion." Jackson says.

"One kid in four years is crazy."

"Hey!" Lorelai yells. She was offended considering she did have Lauren four an half years after she had Rory.

"Sorry. Go ahead. Drop another sucker in this mess."

"Okay. Raise your hand if you're not helping." Lorelai says to Luke.

"Does anyone here understand that a man has a right not to have his personal life debated in a public forum?" Jackson asks them. "I am not Winona Ryder!"

"I know." Sookie tells him.

"I'm sorry, Jackson, I didn't mean-" Lorelai was apologizing but Jackson wasn't ready to hear it, obviously.

"My childbearing arrangements are between me and Sookie." He tells her.

"And the Lord." Luke says. Lorelai glares at him to stop. "Still not helping?"

"Jackson, just please calm down." Sookie begs him.

"I will! I'll calm down at home." Jackson yells.

"But what about the contest?"

"To hell with the contest! I'm quitting the contest. That is, if it's okay with Lorelai and Luke or that strange man in the corner who I've never met! Excuse me, strange man in the corner! Is it okay if I quit this contest?" Jackson yells, causing a scene before walking away.

"I'm so sorry." Sookie tells Lorelai. "I got tongue tied and things started coming out. I couldn't stop them."

"Go." Lorelai waves her hand for Sookie to follow her husband.

"Oh, they'll make great parents." Luke tells her.

The horn blows. "Everybody on the dance floor. All dancers back on the dance floor." Taylor announces.

Rory runs up with the sandwiches. "Mom."

"Let's go." Lorelai tells her.

Twenty three hours had gone by and now six couples were remaining. Lorelai and Rory could barely move and they were trying to hold eachother up as they swayed slowly from side to side.

"Tell me a joke." Lorelai says.

"Knock, knock."

Lorelai starts laughing. "That was a good one." Suddenly Lorelai's heel breaks and she falls down slightly.

"You okay?" Rory asks, looking concern.

"No. My heel broke." She says, grabbing her shoe.

"What?"

"My heel just broke off." She says, showing Rory. "Damn, these are brand new shoes, too."

"They were made in 1943." Rory reminds her.

"Well, I just bought them Tuesday."

"I told you not to wear vintage shoes."

"But the lady at the store said they hadn't been worn a lot."

"Yeah, but not a lot in sixty years is still a lot."

"I got to fix them." Lorelai gasps, remembering her yellow card. "I'll use my emergency card. I'll be right back."

"No, stop." Rory says, holding her mom back. "If you go, there's no way I'll stand up on my own."

"Ten minutes."

"Nighty-night." Rory says, resting her head on Lorelai's shoulder.

"Lauren!" Lorelai yells. Lauren looks up from her book and sees her mom's panicked face. Dean gets up instead showing Lauren he'll go up instead.

Dean runs up to them. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's great." She grabs Rory's hand and puts it around Dean's neck now. "Stand here. Look, I'll be back in ten minutes. Do not let her stop or lay down. Do you understand me?"

"But I-"

"I need you, Dean. The team needs you."

"What team?"

"Pick a team. It needs you. I'll be right back." Lorelai runs off.

"I'm really sorry about this." Rory tells her boyfriend.

"Yeah, it's okay." Dean says, as Rory rests her head on his chest.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." He says, seeming very sure now. He was happy to have Rory in his arms. "Actually, it's not bad at all." He says, smiling, and holding Rory tightly around her waist.

Lorelai runs over to Luke. "Hey, my shoe broke. I need you to fix it."

"Do I look like a cobbler to you?" Luke asks.

"If I say yes, will you fix it?"

"Let me see." Luke grabs the heel from Lorelai.

"I only have ten minutes."

"I think I have some glue back at the diner."

"Yes! We love glue."

"I wouldn't say that too loudly if I were you." He says, handing the heel back to her so he can go to the diner.

"Thank you."

As Luke walks away Lorelai turns around to make sure Rory and Dean were still standing and moving when Sookie walks up to her. "Hey, are you guys out?" She asks Lorelai.

"No, my shoe broke. Luke is fixing it."

"Oh, good. Listen, I just feel terrible about what happened."

"I know." Lorelai says, understanding. "How's Jackson?"

"He's fine. We went home, and he calmed down, and we talked. He totally understand, and he's open to anything I want."

"That's great." Lorelai smiles, so very happy for her friend.

"Now tell me what I want." Sookie says, unsure.

"No way."

"But I'm not sure."

"Then flip a coin, cause I am staying so far out of this."

"You're my best friend."

"Yes, I can only remain your best friend as long as Jackson doesn't kill me."

"Lorelai."

"Sookie, he's a produce man. They'll never find the body but the squash will be especially chatty that year."

Sookie chuckles. "Okay, fair enough."

"Hey, take your time. That's it. That's all I have to say."

"Thank you." Sookie says very grateful.

Luke walks back up to them. "Got it."

"Good." Lorelai says, happily.

"I'm going home to figure out what I want." Sookie tells her. "Good luck. Call me tomorrow."

"I will." Lorelai smiles as she watches her best friend walk away.

"How's that situation going?" Luke asks.

"It's gonna be okay."

"Good." They sit down on the bleachers as Luke begins fixing Lorelai's shoe. "Uh, listen, I didn't really mean all that stuff I said earlier."

"What stuff?"

"The kid stuff, you know."

"Oh, it's not big deal."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not really as anti-kid as I might have come off."

"'Drop another sucker..'" Lorelai repeats what Luke said earlier.

"Okay, yes, I don't always have the patience for them. They tend to be squishy, and that freaks me out a bit."

Lorelai laughs. "You surely have something good going with my kids."

Luke shrugs. "They're different. You always kept them clean. They weren't sticky and gross."

Lorelai laughs. "Well." She shrugs. "You don't have to want kids, Luke. Or like kids besides mine." She jokes. "It's not for everybody."

"I know. Although I'm quite happy going an entire day without having to deal with somebody else's bodily functions if I ever happen to meet the right person it would be a discussion."

"A discussion?"

"Yes, probably a short discussion, but still. Here, hold this." He says, handing Lorelai the glue so he can fix the shoe. "So, what about you? You ever think about having another kid?"

"Oh, I don't know how much fun it would be without biology finals and headgear." She jokes thinking about how young she was when she had her girls. "But, sure, if I ever happen to meet the right person another kid might be nice."

"Your shoe will be ready in a minute."

"Thank you."

Holden runs over and sits down next to Lorelai, confusing her. "Miss. Gilmore, right?"

"Holden, right?" She asks.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's Lorelai. What can I do for you? Lauren is over there." She says, pointing to her other daughter who is sitting in the bleachers reading a book.

Holden looks over at Lauren but then turns back to Lauren's mom. "Yeah, I know." He says. "I actually need to talk to you."

Lorelai could see the concern in his eyes and it instantly started making her worry. "What's going on?"

"It's Lauren." He tells her.

Lorelai looks at Luke who is also looking worried and they turn back to Holden. "What about Lauren? What did she do this time?"

Holden takes a deep breath. "It's not what she is doing, but it's about what she is going to continue to do if no one stops her."

"What are you talking about, kid?" Luke finally jumps in. He was getting tired of Holden not letting it out already.

"Look, I know Lauren really likes Sasha." Lorelai closes her eyes thinking about Lauren's new friend. She was scared of what was about to come out of Holden's mouth about her. "But, she isn't good for Lauren to hang out with. She's trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm not sure if I should even be telling you this, but I just wanted to give you a heads up. Lauren is not herself. I'm not sure if you noticed that or not." Lorelai sighs. Of course she noticed her little girl not acting like herself. That's what been worrying her. "I can't tell you exactly what's going on because I don't even know. But I care about Lauren and I don't want to watch her go down the wrong road because of Sasha. So, I just wanted to tell you to keep a close eye out on her."

"Holden, what have they been doing?"

Holden shakes his head. "Lauren would never speak to me again if I told you even though it's killing me not to. She should tell you. I just wanted you to know that it's not good." Holden quickly gets up before Lorelai can say anything and runs out of the gym. Lorelai looks at Luke.

"What the hell just happened?" Luke asks.

Lorelai turns to her daughter who is still in the bleachers. "I don't know, but I need to find out."

Twenty three hours had gone by and six couples were still remaining. Rory and Dean are still on the dance floor together and Taylor was now passed out on the potium. Rory turns and sees Jess still sitting on the bleachers, reading.

"He's still there." Rory says.

"What?" Dean asks.

"Jess. He's still there. I can't believe he's still there." Rory says, looking annoyed.

"Just ignore him."

But Rory continues looking at him. "You know this is a dance marathon. You're not supposed to come and sit and watch. You're supposed to dance. He's just trying to bug me, sitting there right in front of me, staring. Jerk." Shane jumps up and she and Jess start making out. "There they go again. God. I swear, why can't they just get a room? Forget a room, get a park bench or a doorway or even a strategically placed telephone pole would suffice. I mean, girls like Shane, what is it with them? Don't they see what they look like? They have mirrors."

Jess looks over and sees Rory staring at them. "Hey, you talking to me?"

"No." Rory spats.

"I heard you mention Shane."

"Shane isn't you."

"Shane concerns me."

"Shane concerns me, too, and all women."

"You got a problem here?"

"No. Just a little sick of seeing you two sitting there. If you're not going to participate, why don't you leave?"

"That works for me." Shane says, agreeing. "Let's go."

"No." Jess tells her.

"Why not?" Rory yells.

"Because I'm not ready to go."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really. I'm gonna sit here as long as I like and do what I like. And if you don't like it, ignore me and pay attention to your boyfriend."

Dean had enough. He had been watching them stare at eachother all day and it was really irking his nerves because he felt like a fool. He pushes Rory away. "Sorry. She can't." Dean says, scaring Rory. "I'm not her boyfriend anymore."

Lauren looks up from her book after hearing this. Rory was stunned and so was Jess. "What?" Rory asks.

"You know, I tired to ignore this. I really did. But I don't know what the hell I was thinking."

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't want to be with me, Rory."

"Yes, I do." Rory lies.

"Please. You've been into him since he got to town, and I've spent weeks, months, actually, trying to convice myself that it wasn't true, that everything was fine between us. But now I know that I was an idiot. You're into him and he's into you, and Shane, who by the way should be listening to this, because it's so obvious."

"What's obvious? What did I do?" Rory hesitantly asks.

"Everyone can see, Rory. Everyone. And I'm tired. But I'm over it." Dean yells. "So go ahead. Go. Be together. There's nothing standing in your way now, because I'm out." Dean grabs his jacket from the bleachers and looks at Lauren. "And by the way you're not hiding anything." Lauren looks surprised at what Dean says and watches him walk away. Rory just stands there, stunned. She couldn't believe Dean broke up with her in front of everyone, but he was right. She did have feelings for Jess and she felt bad for lying to Dean.

But back on the dance floor a couple falls to the ground from exhaustion.

"They're out!" Kirk yells. "We won!" He runs over to Patty and shakes her awake. "We won!"

"Oh, oh!" Patty yells realizing that it was over. "Taylor, wake up. It's over. Taylor, blow the horn!" Taylor wasn't budging though so Patty blows the horn herself. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!"

Lorelai runs up to them. "Wait, what are you doing? I'm here. I'm standing. I used my yellow card."

"I win! I win!" Kirk continues to yell.

"You didn't win. I'm still here. Where's Rory?"

Lauren runs up to her mom. "Mom, she ran off the floor a little while ago. She and Dean got into a fight. They broke up."

"What?"

"Yes!" Kirk yells, grabbing the trophy from Patty.

"For the fifth year in a row, ladies and gentlemen, the marathon winner is Donna Delain and Kirk!" Patty announces to the tired crowd.

Lorelai turns around in a panic just as Rory walks back in looking tired and exhausted from not only dancing but from crying as well. "Rory, what happened?" Lorelai asks as she and Lauren runs up to Rory. "Where did you go?"

Rory doesn't say anything. She just walks right into her mom's arms and starts crying into her chest. The Rocky theme song starts play as Kirk runs around the gym carrying his trophy with pride. Lauren was sad for her sister and joined her mom and Rory in their hug. Lorelai kisses Lauren on the top of her head, but smells that same funny smell she smelt a few weeks ago. She sighed and just held both her girls close to her.

_And I remember when you lost your head.  
Sometimes I wonder how you stay so sad when you're so  
beautiful.  
And I remember every word you said.  
How you said you never been somewhere so  
beautiful.  
So tell me why we're talking when we dance so good.  
And I know you can't stay, but I wish you would.  
Yeah, I wish you would._


	49. What Do You Want From Me?

The next day it's morning and Lorelai and her girls tried their best to get as much sleep as they could. Their feet were killing them and they could barely function. Lorelai is sitting in her kitchen waiting for her girls to get up. All she could think about was what Holden had told her about Lauren before the whole Rory and Dean break up. She knew there was something, but she didn't want to bring anything up until she knew it was true. Lorelai, of course, knew that smell that she kept smelling on her daughter's clothing, but she didn't want to believe it to be true. But, Holden didn't have any trouble spilling it out even though he didn't necessarily come out and say it, but Lorelai wasn't stupid. She was young once. She acted out when she was Lauren's age. But this was different. Emily and Richard had no idea what Lorelai had did when they weren't around and Lorelai was not like her parents. She knew her kids. She knew when her kids weren't exaclty themselves and now that she had just something to fall back on she could comfront her daughter now.

Lauren runs into the kitchen. She woke up craving coffee and needed some asap. Unlike her mom and sister, Lauren had a decent night of sleep before the marathon and just a good couple hours after.

"Good morning, Mom!" Lauren says, smiling at her tired looking mom. Lorelai grunts making Lauren laugh a little. "Would you like some more coffee?" She asks, politely.

Lorelai looks up, surprised at her daughter's sudden kindness. "Yes." She says, a little unsure as she hands Lauren her mug. Lauren takes it and pours her mom and herself coffee. "Thanks." Lorelai says, sipping on it.

"I'm going to go get ready for school." Lauren tells her.

"Hey, hold on." Lorelai says, quickly before Lauren could run out of the kitchen. "I want to talk to you."

Lauren looks at her mom with a strange look, but sits down anyway knowing better than to question her. "What about?"

"What do you say about Sasha coming hang out at the house this weekend?"

Lauren was a little taken back at this. She knew Lorelai wanted Sasha to come over so they could get to know her, but she wasn't expecting it to be this soon. "Why? Mom, you and Rory are really tired. You both should sleep some more, not hang out with the two of us."

Lorelai smirks at her daughter. Lauren was nice, but she wasn't THAT nice. "Lauren, it's fine. You have been at Sasha's a lot, and I'm pretty sure her parents are probably sick of looking at you." She jokes. "So, you two should just hang out here."

Lauren glances at her mom suspiciously. She felt like something was definitely up. "Um, okay." She says.

"Great! Now, we're going to Luke's so hurry and get dressed."

Lauren stands up and starts running towards the stairs. "That's okay. I'm meeting Sasha!" She yells as she climbs the stairs to her room.

Lorelai just sighs at this. Lauren never really wanted to hang out with them anymore and it was really bugging Lorelai. Sorta making her jealous of Lauren's new friend.

In town, Lorelai and Rory are walking very slowly through the square. Everyone is taking down all of the dance marathon decorations and looking as equally tired as Lorelai and Rory were.

"Okay. Still walking." She says to Rory. "All's good." Lorelai stops suddenly. Rory looks at her mom. "Okay." She says as they continue walking.

"How are you?" Rory asks.

"I should probably keep moving."

"God, my feet have never been in this much pain before." Rory groans.

"Oh, yeah? What about that time?"

"What time?" Rory asks, looking confused.

"The time when I did the thing and your feet were...gotta stop."

"Gotta sit." Rory walks over to the hay stack and she and her mom sit down. "Okay, what were you saying?"

"About what?"

"About my feet."

"What about your feet?"

"I don't know. You were talking about the thing you did to my feet."

"What thing?"

"The thing that you...you and...huh?"

"What?" Lorelai and Rory grimace at eachother. They were so tired they could barely even think straight anymore.

"I don't know."

"Just an observation but you and I do not function well on a funky sleeping pattern."

"I feel jet-lagged."

"You've been up 24 hours straight." Lorelai reminds her.

"Yes. Why did I do that?"

"Because I asked you to."

"And that worked?"

Lorelai shrugs. "At the time. I don't expect it to again."

"A realist. I like that."

Lorelai sighs. "How far is Luke?" She asks, not remembering.

Rory points to the diner that is literally right in front of them. "It's right over there."

"It looks so far."

Rory looks at the diner again. "Very far." She agrees.

"Maybe if we concentrate really hard, our combined psychic powers will move it closer."

They takes a few moments staring at the diner. "I don't think it's working."

"It's my fault. I'm not focusing."

"Yes, that must be why we can't move a half a city block closer to us."

"Alright then. Let's go. On the count of three." Rory waits for her mom to count, but neither of them looked like they were planning to move at any time.

Not too long after Lorelai and Rory finally make it to the diner. The empty diner now. Lorelai catches herself on one of the chairs. "Thank you!" She praises.

"I never realized Luke's was a hundred miles away." Rory complains.

They both sit down in the chairs, but at different tables. "Lucky it wasn't snowing. Would've been the Donner Party all over again but with slightly better hair." Lorelai notices her daughter isn't sitting at the same table as she is and she turns to Rory. "Why are you sitting over there?" She asks her.

"Where?" Rory asks, looking confused.

"At that table."

Rory looks at the table and realizes she is at a different table than Lorelai. "Huh. How did I get here?"

"You sat there."

"Well, this chair's close to that chair so you understand how I made the mistake."

Lorelai nods her head, understanding. "Move over here."

"Why don't you move over here?" Rory asks. She did not want to get up again.

"Because I'm not the one who sat in the wrong chair."

"I think it's presumptuous to assume that my chair is the wrong chair when my chair could easily be the right chair."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the leader of the clan, the provider of the household the alpha male, and the one whose feet just fell asleep so there's absolutely no chance of movement." Lorelai snaps her fingers and points to the table.

"Fine."

"Thank you." Rory gets up and sits on the chair next to her mom just as Kirk walks in holding his trophy. "See? It's nice sitting at the grown-up table, isn't it?"

"Oh! Excuse me, did my trophy bump you?" Kirk asks Lorelai.

Lorelai rolls her eyes and pretends not to even have seen the trophy. "No, Kirk, it didn't."

"Good, because the size of it is so large that sometimes I can't judge where the exact end of it is."

"We're fine, Kirk."

"I'm glad because these shiny, golden edges are very sharp. They can take an eye out or cause a deep gash completely unintentionally. It's almost more of a weapon than a trophy."

"Can I hold it then?" Lorelai asks, wanting to hit Kirk with it.

Luke walks up to them. "Get out of the way. You're blocking the door." Luke tells Kirk.

"Luke, I'll be needing one of your larger tables this morning since your smaller tables cannot accommodate the sheer size of my massive trophy."

Lorelai rolls her eyes in annoyance. "Put it on the floor." Luke says.

"It needs its own chair." Kirk argues.

"It's gonna need some glue if you don't sit down soon."

"Everybody hates a winner." Kirk says, smugly towards the girls as he walks away.

"Hey, how about one person gets pancakes and one gets eggs and then we can share?" Lorelai asks Rory.

"I can't. I have to go." Rory tells her.

"What are you talking about?" Rory shows her mom the time which makes her gasps. "It took us thirty minutes to get here?"

"Lots of limping."

"Shoot! At least grab a donut before you go." Lorelai and Rory slowly get up from the table and walk over to the counter. "Hey, Luke, we need a couple of donuts and some of those extra legs Heather Mills is sending over to Croatia."

"Coming right up." Luke tells them.

Jess walks down the stairs and is kinda surprised to see Rory there. They both stare at eachother awkwardly. "Hi."

"Hey." Rory says back with a small smile.

"Hi." He says again but to Lorelai.

"Hi." Lorelai smiles.

"Hi." Jess says again but this time to Luke.

Luke looks around confused. "Hi."

"I have to get to school." Rory says.

"Yeah, me too." Jess says.

"Bye."

"Bye." He looks at Lorelai. "Bye."

"Bye." Lorelai says, looking at him with a strange look.

"Bye." Rory says to her mom.

"Bye."

"Bye."

"Bye." Luke says, rolling his eyes at this nonsense. Jess walks back upstairs and Rory walks out of the diner. "What the hell was that?" Luke asks Lorelai.

"That was Episode One of 'Rory and Jess, the Early Years.'"

"What?"

"Rory and Jess are together."

"Are you serious?" Luke asks looking very surprised. "What about Dean?"

"Dean and Rory broke up at the dance."

"They did? I was at the dance. How come I didn't know?"

"Because you're you."

"What happened?"

"Jess happened."

"Wow! Wow!" Luke was really happy about this. He loved Rory and she was just what Jess needed to keep his life straight.

"Yeap." Lorelai says, not as thrilled as Luke obviously is.

"This is great."

"I'll tell Dean you said that."

"You know what I mean. Rory and Jess. Jess and Rory. I think this is great. Don't you think this is great?"

"I think Rory's seventeen. It's probably about time for a Jess."

"Look, I know Jess is a little tough sometimes but he likes Rory and Rory's a good kid. Hopefully she'll rub off on him."

"You know what? I spent a lot of time and energy fighting the Jess thing. Rory's made her choice. I want her to be happy. I'm just hoping for the best at this point."

"Very romantic." Luke says, sarcastically.

"Says the man who yelled, 'Finally!' at the end of Love Story."

"I'll get your coffee."

"Thank you very much." Lorelai sits down on the stool as she waits and looks out the window. She is surprised when she sees her youngest and her new friend Sasha running across the square together. All Lorelai could do was shake her head. She missed her kid.

At the Gilmore's, it was another Friday night and Emily was, like always on a little rampage when it came to her maids.

"Do it again, please!" She yells inside the doorway of the kitchen. Emily walks back to the dining room table. "I'm not quite sure what other way there is to say 'No walnuts in the salad,' except to say ,'No walnuts in the salad.'" The girls are leaning across the table. They were starving and Emily was making everything complicated.

"Mom, she just made a mistake." Lorelai says.

"She doesn't listen and doesn't care. She has no work ethic."

"She has some." Lorelai says, defending the maid. "You made her remake the salad four times. "

"I like things done correctly."

"Perferably the first time." Richard says, looking up from his newspaper.

Emily smiles gratefully at her husband for agreeing with her. "Thank you, Richard."

"You know, Mom, in Europe they eat the salad last and the main course first." Lorelai lies trying to move this dinner along so they could get home.

"We're not in Europe."

"We could pretend."

"Really, Lorelai, you can't wait ten minutes for another salad? The situation's that dire?"

"Four salads ago. No, not dire. RIght now it's 'Your money for nothing and your chicks for free.'"

Emily looks at her grand-daughters with a confused look, hoping they will be able to translate. "Girls?"

"She didn't have lunch." Rory tells her Grandma.

"Fine." Emily throws her napkin back down and stands up.

"Where are you going?" Richard asks.

"Apparetly we're going to be European tonight." She says, walking back to the kitchen.

"Wonderful." Richard says. "I was getting so tired of being American day after day after day."

Lorelai groans. "I'm starved."

"Think about something else." Lauren tells her.

"Like what?"

Lauren shrugs. "Something disgusting that will take your appetite away."

"Ari Fleischer?"

"Ari Fleischer is our nation's mouthpiece, young lady." Richard says, sternly.

Lorelai grimaces. "Officially not hungry now."

Emily walks back out. "Lilliana will be right out with the sand dabs. I'm afraid we will have to let her go, Richard." Emily says as she sits down.

"If that's how you feel, Emily." Richard really didn't want to argue with his wife.

"You're firing someone over putting walnuts in a salad?" Lorelai asks.

"I'm going to fire someone over putting walnuts in the salad after she was told not to." Emily explains.

"Mom, if you're not nicer to your help, you might find yourself in a Frank Lloyd Wright situation."

"Frank Lloyd Wright?" Richard asks, looking confused.

"What does Frank Lloyed Wright have to do with my salad?"

"And your walnuts."

"Mrs. Wright had this major problem with her help." Lorelai explains. "She was very rough on them and they hated her. So this guy who had worked for her forever, he had finally had enough. I believe the incident was over walnuts, wasn't it?" She asks her girls.

"The exact cause has not be proven." Rory says, a little freaked.

"Anyhow, Mrs. Wright invites this whole posse of people for dinner and they're all sitting around, eating and Mr. Disgruntled-servant guy goes outside and locks all the doors and windows and douses the whole house in gasoline and sets the place on fire!"

"My goodness." Emily says, frightened.

"So the house is on fire and people are freaking out so they run to the doors, but they are locked. So, a few of them try the windows but Mr. Angry-puss is standing outside with an ax hacking them to death, until they all died."

"Why on earth would you tell me that story?"

"All I'm saying is sometimes eating a walnut is preferable to getting hacked to death or set on fire during dinner."

"One of these days I'll make you eat in your room."

"I'm going to get another soda." Rory tells them. "Would anyone like something?"

"I'd like a big bag of walnuts. Tell her they're for me." Lorelai says.

Richard looks down at his glass as well. "I believe I need a little more ice. Emily, are you fine?"

"Yes, Richard, I'm fine. Thank you." Richard follows Rory into the kitchen. Lorelai starts sniffing the air.

"Mom, stop it!" Lauren pleads. Lorelai really freaked her out with that story.

Richard walks into the kitchen where Rory is pulling out another soda. "Did you find it?"

"Yes, I did." Rory smiles while pouring her soda into her glass.

Richard opens the fridge. "Good. Here we are." He says, refilling up his glass with ice. "Ice, and..." He turns around to Rory. "chocolates."

"Bless you!" Rory says happily taking the chocolates.

"So, tell me, how's it going at school?"

"It's good. It's crazy."

"Senior year."

"Yeap."

"Preparing for college can be a daunting task. I remember when I was preparing for Yale."

"Bad?"

"I don't believe I slept the entire year. I didn't even cut my hair for two months."

"Grandpa!" Rory fakes astonishment.

"Yes, it was quite a scandal. But in the end it was all worth it."

"Yeah?"

"My years at Yale were absolutely the most gratifying ones of my life. Just the sheer freedom of knowing that anything I wanted to learn I could learn right there. Plus the history of the place, the heritage. My father went to Yale."

"I know."

"I also made wonderful friends there, friends I still have today."

"That must be nice."

"I'm going to be going back there next week. There is a little reunion of the Whiffenpoofs."

"I'm sorry. The what?"

"It's an a cappella singing group I belonged to at Yale."

"A singing group?"

"A very famous singing group, actually. Like the Beatles but with better table manners."

"I've never heard you sing."

"Well, I'm no Perry Como, but my shower hasn't kicked me out yet." Richard jokes. "Anyway, a group of us are going to get together at the old alma mater and have a little dinner, swap some war stories."

"Sounds fun."The maid suddenly walks in with the tray of salads and she is crying as she walks passed them. "Did you see what I just saw?"

"Walnuts."

"Poor Grandma."

"Poor us. You know you might want to come with me next week."

"Come with you where?"

"To Yale."

"What?" Rory says looking surprised.

"I don't mean the dinner, that would be boring for you. But you might enjoy seeing the school. Your mother and sister could come, too. It would be a fun little adventure."

"Wow." Rory wasn't sure what to say. She knew she wanted to go to Harvard, but she also knew her grandparents really wanted her at Yale.

"We could drive down, have a little roadside snack, get there about noon, have a little tour. And then the three of you girls could go have fun and the old folks could have a somber little dinner. I think you'd love to see it. I certainly would love to show it to you."

Rory really didn't want to hurt her grandpa's feelings. "Sure, Grandpa. That would be nice."

"Wonderful!" Richard gleams. "I'm thrilled. Do you want to tell your mother or shall I?"

"Oh, you know what?" Rory says, knowing how her mother is and how she would take this, she wanted to explain it her way so Lorelai wouldn't jump to any conclusions. "I can tell her."

"Alright, you tell her." The maid walks back in, still in tears, and still with the tray of salads. "Looks like we're gonna need a few more of these." He whispers, showing Rory the little chocolates.

They walk out of the house hours later, tired from all the waiting they had to do for their food that still wasn't right.

"Okay, I officially vote that we send my mother an anonymous note requesting that she never make us the sand dabs again."

"I'm not sure how anonymous it would be considering that we were the first people she made them for."

Lorelai looks over at Lauren who is holding her stomach while they walk to the Jeep. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Sand dabs were really bad." Lauren groans as they get into the Jeep.

Rory looks at her mom with a serious look. "I have to tell you something."

"Okay." Lorelai says as she starts the engine.

"Grandpa talked to me tonight." Lorelai turns the car off. Rory looks down, confused, and then back up at Lorelai. "Why did you turn the car off?"

"I just think that I should be driving a large vehicle when you tell me this."

Lauren sits up as well, ready to hear what her sister has to say. "It's not big deal." Rory promises, but Lorelai and Lauren weren't believing her. "It's not."

"Then tell me."

"Okay. Um, well, Grandpa was mentioning that he and Grandma are going on a trip next week, a driving trip somewhere, and he invited me to go. And you and Lauren. He invited us to go with him and Grandma."

Lorelai smiles. "Where?"

"What?"

"Where's the driving trip to?"

"Yale."

Lorelai starts chuckling to herself. Why hadn't she seen this before, she thought. Lorelai opens her car door and starts getting out. Rory and Lauren exchange worry glances. "Mom?" Lauren says, wondering what Lorelai was going to do.

"Mom, wait!" Rory begs as she gets out the Jeep, too.

"No, it's okay. I got it." Lorelai tells her.

Rory hurries to catch up with Lorelai before she can make it to the front door. "He's going for some nostalgia thing for a reunion of, I don't know, the Whiffengoofs?"

"Poofs." Lorelai corrects her.

"What?"

"Whiffenpoofs."

"Not much better."

"I totally agree."

"Well, he got all sentimental and he just wants to show me the campus. It's not a big deal."

"It's a huge deal." Lorelai says, dramatically.

"Mom."

"There's a reason he wants to drag you out there, Rory. He's manupulating you. Trust me, I know. He's a master at it."

"Okay, fine. Maybe he is. But he really wants me to go. I can tell. And you don't have to go. I mean, he invited you and Lauren and I would really love it if you both came, but really, you can stay home. Just don't make a big deal of it. It doesn't have to be a fight."

"Rory."

"We go. We look. Hi, Yale. Bye, Yale. It's over. No harm. No foul."

"How many more two-word sentences can you come up with?"

Rory grabs her mom and pushes Lorelai back towards the Jeep. "It doesn't have to be a total loss."

"Look how she's leading me back to the car."

"I'm sure you, Lauren, and I can figure out a fun thing to do while they're off at dinner, some cool road trip thing."

"In New Haven?" Lorelai asks cause it wasn't very likely.

"Yeah."

"Sweetie, have you ever been to New Haven?"

"No."

"Take a look at the coffee pot before I clean it. That's New Haven."

"We can make it fun. It would mean a lot to the grandparents. Everyone wins."

"Rory, listen to me."

"I know. I am being manipulated. This is part of Grandpa's evil plan to take over my life, abolish my free will, pull me into the Gilmore world, dress me in pearls, and ruin my life. Did I leave anything out?"

"Let me see." Lorelai says, pretending to think. "Manipulate, evil plan, no free will, pearls. No, I think you've about covered it. Oh, wait, did you call my father the 'puppet master?'"

"No, I did not."

"Always call him the puppet master."

"I will never make that mistake again."

Lauren suddenly opens the back door and throws up all over the cement of the driveway. She looks up at Lorelai and her sister who were making a grossed out look. "Sand dubs. Bad."

Lorelai sighs. "Well, that makes me feel a little better." She says, thinking about how her mother will react when she walks outside.

It's Saturday, and Lauren and Sasha are making themselves comfortable on the couch. Lorelai wasn't home yet which was a great relief to Lauren. She was hoping Lorelai forgot about Sasha coming over and hopefully by the time she got home Sasha would be gone. But then the front door opens and Lorelai sees her mom walking through.

"Great." Lauren mumbles.

Lorelai walks in with a big smile on her face. She happy to see the two girls in her living room for once and not running around town. "Hey, girls." Lauren gives her mom a small before as Lorelai kisses her on the top of her head.

"Hey, Miss. Gilmore." Lorelai gives Sasha a look. "Lorelai." She says, correcting herself.

Lorelai sees that they already have a movie in. "Oh, The Godfather. My favorite movie." Lorelai sits down on the side of Lauren.

Lauren rolls her eyes. "Mom, you have like a billion favorite movies."

"Yes, but I love this one." She says, eating some candy that they had set up on the table. Lorelai looks over at her daughter and then at Sasha. You could tell that they were totally different people just by looking at them. Sasha wore a lot of black, skirts. Lauren liked bright colors, much like herself, and she looked younger than what she was which scared Lorelai a little because Lauren was more vulnerable and was itching to fit in with anyone she could since Elizabeth left. "So, Sasha, were your parents okay with you coming here?" Lorelai asks.

Sasha shrugs her shoulders and not taking her eyes off the TV. "Sure. They don't really care."

Lorelai glances down at her daughter who gives her a stern look to not go any further with that subject. "Oh, good." Lorelai says. "You have any siblings, Sasha?"

Sasha nods her head this time looking at Lorelai. "I have an older brother. He's a freshman in college."

"Oh, cool! Where at?"

"He moved to California to go to Berkeley." Sasha says with a smile.

"That's so cool! Hey, did you order the pizza?" Lorelai asks Lauren.

"Yeah." Lauren tells her. "It's going to be here in ten minutes."

"Okay, well, until then do you girls want some popcorn?"

"Sure." Sasha answers for the both of them.

"Thanks, Mom." Lauren says as Lorelai gets up and walks to the kitchen. Lauren turns back to Sasha. "Why did you say you have a brother that goes to Berkeley?" Lauren whispers to her friend. "You don't have a brother."

Sasha shrugs. "It sounded good, right?" She laughs.

Lorelai had heard them talk, though. Now she was understanding where Lauren's lying was suddenly coming from, too. She walks into the kitchen and stumbles a little, hitting the chair at the table making the girls' coats fall on the floor. "Oops." She says, picking them back up. She puts Lauren's coat back, but stops when she goes to pick up Sasha's. She sees a small rolled up joint on the floor of her kitchen. She gasps a ltitle while she picks it up getting a closer look at it. She didn't want to start assuming but it obviously came out of one of their coats and she was definitely not happy and had to figure out a good time to approach this situation with her thirteen year-old daughter. She definitely should have listened to her gut.

The next day, Rory walks into Luke's from being at school all day. Luke walks up to her with a smile on his face. He was still so happy that Rory and Jess were together.

"So, it's nice to see you, Rory." Luke says.

"It's nice to see you, too, Luke."

"So, table for one?" Luke asks, pointing to one of the empty tables.

"I'll just sit at the counter."

"Okay. What can I get you?"

"I guess I'll have a cheeseburger." Rory says as she walks over and sits at the counter.

Jess walks downstairs and steps back a little surprised to see Rory there. He doesn't say anything, though. "Hey, Jess, look who's here. Rory." Luke says.

"Hi." Jess says to her.

"Hi." Rory says back.

"Okay, time to add another word. Jess, you want something to eat?" Luke asks, looking annoyed.

"I'm not hungry." Jess tells him.

"Oh, yeah, I'm not hungry either." Rory tells him, too.

"What about the burger?" Luke asks, remembering the cheeseburger she asked for.

"Oh, well, could you wrap it up? I'm gonna eat it later. I actually prefer burgers that have been sitting around for awhile. Lets them age."

"Okay." Luke walks to the back leaving the two teenagers alone.

"You know, I've got that book upstairs." Jess tells Rory.

"Oh." Rory says, awkwardly. "The book we talked about?"

"Yep."

"Great."

"We could go and look at it."

"Look at the book. Sure. Let's go upstairs and look at the book."

"Good."

"Okay."

Luke watches the two head upstairs.

In the apartment upstairs, Jess and Rory walk in. They stood there awkwardly with eachother, not knowing exactly what to say.

"So, here we are." Jess says, breaking the silence.

"Yeap. Here we are. Wow, I haven't seen it since you guys redid it." Rory says, pointing to the new space that is now Jess' bedroom.

"Yeah."

"It's bigger."

"Ripping a wall down can have that effect on a room."

Rory walks into it. "That part of over there?" She asks.

"That's mine."

"Your.."

"Yeah. You want a soda?" He asks, walking towards the kitchen.

"No, I'm fine."

"Okay." Jess says, not knowing what else to do. "Sure you don't want a soda?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Please let me get you a soda. I gotta do something other than stand like a moron."

"Take comfort in the fact that you are not at it alone."

"Okay. Let's just regroup here."

"Yeah." Rory agrees. "Regroup."

"First of all, we should try to get within a foot of eachother."

"Okay." They walk closer to one another. "I think that's about a foot."

"Hm. That school of your's is really paying off." Jess teases.

"So, now what?"

"Now we should..."

"Well, I think we either need to get a little closer, or need to warm up."

"Okay." Jess moves closer to Rory and takes both her hands as he looks at her. "Hi."

"Hi."

They go to kiss, but before they could reach eachother's lips, Luke comes through the door scaring them and they quickly walk away from eachother. "I got the burger." Luke tells Rory.

"Thank you." Rory takes it quickly.

"I also threw in some fries."

"Fries. Great. I love fries. Okay, Jess, thank you for your... I gotta go." Rory turns around and runs out of the apartment as fast as she could.

It was the day they are going to Yale with the grandparents. It had been a week since Lorelai found the joint on the floor and was still trying to figure out what to say to Lauren. But during that time she made a good point to keep Lauren away from Sasha by making her work at the Inn. She made up things to do so that Lauren couldn't leave. Luckily for her, Lauren wasn't questioning her. She would go to school, go to the inn, and go home with Lorelai. And good thing that the weekend came along because Lauren wasn't seeing Sasha at all.

"Rory, Lauren, let's move!" Lorelai yells walking into the kitchen with a bag of her stuff for the weekend. "They'll be here any minute."

"I'll be right there." Rory tells her from her room.

"And, Lauren, make sure to bring an extra coat."

"Why?" Lauren yells from upstairs.

"Do not ask why. It's Gilmore road rules. Just trust me."

Lauren runs downstairs with her bag and two coats in her hands. "But that doesn't make any sense." She says going into the kitchen. "We'll only be gone for a day."

"Do me a favor, say those exaxt words to my mother when she shows up."

"Taking the coat." Lauren says dropping all her things in the foyer.

Rory walks out of room. "Okay, I have been doing some research on our trip."

"Oh, yeah?" Rory asks.

"Yeah. I went to the bookstore, and I found this." Lorelai shows her daughters the book.

"'The best of New Haven.' It's light." Rory says, taking it out of her mom's hands.

Lorelai grabs it back. "It's New Haven. Anyhow, I looked through it, and it just so happens that one of the best taco places on the East Coast is ten minutes from campus."

"We like tacos."

"Yes, we do. 'You haven't had a taco until you've been to Hector's. Crisp and meaty.'" Lorelai reads.

"Dirty." Lauren says.

"Thank you. 'Not greasy, with homemade tortillas it elevates fast finger-food to the level of haute cuisine.'"

"Sounds good." Rory tells her.

"When dad is busy poofing it up we could say hello to Hector."

"I like your thinking."

"Good. Where's your stuff?" Lorelai asks, grabbing another cup of coffee.

"I put my extra coat by the door."

"No, I know, but where's your stuff?"

"What stuff?"

"Rory, I left a list on your dresser last night."

"I thought you were kidding."

"You didn't pack?" Lauren asks. "Wait." Lauren looks up at her mom. "I had to pack, but Rory didn't have to?"

Lorelai sighs and walks into Rory's room with the girls following her. "Rory, let me explain something to you." Lorelai begins as she starts grabbing Rory's stuff from her dresser drawers and starts putting them in a bag. "The way you survive a road trip with my mother is to make sure you have all your bases covered. Leave nothing to chance. Never give her an opportunity to give a lecture on how if you'd brought the second bathing suit, like she said, it wouldn't have mattered that the first one's strap broke in a pool side incident that no one including the Amazing Kreskin could predict you would have been covered."

"I have to bring a bathing suit?" Rory asks. "It's 30 degrees outside."

"This is an example based on a true story. Get a skirt to go with this." Lorelai says, handing Rory the sweater.

"But I'm still confused. When are we changing?"

"Not the point."

"We're driving, walking, eating tacos, and driving again."

Lorelai grabs the list off the dresser. "Check the list."

"Why do I need rain boots?"

"Why are you still questioning me?"

"Should I bring both a rain hat and an umbrella, or will one do?" Lorelai just stares at her. "Forget it. Stupid question." Rory says, rolling her eyes. She walks back to her bag when Lorelai notices the bracelet Dean gave Rory is sitting on her dresser.

"Wow." She says, picking it up. "I guess this means there really isn't a Dean anymore."

"That and it broke in the shower this morning. Though I probably would have taken it off anyway."

"Or Jess would have done it for you." Lauren says, while looking out the window.

"What did that mean?"

Lauren stutters a little trying to avoid her sister's evil glare. "It just meant Jess wouldn't want you wearing another guy's bracelet."

"Or that Jess is a thief and he would've stolen it."

Lorelai looks at Lauren. "She said it. I didn't." Lorelai says, smiling.

"So, is this how it's gonna be from now on?" She asks both her sister and mom.

"What does that mean?"

"You liked Dean, and you hate Jess."

"Hey, I hated Dean, and I like Jess." Lauren shrugs. "Don't be mad at me."

"Jess'll always be the guy who told you off and wrecked my car and Dean will always be the perfect guy who'd come over and change the water bottle."

Lorelai sighs. "Oh, I forgot about the water bottle."

"Mom."

"Rory, I said nothing. Lauren didn't mean what you thought."

"No, I just said what you were thinking." Lauren smirks.

"You are not helping." Lorelai says, sternly. "Rory, I'm trying to be supportive."

"How supportive?" Rory asks.

"Supportive. You know, 'Go, team.'"

"I'm serious. I want to know how it's gonna be. Like, can I invite him over?"

"Of course."

"Can he actually come into the house?"

"Yes. He can come in."

"Are you going to talk to him?"

"Oh, my God." Lorelai groans.

"Are you going to talk him?" Rory asks, again.

"I'll match him grunt for grunt."

"Okay. Let's say he's in the house and there's a fire and you can either save him or your shoes. Which is it?" Lauren asks, curiously.

"That depends." Lorelai thinks. "Did he start the fire?"

Lauren laughs, but Rory was not at all amused. "Mom."

"Rory, I promised you before and I'm promising you again I will cut this kid all kinds of slack. Did I like Dean? Yes. DId I worry about you less when you were with Dean? Yes. But I never expected you to be with Dean forever just like I don't expect you to be with Jess forever."

"Oh, so now you're just waiting for the day I'm not with Jess anymore."

"You know what? I'm actually looking forward to my mother getting here."

Rory smiles. "I'm kidding. And thank you."

"You're annoying. And you're welcome." Lorelai says, lovingly, as she stroke her daughter's cheek.

Lauren jumps up, seeing her grandparent's car pull up. "They're here." She tells them.

"Let the games begin." They all walk out of Rory's room and to the front door where Emily and Richard are standing.

"Your drivers have arrived." Emily says with a smile.

"Hi, Grandma." Rory says.

"Hi, Grandpa." Lauren says.

"Hello, Rory and Lauren. Hello, Lorelai. What a perfect day for a drive." Richard says with much enthusiasm.

"Sure is." Lorelai smiles.

"You brought an umbrella?" Emily asks.

Lorelai and Lauren glance at Rory saying I told you so. "And a rain cap." Rory tells her.

"Excellent!"

Richard grabs their bags. "Here, let me help you with those." The girls follow Richard to the car with Lorelai and Emily following behind.

"Where are you going with that?" Emily asks, noticing the coffee thermos in Lorelai's hand.

"To the car." She tells her.

"You can't have that in the car."

"I know."

"Then what are you doing with it?"

"Walking it."

"Lorelai."

"Mom, I know I can't have it in the car. It will not be in the car."

"Is that everything?" Richard asks.

"Yes, I think so." Lorelai walks to the backseat and rolls down the window. She gets in and closes the door with the thermos hanging out of the window.

Emily glares at her daughter. "Now let's see you drink it."

Lorelai sits on the window and takes a big gulp. "Mm. Good to the last drop."

"You stay that way until it's gone." Emily says, sternly before she gets into the car.

"Aye, aye, Captain."

"Let's go, Richard."

"Alrighty." Richard says, excitingly as they drive off.

At Yale, the Gilmores are walking through the Yale campus. A guy walks passed them very quickly.

"Wow, does that guy look smart." Lorelai jokes. "I mean it. He's got the smart look down. The glasses, the furrowed brow, the ticky walk."

"The Kierkegaard." Rory adds.

"I really think it's the walk."

"Well we are at Yale, you know. There are smart people here." Lauren tells them.

"I know there are smart people here. I just didn't realize how many. I bet if I pulled my checkbook out now, 12 guys could help me balance it."

"Thirteen." Richard corrects her. "If you were near the right building."

"Grandpa, that art gallery was amazing. Thank you." Rory says, gratefully.

"Yale has one of the finest collections of British art in the world."

"Louvre, shmovre." Lorelai says.

"I spent a lot of time in that gallery as a young man."

"I'll say you did." Emily grins which got her a look from Lorelai.

"What was that, 'I'll say you?'"

"That gallery was one of your father's favorite places to bring the ladies."

"What?" Rory asks as they all laugh.

"Emily." Richard says looking embarrassed.

"It's where you took me on our first date." Emily reminds him.

"Dad liked to impress them with the paintings." Lorelai says.

"Why did you bring this up?" Richard asks his wife.

"He was the master of the 'frown, step back, wrinkle, and sigh.'"

"The what?" Lauren asks.

"Frown." Emily starts demonstrating. "Step back. Wrinkle. And sigh."

"I did not such thing." Richard chuckles.

"And then he'd talk about the paintings he'd seen in Paris and the colors of Titian. By the end of the date you thought he's the most brilliant man."

"Using Titian to score." Lorelai says, impressed. "Even Titian didn't do that."

"You shouldn't tell them this." Richard says. "They'll think I was some Lothario."

"Well, you were." Emily states.

"I was just a young, single man who wanted to experience life."

"Don't even fall for that line." Lorelai tells her girls as they start walking again.

"I promise." Rory says.

"You know, Emily, you weren't such an innocent little doe lost in the woods yourself." Richard tells his wife.

"I beg your pardon?" Emily asks, wondering where Richard was going with this.

"They're turning on eachother. I love it." Lorelai gleams.

"I'll have you know, I was happily involved in a very serious relationship when your mother decided she simply had to have me." Richard tells the girls.

"Oh, the size of your ego!" Emily exclaims. "I swear."

"Linny Lott."

"That mouse?"

"That mouse and I were engaged."

"Oh, you were not."

"I'd given her my pin. I'd introduced her to my parents."

"So?"

"The date was set, invitations mailed out."

"Mom." Lorelai couldn't believe her mom stole her dad from another woman.

"You couldn't marry Linny Lott." Emily tells him. "That woman needed directions to get to a point. Richard Gilmore, you are going to give these girls the wrong impression."

"What impression is that, Grandma?" Rory asks, intrigued.

"That you were the Helena Bonham Carter of the society set?" Lorelai jokes.

"I did not steal your grandfather. I simple gave him a choice." Emily tells them.

"When you showed up at my fraternity party in that blue dress, I had no choice." Richard says.

"You stole me father with fashion." Lorelai says.

"I can't believe you remember the dress." Emily says, surprised.

"I can't believe you were the other woman."

"Oh, this is ridiculous."

"Another woman should be saying, 'this is ridiculous.'"

"Will you stop?" Emily begs her.

They walk over to Richard who has stopped at a dirty trash can. "Well?" He says, smiling at Emily.

"Well what?"

"You mean you don't remember?"

Emily looks around and then gasps. "Oh, my God! There was a bench here."

"They moved it last year."

"I can't believe this."

"Me, either." Lorelai scoffs. "What if we wanted to sit down?"

"This is where you father proposed." Emily tells her.

"Really?" Lauren asks.

"That's right." Richard confirms.

"By the trashcan?" Lorelai says.

"That's right." Emily confirms.

"Well, that's very romantic. Especially if you need to spit your gum out."

"We were going to meet my girlfriends who were going to drive me back to school."

"And you were angry with me." Richard adds.

"Because you wouldn't commit to plans for the holidays."

"Because I wanted to invite you to my house, to meet my parents after I proposed."

"Which I didn't know because you gave me no indication."

"Anyway, you had just finished calling me a spineless jellyfish. "

"And you got annoyed, reached in your pocket, pulled out a box, and said, 'here!'"

"And you opened the box, showed no emotion slammed it closed, and said, 'fine.'"

"Yes, I did." They laugh as they reach over to kiss one another.

"That is so sweet." Rory says.

"Oh, no." Emily says, stepping back. "My button broke."

"Oh, yeah? Let me see." Lorelai says, trying to look.

"It just broke in two and fell."

"Let me look."

"It's a broken button. What is there to look at?"

"Alright, then, I think there's a bathroom over there."

"What can we do in a bathroom?"

"Meet George Michael." Lorelai jokes. "Let's go."

They walk into the bathroom and Emily takes off her jacket. "I don't believe it. This is a brand new skirt." She says with frustration.

"Mom, let me see." Lorelai starts examining the skirt.

"I have this dinner to go to. What am I going to do?"

"Drink a lot. Easier to explain it if you're falling down drunk."

"Thank you for the advice." Emily says, sarcastically.

"I can rig this till you get home."

"You can?"

"Yeah, just give me five seconds here." Lorelai reaches into her purse.

"What's that?"

"It's a paper clip." She says, showing Emily.

"And what do you intend to do with that paper clip?"

"I intend to carve something really dirty into the bathroom door."

"Lorelai." Emily sighs.

"What rhymes with 'Nantucket?'"

"I'm standing here holding my skirt." Emily reminds her.

"I will put this paper clip through your buttonhole and then through the thread that held the button." Lorelai explains as she does it. "And then you're going to put your jacket back on and there you go."

"That's ingenious."

"I know." Lorelai smiles.

"If I had a thumbtack I could make a Scud missile."

"You know, your father's having a wonderful time."

"Well, good."

"It means a lot ot him to share this with Rory and Lauren."

"I know."

"Actually, it means a lot to him to share this with you, Lauren, and Rory. It's very nice that you're here."

"Nice for you. I just found out you were not supposed to be my real mother, so I'm a little scarred." Emily just shakes her head smiling.

Outside, Rory, Richard, and Lauren are sitting outside waiting on a bench.

"See that?" Richard asks, pointing in front of him. "That is my favorite building in the whole school."

"It is?" Rory asks.

"Yes, it is."

"Why?" Lauren asks.

"Because that's where the Timothy Dwight Dining Hall is."

"I thought campus food was supposed to be disgusting." Rory tells him.

"Not Yale food. They have the most delicious pot roast."

"I love pot roast."

"Who doesn't love pot roast?" Richard laughs. "Are you girls having a good time?"

"I'm having a very good time." Rory tells him.

"Yeah, me too." Lauren says, smiling at him.

"I'm glad." Richard says, very happily. "It's nice being able to show this place to another Gilmore generation. You know, one day when your mother was ten years old she ran into my office and she said, 'I'm going to go to Yale just like you.' She actually took my diploma out of my office and put it in her room. She wouldn't give it back to me for about six months. This place makes you remember things." He chuckles. "Hopefully things you're being graded on."

Emily walks out looking as good as new with Lorelai following behind her. "Alright, we're all in one piece again."

"Oh, glad to hear it." Richard says as they stand up. "Shall we continue?"

"Okay." Lorelai grimaces. "You're not gonna show me the vending machine where I was conceived, are you? Because I don't think I can take it."

They all walk into a huge building an hour or so later.

"Wow!" Lauren says, as she looks around the big open space that had beautiful carvings inside the walls and ceilings.

"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" Lorelai says.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Richard asks.

"I'd like to open a checking account, please."

"What is this place?" Rory asks.

"This is the main administration building professors' offices, the dean's office. Some of the best scotch in the country can be found behind those doors." Richard jokes.

"I'm not sure how to take that, Dad." Lorelai says.

"Come on. Follow me, please." Richard says, quickly.

Emily and Lorelai start to laugh. "What's he so excited about?" Lorelai asks her mother.

"Who knows?" Emily says. "Dickens must have dropped a pencil here at some point."

Richard the girls stop at two closed double doors. "Rory, this is the office of a very dear friend of mine. His name is Harris Fellows and he just happens to be the Dean of Admissions."

Lorelai looks surprised. "Really?" She asks.

"That's right. And I called him just before we came down and I asked him if he had time to squeeze you in and he said yes."

"Squeeze me in..." Rory says, a bit confused.

"For an interview."

"And interview for what, Dad?" Lorelai asks.

"For Yale."

"Grandpa." Rory was not sure about this.

"I told him all about you and your grades and how well you were doing at Chilton." Lorelai closes her eyes and sighs. She knew something was up. She should have stopped it when she had the chance. "And of course he insisted on seeing you. He wouldn't let me off the hook."

"But I haven't applied to Yale."

"Oh, I told him you weren't finishing deciding, that you were very picky. I think that made him want you even more. They can be very competitive, these Ivy League schools. He's expecting you at three. Look, it's three now." Richard says, checking his watch. Lorelai shakes her head not happy about this at all. She could just look at her daughter's face and see how frightened and uncomfortable she was. "We timed this perfectly, didn't we?" Richard laughs. "I'll walk you in."

Lorelai hurries and gets in front of Rory, stopping her. "Rory, honey, you don't have to go in there."

"What? Of course she's going to go in there."

"Rory, honey, the only person I'm talking to you, you don't have to go in if you don't want to."

"Lorelai, the man is waiting."

"You want to leave?" Lorelai asks Rory, ignoring her father. "We can just leave."

"No, it's okay." Rory says, nervously. "I'll go in."

Lorelai walks back over and stands behind Lauren. She just knew this was a bad idea. "Harris is a very nice man, Rory." Richard assures her. "I think you two are really going to hit it off. Come on, I'll walk you in." Richard and Rory go into the office as Lorelai, Lauren, and Emily watch.

Emily could see that Lorelai was angry, but she needed her to know that she had nothing to do with this. "Lorelai-"

"No." Lorelai says, stopping her.

Richard walks back out. "She shook his hand." He says, proudly. "She just reached out and shook his hand. It completely threw him off. I swear, that girl.."

"You know what? I almost feel like a standing ovation is in order."

"If you're going to get dramatic, let's go outside."

"What did you think you were doing?"

"I thought I was helping my grand-daughter get in to what is, in my opinion, the best Ivy League school in America."

"Even though she doesn't want to go here?" Lorelai argues.

"She doesn't know she doesn't want to go here."

"You're unbelievable. You corner her the other night without me there."

"Of course I did. You wouldn't let her go."

"Oh, I wouldn't?"

"I knew that the last thing that you could want, would be Rory going to Yale."

"And the reason would be?"

"I went to Yale, therefore Rory can't."

"Oh, that's right, the crazy reason."

"That's alright. It's your preogative to feel that way. It's mine to make sure that Rory at least knows all her options."

"Shouldn't you slap my face with a glove before you do this?"

"I'm not going to discuss this."

"You lied to everybody, Dad! You lied to me, to Rory, to Lauren. And Mom, I'm thinking you lied to her, too."

"Lorelai, please, let's try and calm down." Emily begs.

Richard sits down not wanting to discuss this anymore. "This is for Rory's own good."

"Rory's going to Harvard." Lorelai tells him.

"We'll see."

"No, Rory's going to Harvard." Lorelai raises her voice. "It's already been decided without you. Get it? You don't control it. And that little stunt of yours doesn't change that fact one bit."

"I'm sorry about the way it had to be done but I didn't want to argue with you about it."

"My whole life you've tried to control everything and if you didn't control something then you just didn't deal with it."

"That's ridiculous."

"You couldn't control me. You didn't deal with me."

"This has nothing to do with you. This is about Rory and Rory's education which frankly, Lorelai, is something you know nothing about."

"Excuse me!?"

"You never went to college let alone an Ivy League college. You don't know the first thing on how the system works. I do. I went through it. You want Rory to go to Harvard that badly? Well, so do thousands of other mothers. Yale is an excellent school. The equal of Harvard in every way. Except one. I went here. I'm an alumnus. That makes it easier for Rory to get in. And if you had any idea about the way the system works you'd know this."

Lauren grabs her mom's hand. "Come on, Mom." Lauren didn't like their her grandpa was yelling at her mom. Her mom went to college. She did and was still doing everything for Rory and herself. She didn't want to stand here and listen to something her grandpa knew nothing about.

"So, here it is." Lorelai says. "I knew we'd eventually get to the big 'my daughter's a loser poor me, future squandered, the Gilmore name sullied' speech."

"I am not going to leave Rory's education to chance simply because I might risk offending you." Richard says. "Her future is more important than your pride. If you don't like that, I'm sorry. If it makes you angry, what else is new? But that, my dear girl, is the way it is."

"I'm calling a cab. We're leaving." Lorelai and Lauren rush off towards the exit and Emily is following quickly behind them to stop her.

"Lorelai, come back inside." Emily tells her, but Lorelai already has her phone out and ready to dial. "Lorelai, put the phone away and come back inside."

"Yes, hi. In New Haven." Lorelai says, over the phone. "I need the number of a cab company. Oh, any one. Pick one. Thanks."

"You are not taking a cab all the way back to Stars Hollow."

"He lied to you, too, Mom. Don't you care?"

"That is between me and your father."

"Great, whatever. Damn, I just forgot the number."

"If you would just calm down and look at it from his point of view."

Lauren grabs her mom's phone from her hands. "Let me call." She tells her and walks away.

"Your father is a very strong-willed man, Lorelai. You know this. You take after him. He wants the best for Rory. He thinks this is the best."

"It doesn't matter what he thinks." Lorelai says, fighting back. "It matters what I think and what Rory thinks."

"So Rory takes a meeting at Yale. That doesn't mean she won't go to Harvard."

"I know it doesn't, because she is going to Harvard."

"If she applies to Yale-"

"She's not!"

"And she gets in, that might make her more appealing to Harvard. Have you thought about that?"

"No, I haven't because I'm not trying to reason away a crazy man's actions."

"Oh, don't turn this into another crusade against your childhood. Just let it go. Realize that despite the manner in which your father did this his intentions were honorable."

"You know what, Mom? Sometimes I try to figure out why dad and I have such an awful relationship. I try to figure out why we can't communicate and why we can't break through whatever crap is standing between us. And then, something like this happens and it's like, 'Yeah, that's why.'"

"Fine, Lorelai. Your father's a demon." Emily says, dramatically. "He's cruel and out to destroy your happiness. But think about this. You're fighting so hard to send Rory off to Harvard that you haven't even stopped to consider that if she went to Yale she could live at home. Consider that on your cab ride."

Lauren walks back up to them. "The cab will be here in a bit." She tells her mom as she hands her back her phone.

"Great. Let's go." Lorelai leads her daughter the other way to wait for Rory.

While they are waiting for Rory to come out of her unexpected interview. Lorelai and Lauren are sitting against the wall outside on the entrance. Lorelai wasn't ready to go back in yet, but she made sure to have a good eye out of where Rory was coming out at so that she could just scoop her right on out of there.

"I'm sorry." Lauren says, sadly. She couldn't stop thinking about what her grandpa said and she felt bad for her mom because she would never be able to have the childhood that she gave herself and and Rory.

Lorelai looks confused. "For what, hun?"

"I'm sorry Grandpa talked to you that way. You didn't deserve it."

Lauren pats her daughter's leg gently. "Hey, it's fine. I'm fine. I'm used to it. Trust me." Lauren just nods her head. Lorelai figured this would be a good a time as any to bring up the subject that she had been meaning to talk to Lauren again. Lorelai opens her purse and takes out a zip loc bag that she had put the joint in.

Lauren looks at it and gasps. "Mom, why do you have that in your purse? At a college?"

"So, but the look on your face I'm assuming you have no idea where this came from." Lorelai says as she puts it back in her purse so that no one sees it.

Lauren shakes her head. "Where did you get that from?"

"I found it on my kitchen floor, Lauren. Do you have any idea what that might be about?" Lauren closes her eyes realizing it now. "Are you smoking this Lauren? Is it Sasha's?" Lauren doesn't say anything. "I'm going to take that as a 'Yes, Mom, it's Sasha's.' What the hell, Lauren!?"

"Mom, I didn't smoke that!" Lauren argues.

"But you have, haven't you?" Lorelai asks her but she already knew that answer. "Lauren, I thought we've discussed what drugs can do to you. How bad they are and how much trouble you can get into."

"I only did it twice!"

Lorelai gasps. "So you have done it!" Lauren could see her mom's face turning bright red. She was in some serious trouble. "I so should have listened to my gut when it said that Sasha is bad news."

"Sasha is not bad news!" Lauren yells, defending her friend. "She has been a great friend to me."

"Oh, yeah, says the joint hanging out in my purse right now."

"Sasha is a good person."

"Lauren, I can't allow you to see Sasha anymore." Lauren couldn't believe what she was hearing right now. Her mom was doing it again.

"What?" Lauren says on the verge of tears.

"You can't hang out with Sasha anymore." Lorelai says again but more calmly.

Lauren stands up and stares down at her mom. "Why are you doing this to me? Why are you taking every friend I ever have away from me!?"

"Lauren." Lorelai sighs as she stands up to comfort her daughter.

"No!" Lauren yells, stepping back. "I don't want to talk to you." Lauren turns around and walks away leaving Lorelai standing there watching. She couldn't let Lauren end up like her.

Back at the administration office, Rory walks out with Dean.

"It was a pleasuer to meet you. I'll read that book you recommended." The Dean tells her.

"And don't be fooled by the Oprah seal on the cover. It's actually very good." Rory tells him.

Richard walks up with a big smile on his face when he sees the Dean laughing. "Well, how did it go? I see that everyone is smiling."

"Richard, your grand-daughter is everything you said and more. You should be very proud." The Dean tells him.

"I am. Very proud."

"It was nice meeting you."

"Same here." Rory says, shaking his hand.

"I'll see you at dinner."

Richard shakes his hand as well. "Thanks, Harris." Harris turns around and goes back into his office. "Well, that sounded like it went very well. What did you tell him to read?"

"Why did you do that?" Rory asks.

"Do what?"

"Why did you make this appointment without telling me?"

"Rory, I know this appointment upset your mother but this was an important opportunity."

"I know it was important. That's why I can't believe you didn't prepare me for it." Rory says, looking very frustrated. "I didn't have my transcripts my letters of recommendation. I couldn't even remember what I wanted to major in when he asked."

"I'm sure he knew you were nervous."

"But I didn't have to be that nervous. I could've been calm and brushed my hair. I never would've worn this." She says, looking down at her clothing.

"Rory, none of this matters."

"It matters to me. I like to be prepared. This has nothing to do with Mom. If you wanted me to take this meeting I would have done it because you asked me to and I would've done it right."

Lorelai walks up. "Rory, a cab is meeting us at the main gate. Let's go."

"I'm coming." She says, glaring at her grandfather before meeting her mom. "Bye, Grandma."

"Goodbye, Rory." Emily says as she watches her daughter and grand-daughter leave. "Don't you even look at me." Emily says with anger as she walks passed Richard.

The cab ride was really quiet. As soon as it stopped in Stars Hollow, Lauren was out of the cab with no words. She just walked away from her mom. Lorelai had no choice right now but to let her go. Lauren was a lot like her and needed to cool down before they started talking again. So, she was going to leave her alone and discuss everything that happened with Rory.

"Well, here's the good news you don't have to worry about which college to go to because that cab ride was your college tuition." Lorelai tells her oldest.

"Can we not say the word 'college' for at leat 48 hours?"

"Fine."

"Thank you."

"How about 'collage?' Can I say 'collage?'" Lorelai jokes. "Because it sounds the same, but it's very different."

"'Collage' is fine."

"Ugh, I don't even know how to get through a conversation without the word 'collage.'"

"I should have listened to you about today."

"Oh, no. There's no way even I could have seen this one coming." Lorelai tells her as they walk into Luke's.

"I can't believe I had a meeting at Yale today."

"I know." Lorelai says, not believing it herself as they sit.

"And I can't believe the only thing that popped in my head when he asked for my role model was Gloria Estefan."

"Well, you don't work great under pressure. "

"Ugh. Sucky day."

"But excellent tacos." Lorelai smiles at the bad they brought back from taco place.

"Yeah, Hector really came through."

Luke walks up to them noticing the bag of food. "What are you doing?"

"Recovering from a day with my parents. Lauren forgot her taco. You want it?" Lorelai asks as she takes a bunch of tacos out.

"Uh, no thanks. I already have food here. We sell it to the other customers who don't come quite as prepared as the two of you."

"Hm, be nice and get us some salsa."

"At least order a cup of coffee."

"Coffee and tacos?" Rory asks, grimacing at the thought.

"Sounds just gross enough to work." Lorelai tells him.

Luke puts down the coffee mugs and fills them up just as Lauren's coach walks up to them. "Lorelai, I'm glad you're here."

Lorelai looks up and smiles. "Oh, hey. How's that soccer thing going?"

"It's good." Coach laughs. "I hope Lauren isn't too upset about what happened."

Lorelai and Rory look at eachother with confused looks. "What happened?"

"Lauren had missed five practices and I had to kick her off the team. She seem really upset after and I was just hoping she was alright now. We'd love to have her back next semester."

"Oh, uh, yeah, I'm sure she would love that. I'm sorry." Lorelai apologizes even though she had no idea Lauren was kicked out of soccer.

"Sure. Tell Lauren I said hey." Coach leaves the diner and Lorelai is sitting there stumped.

"Wow. I guess Lauren really has been keeping a lot from us." Rory says.

"Yeah.."

Jess walks downstairs and smiles at Rory. "Hi." He says.

"Hi." Rory says back.

Luke walks back up to them already looking annoyed. "Please, I'll finish it. Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi."

"I got to run out for a second to get a part for my car." Jess tells Luke.

"Get a receipt this time."

"I'll be back." Jess walks out of the diner.

"Hey, Luke, what's the record for most tacos eaten in a diner that doesn't actually sell tacos?" Lorelai asks.

"I have no idea." Luke tells her.

"Fine out, will you? Cause if it's less than five, we're famous!"

"Where'd you get those things?"

"New Haven."

"Really? The dump was closed?"

"We paid a little visit to Yale today."

"Yes, one that I would prefer not to relive thank you very much." Rory tells them. "I'm gonna go study."

"Okay, hon. See you back home. Please make sure Lauren made it there."

"Okay. Bye, Luke."

"Bye." Luke says as Rory leaves.

Out by the gas station, Jess is trying to light a ciggarette but he can't find a match so now he's just staring at it just when Rory walks up.

"You going to smoke that or mind-meld with it?" Rory jokes.

"Depends."

"So where's the part for your car?"

"Huh. I don't know. Gypsy said she was gonna leave it for me somewhere. Guess she forgot."

"She's bad that way."

"I'll just have to take my business elsewhere."

"Looks that way."

"So."

"So."

"Here we are."

"Yeah, here we are. So, tell me, what's your decision about smoke that depending on?"

"On what's gonna happen."

"When?"

"Now." Jess grabs Rory around her waist and they leave further into eachother and begin making out for the first time since they decided to get together.

"I'm glad you didn't smoke it." Rory says, smiling.

"Yeah?" Jess asks, smiling back.

"Yeah." They start making out again before breaking apart again.

"Whatever else happens between us at least we know that part works." Rory's face drops. "What?"

"I have to go."

"What? Did I do something or-"

"No. This was..You were, are..It was wonderful." Rory manages to spit out. "And I look forward to many similar occurrences in the future. But right now, I have to go. Understand?"

"Not at all."

"It's more fun that way, isn't it?"

"Come here." Jess holds Rory's face and starts kissing her again. "Beat it." He tells her once they pull away.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Rory runs off and Jess leans back, already thinking about her and missing her.

Lorelai walks into the house and drops her stuff on the ground. It was a long day and she just wanted to sleep, but right now, she just needed to talk to her daughter.

"Lauren?" Lorelai calls out, but she doesn't get an answer. "Lauren?" Lorelai looks in the kitchen, the living room, and then goes upstairs to check in Lauren's room, but she isn't there. Her bed is made and her windows were closed. "Lauren!?" Lorelai screams in sheer panic.

Out on a bus, Lauren is sitting in one of the seats with a small bag by her side. She wasn't exactly sure where she was going or if what she was doing was the right thing, but she had to do it.


End file.
